November 30th, 2009 / 12:42 pm
Web Hype

Back from Turkeyland w/ F for Fake

Hope everybody is fatter now. Crawling back into the void this week, last night rewatched most of Orson Welles’s last completed feature film, F for Fake, a documentary about fakes and fakers, which in itself does a little trickery and deceit, making a nice little cakebox of weird. Criterion put it out a couple years ago, but it’s also now on YouTube in a few pieces. Here’s part one, then follow the links…

Tags: ,

26 Comments

  1. davidpeak

      of all the criterion box art, F For Fake has to be on the top 10 list.

  2. davidpeak

      of all the criterion box art, F For Fake has to be on the top 10 list.

  3. davidpeak

      who is the criterion collection of book publishers?

  4. davidpeak

      who is the criterion collection of book publishers?

  5. Blake Butler

      i’d say Dalkey?

  6. Blake Butler

      i’d say Dalkey?

  7. Jeff

      Great film and surprisingly modern. Hard to think of any other directors who started in the 40s who could pull something like this off.

      F for Fake also gives the lie to the received wisdom that Welles lost his touch later in life. Hopefully his great lost movie ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ will finally be released soon. There’s been increasingly vigorous whispers about this the past few years. There’s some tantalizing clips from that on YouTube, if you haven’t seen them yet. The manic editing style of Fake applied to fiction. Welles called it his dirty movie.

  8. Jeff

      Great film and surprisingly modern. Hard to think of any other directors who started in the 40s who could pull something like this off.

      F for Fake also gives the lie to the received wisdom that Welles lost his touch later in life. Hopefully his great lost movie ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ will finally be released soon. There’s been increasingly vigorous whispers about this the past few years. There’s some tantalizing clips from that on YouTube, if you haven’t seen them yet. The manic editing style of Fake applied to fiction. Welles called it his dirty movie.

  9. Paul
  10. Paul
  11. Lincoln

      Well, Criterion repackages other people’s films, often foreign ones or ones that have gone out of print, with nicer packaging and a few new features so… NYRB

  12. Lincoln

      Well, Criterion repackages other people’s films, often foreign ones or ones that have gone out of print, with nicer packaging and a few new features so… NYRB

  13. Lincoln

      Dalkey too.

  14. Lincoln

      Dalkey too.

  15. mark

      I was completely obsessed with those Other Side of the Wind clips for a while. There are two on youtube, one of which I’m going to attempt to embed below:

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kdTPd5XJM

      They’re also available, along with lots more information about that and other lost Welles projects, in the excellent documentary, Orson Welles: One Man Band, which is hosted on ubuweb.

      Theoretically Showtime and Peter Bogdonavich are finishing up the movie for a 2010 release. We shall see.

  16. mark

      I was completely obsessed with those Other Side of the Wind clips for a while. There are two on youtube, one of which I’m going to attempt to embed below:

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kdTPd5XJM

      They’re also available, along with lots more information about that and other lost Welles projects, in the excellent documentary, Orson Welles: One Man Band, which is hosted on ubuweb.

      Theoretically Showtime and Peter Bogdonavich are finishing up the movie for a 2010 release. We shall see.

  17. reynard

      i think f for fake is my favorite orson welles maybe… which i guess is saying a lot. i’m sort of obsessed with the editing and the concept, etc. people are always going on about citizen kane or touch of evil, but i’ve never really been wowed by either.

  18. reynard

      i think f for fake is my favorite orson welles maybe… which i guess is saying a lot. i’m sort of obsessed with the editing and the concept, etc. people are always going on about citizen kane or touch of evil, but i’ve never really been wowed by either.

  19. Paul

      you know . . . i’ve never actually seen citizen kane

  20. Paul

      you know . . . i’ve never actually seen citizen kane

  21. mimi

      Haven’t seen Citizen Kane? Oh, but you must.

      Although I love The Third Man even more. It is “very Orson Welles”, but Welles is well balanced (or balanced well) by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Graham Greene screenplay, Vienna as a main character, Carol Reed’s direction and killer zither music. Which is to say, it is *something*.

  22. mimi

      Haven’t seen Citizen Kane? Oh, but you must.

      Although I love The Third Man even more. It is “very Orson Welles”, but Welles is well balanced (or balanced well) by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Graham Greene screenplay, Vienna as a main character, Carol Reed’s direction and killer zither music. Which is to say, it is *something*.

  23. Paul

      that’s what everyone tells me. : /

      i almost feel awful for having not seen it.

      carol reed is great. i recently saw the agony and the ectasy – loved it. one of these days i’ll make time to sit down and watch citizen kane AND the stars look down.

  24. Paul

      that’s what everyone tells me. : /

      i almost feel awful for having not seen it.

      carol reed is great. i recently saw the agony and the ectasy – loved it. one of these days i’ll make time to sit down and watch citizen kane AND the stars look down.

  25. Landon

      great film. an exemplary piece in the filmic essay.

  26. Landon

      great film. an exemplary piece in the filmic essay.