'F for Fake' was one of Orson Welles' follies of his later film making years, where many promising projects got abandoned or were left unfinished. This film is no exception, and leaves the viewer feeling a little bit cheated at the end - of course, that may well have been the point! Much of the film is devoted to an art faker who claims he has never signed his paintings, despite them hanging in every major gallery, with clear signatures of the great masters; and his biographer, Clifford Irving, who himself perpetuated the great Howard Hughes hoax. Everything is fake, claims Welles, and nothing we see is real.
But does this also mean that this film is fake - and nothing can be believed throughout? A little too much of Ms Oja Kodar as well for my liking, who adds nothing to what has gone before and feels out of place. As an hour's play and expose of the art world, it is good - but as a piece with the Kodar section, it doesn't hang together that well.
But does this also mean that this film is fake - and nothing can be believed throughout? A little too much of Ms Oja Kodar as well for my liking, who adds nothing to what has gone before and feels out of place. As an hour's play and expose of the art world, it is good - but as a piece with the Kodar section, it doesn't hang together that well.