F for FakeOrson Welles
F for Fake
by Orson Welles · first published 1992
6mentions
6recommended by
6HN commenters
2012–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
A documentary-essay about art forger Elmyr de Hory that explores authorship and value in art. It is provocative and playful, blurring the line between fact and fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…artist that looks very like the work of Picasso is really any less valuable in aesthetic terms, and this question has cropped up a few times in the art world - see Orson Welles' little-known masterpiece F for Fake for a documentary treatment of the subject. But the fact is that the buyer is not satisfied, and whether the buyer has poor taste or is acquiring a famous signature rather than excellent art is beside…
on “PayPal forces buyer to destroy $2500 pre-WWII antique violin in dispute” ↗This is as good a time as any to recommend Orson Welles's mesmerizing documentary, "F for Fake" about the now infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmyr_de_Hory
on “The Big Little Man from Brooklyn (1968)” ↗On a general Welles note: I also recommend One Man Band http://www.ubu.com/film/welles_oneman.html which is actually where I first heard of F for Fake and talks a lot about Welles ' creative process (or well talks about how he was creative).
on “‘F for Fake’: Orson Welles' masterpiece of oddball art cinema” ↗F for Fake by Orson Welles is in the same vein. Still don't know if it's a fiction or non-fiction.
on “50 years ago, an artist exhibited an invented Iron Age civilization” ↗You should definitely watch documentaries, as long as you first watch Orson Welles's masterpiece F for Fake as a pre-req. That or Abbas Kiarostami's Close Up. Then you are free to watch as many documentaries as you please.
on “Donkey Kong champion wins defamation case against Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst” ↗And the Orson Welles masterpiece F for Fake.
on “New book contends that Catch Me If You Can is mostly made up” ↗