F for Fake

A magician is just an actor playing the part of a magician.

A playful, intellectually restless essay film that uses deception and illusion as a lens to interrogate the nature of truth, authenticity, and the artist's role in society.

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.