Saturday, June 21, 2008
F is for Fake
We watched this the other night. Simply put, it’s a free-form documentary by Orson Welles about art forger Elmyr de Hory. However, it gets far more complicated than that. Welles incorporates the stories of other hoaxes, too, including Welles’s own role in the 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
I enjoyed the pace of the film (see intro). The story of Elmyr de Hory is also intriguing. De Hory explains that he tried to sell his own paintings, but found he was far more successful at copying other peoples’ works. He demonstrates his skill by recreating several famous paintings for the camera. He then destroys each fake in the fire, I guess to show his sincerity. Here is an excerpt.
We watched this the other night. Simply put, it’s a free-form documentary by Orson Welles about art forger Elmyr de Hory. However, it gets far more complicated than that. Welles incorporates the stories of other hoaxes, too, including Welles’s own role in the 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
I enjoyed the pace of the film (see intro). The story of Elmyr de Hory is also intriguing. De Hory explains that he tried to sell his own paintings, but found he was far more successful at copying other peoples’ works. He demonstrates his skill by recreating several famous paintings for the camera. He then destroys each fake in the fire, I guess to show his sincerity. Here is an excerpt.
