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F for Fake
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.
Orson Welles
Orson Welles
Casts & Crew
Orson Welles
Elmyr de Hory
Clifford Irving
Oja Kodar
Laurence Harvey
Joseph Cotten
Edith Irving
David Walsh
Paul Stewart
Richard Wilson
Richard Drewitt
Alexander Welles
Gary Graver
Andrés Vicente Gómez
Julio Palinkas
Christian Odasso
Françoise Widhoff
Peter Bogdanovich
William Alland
Mark Forgy
Nina van Pallandt
Howard Hughes
Also Directed by Orson Welles
Orson Welles unfinished movie made in Brazil, about four rafterman that leave their village to go to the capital in search for their rights.
An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.
Comedy adventure based on a Jules Verne novel about the ups and downs of jewel thieves in the wilds of Africa circa 1900. George Segal is the appealing hero-heel and Ursula Andress is visually stunning as the lady in the proceedings. Orson Welles has a small role.
Moby Dick—Rehearsed is a two-act drama by Orson Welles. The play was staged June 16–July 9, 1955, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, in a production directed by Welles. Welles used minimal stage design. The stage was bare, the actors appeared in contemporary street clothes, and the props were minimal. For example, brooms were used for oars, and a stick was used for a telescope. The actors provided the action, and the audience's imagination provided the ocean, costumes, and the whale. Welles filmed approximately 75 minutes of the production, with the original cast, at the Hackney Empire and Scala Theatres in London. He hoped to sell the film to Omnibus, the United States television series which had presented his live performance of King Lear in 1953; but Welles stopped shooting when he was disappointed in the results. The film is considered lost.
In 1939, Orson Welles staged a version of "The Green Goddess" in New York, which was preceded by a short film prelude – this was two years before the release of his debut feature film, Citizen Kane. The footage is now believed lost.
An unreleased 9 minute trailer for F for Fake directed by Orson Welles as promotional reel for the film's American release.
Orson Welles' 1955 documentary on the Basque Country and its people.
In 1955, Orson Welles directed and hosted a mini series for British television. He leads us through a few famous places of Europe with his inimitable touch. In Paris he introduces us to famous artists such as Juliette Gréco or Jean Cocteau who lived in the Saint Germain Des Pres quarter. In London we meet the Chelsea Pensioners, in Spain we attend a Madrid Bullfight and visit the Basque country (Basque Country 1&2). Somewhere between a home movie and a cinematic essay, these short films have been described by French critics as the missing link in Welles' work.
A couple's honeymoon trip aboard a yacht leads to a claustrophobic drama when another vessel runs into their voyage, apparently drifting. Shot in a piecemeal fashion between 1966 and 1969 and plagued with production problems, this film never completed principal photography and never entered post-production. The original negatives are now considered to be lost, and the film only exists in two incomplete workprint versions (one color and one black-and-white), which have received isolated public screenings since 2007.
Magic Trick is a short film made in 1953 by Orson Welles, for use in a show by magician Richard Himber. It involves Welles on-screen interacting with Himber off-screen as the two play a card trick, and would have been projected life-size (in black and white) during Himber's touring stage show in the 1950s.