Film
F for Fake
Orson Welles's last completed film is less a documentary about forger Elmyr de Hory and hoax-biographer Clifford Irving than a magic trick performed with a razor blade and a Moviola. Welles narrates, edits, contradicts himself, and dares you to catch him at it. It's dense, funny, and genuinely about nothing less than whether art or truth-telling can ever be trusted.
If you liked this
Catch Me If You Can2002
Spielberg's glossy, propulsive take on a real con artist gives you the same charm-of-the-swindle pleasure as Welles's film, but wrapped in a chase movie you can watch with anyone.
But It's slicker and far more conventional — there's no formal trickery here, just a great story told straight.ed
Exit Through the Gift Shop2010
Banksy's documentary about the art world's gullibility keeps you guessing right up to the credits whether you're watching a real story or an elaborate joke on the audience — very much Welles's territory.
But If you dislike not knowing what's real by the end, this will needle you the same way F for Fake does, only with less warning.
The Imposter2012
A documentary about a serial fraud who inserted himself into a missing child's family, using dramatic reenactments that make you question everything you're being shown — a chilling cousin to Welles's playfulness.
But It's genuinely unsettling rather than delightful; there's real harm and grief here, not just clever mischief.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Close-Up1990
Both films put a real fraud on screen and dissolve the line between reenactment and reality, but where Welles is a grinning magician delighted by his own trickery, Kiarostami is quietly asking why a poor man might need to become someone else — same con, opposite temperature.
An Iranian film in which a real impostor, arrested for pretending to be a famous director, reenacts his own deception alongside the actual people he deceived — documentary and fiction fused so seamlessly you stop trying to separate them.
But It's slow, contemplative, and subtitled, with none of Welles's showman patter — the mystery is emotional, not a puzzle to be solved.
People
Cast
Orson WellesSelf
Oja KodarThe Girl- Elmyr de HorySelf
Clifford IrvingSelf
Laurence HarveySelf- Edith IrvingSelf
- David WalshSelf
Paul StewartSelf- Richard WilsonSelf
Joseph CottenSelf
Howard HughesSelf (archive footage)- Richard DrewettSelf
Directing
- François ReichenbachCo-Director
- Gary GraverCo-Director
- Oja KodarCo-Director
- François ReichenbachDirector
- Orson WellesDirector
Writing
- Oja KodarCo-Writer
- François ReichenbachWriter
- Orson WellesWriter
Production
- Richard DrewettAssociate Producer
- François ReichenbachExecutive Producer
- Dominique AntoineProducer
Recommended by
How to Steal a Million, Catfish, Room 237, Fyre, The Tinder Swindler, Sour Grapes, Catch Me If You Can, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Close-Up, Ed Wood, The Kid Stays in the Picture, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Murder Among the Mormons, The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman, Betting on Zero, The Music Man, The Sting, American Hustle, House of Games, Zelig, Amadeus, Listen to Me Marlon, American Splendor, Dirty Money, American Greed, The China Hustle, Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, Certified Copy, Sans Soleil, Fyre Fraud, Deathtrap, 20,000 Days on Earth, The Spanish Prisoner