Movies About Art Thieves, In Honor of ‘Trance’ In Theaters Today!

Movie #5 – F for Fake

Year – 1973

This was the last major film completed by Orson Welles and it is a baffling film. It is, ostensibly, a documentary about Elmyr de Hory’s foray in art forgery and his biographer Clifford Irving. But things start to fold back in on themselves when it’s revealed that Irving had helped the infamously reclusive Howard Hughes write his autobiography…except he hadn’t. It was, well…fake. Presumably inspired by de Hory’s forgery, Irving set out to create one of his own.

To call the movie a documentary isn’t entirely fair. It is more of a cinematic essay on the nature of fakery. And, in order to drive home its thesis, the movie features large swaths of highly questionable information. But that was his point. Or maybe it wasn’t. When it comes to Welles, you can never be too sure. He was as much a performance artist as he was a filmmaker. But, when it’s all over, you still might not know what actually happened but you will certainly have been entertained. And isn’t that why you bought a ticket?

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