F for Fake

Sep 1, 1973

1h 29m

★ 7.4

A magician is just an actor playing the part of a magician.

Overview

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

SACI

Les Films de l'Astrophore

Janus Film und Fernsehen

F for Fake Trailers

Cast

Self

Orson Welles

The Girl

Oja Kodar

Self

Elmyr de Hory

Self

Clifford Irving

Self

Laurence Harvey

Self

Edith Irving

Self

David Walsh

Self

Paul Stewart

Self

Richard Wilson

Self

Joseph Cotten

Self (archive footage)

Howard Hughes

Self

Richard Drewett

In a career spanning more than half a century, Bernard Blier has shot more than 180 films. He alone represents a history of French cinema without having spent his time cultivating its legend. He crossed his century as an actor with the modesty of a craftsman. He believed in learning, know-how and transmission. He considered himself, like the butcher or the cabinetmaker, as a man useful to his fellow men. Bernard Blier found in Louis Jouvet, who was his teacher at the Conservatory, a master at playing, a mentor and even a spiritual father. Jouvet taught Blier the love of acting, theater and Molière. And if he knew how to take hold of Michel Audiard's best tirades like no one else, notably those of the "Tontons Flingueurs", it is to this apprenticeship that he owes it.

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