Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Bedazzled rephrases a timeless joke: After totally flummoxing a poor sap named Stanley Moon (Moore) the Devil (Cook) raises his hand and says: "I confess, Stanley. Everything I've ever told you has been a complete lie, including this."

That's basically Orson Welles' trick in his final completed film F for Fake, a fuzzy essay masquerading in the form of a documentary. Welles loved magic and considered the movies the best conduit for mischievous game-playing; whenever he was left to his own devices he turned to magic acts, whether entertaining troops during WW2 or appearing on the Dinah Shore show as a slightly inebriated guest. He probably suggested the completely superfluous magic act he performs in Casino Royale as a way to avoid boredom. ¹

F for Fake is a bogus documentary on con-men and high-stakes fraud, supposedly about art forger Elmyr de Hory and literary faker Clifford Irving (he's the one who came up with a fraudulent Howard Hughes memoir). Both of these men create a mystique around their falsehoods and use their considerable charm to keep their confidence scams aloft, much as Orson uses a trick to keep a levitating body aloft, until he whips off the sheet that covers it. ² Orson winks, makes jokes, affects an intimidating intellectual air and talks around his subject to misdirect the viewer. There's hardly an honest phrase in the whole show ... the filmic basis of which is "borrowed" interview footage from a straight docu on the forger de Horys.

F for Fake is a wickedly rich puzzle and a great source of discussion sure to start arguments among the nicest film fans. The older 16mm material is augmented by Welles' new 35mm scenes, making use of ample footage of Oja Kodar, as an actress, object of voyeurism and writing participant. The section where she and Welles go over the meeting of Pablo Picasso and her grandfather, an art forger, comes after the 60-minute honesty limit established by Welles early on. ³ Other credited "special participants" - interview subjects, patsies, co-conspirators - include Joseph Cotten, Richard Wilson, Laurence Harvey and Nina Van Pallandt. Just so we know for sure we'll never move in the same crowd Orson does!

Footnotes:

1. I remember seeing his appearance, and noting his embarrassment when of his card tricks didn't work.
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2. There's a discreet cut in Casino Royale masking an identical 'levitation act'; through the miracle of DVD, in F for Fake one can see the wire form revealed as Orson pulls the sheet from the "body." Notice the background greenery 'dimple' below where the cage was - a matte has been used to cover the wire form falling, but the suspending filaments still remain. Modern CGI could easily erase all traces of prestidigitation ... rendering the shot as fraudulent as the average new movie. Orson understood the power of special effects, and uses scenes from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers to illustrate his personal best con-job, the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.
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3. I should try that sometime: Claim in a review that I'm offering ten paragraphs of utter truth. When the review goes longer than ten paragraphs, I'll be free to make up whatever malarkey I feel like! Then I can be upset and confused when readers no longer trust me. (Just kidding, Orson's playing to an audience that wants to be fooled)
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