F For Fake Literary Elements

F For Fake Literary Elements

Director

Orson Welles

Leading Actors/Actresses

Orson Welles, Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving, Oja Kodar

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Francois Reichenbach

Genre

Documentary

Language

English

Awards

n/a

Date of Release

1973

Producer

Francois Reichenbach, Dominique Antoine

Setting and Context

Ibiza, Paris and Los Angeles during the 1970s

Narrator and Point of View

The narrator is Orson Welles

Tone and Mood

Serious and mysterious

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist is the narrator Welles and the Antagonists are Elmyr and Irving.

Major Conflict

Elmyr being accused of Irving, a known forger, of faking masterpieces and selling them in the art market.

Climax

Welles tells a fake story about Oja Kodar being painted by Picasso and her grandfather creating forgeries based of these new works that sold for $750,000,000. A story that Welles reveals to be false.

Foreshadowing

In the very beginning of the film, Welles tells us to trust him, but also calls himself a charlatan. Thus, foreshadowing that he will eventually lie to us.

Understatement

Welles understates his role as being a part of the forgery until the very end when he reveals he has created a false story based off of the truth he was sharing earlier in the film.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

n/a

Allusions

The film itself is an allusion to what art is. That the role of the artist, Welles tells us through Picasso's words, is to use the lie in order to reveal a truth.

Paradox

Welles is the trusted narrator, and yet also tricks us into believe his fake story. Thus he is the lie and the truth.

Parallelism

Welles uses the sequence with Oja Kodar in the film early on in order to set up his lie at the end. He parallels her story in order to sandwich the lie around the truth, which is the documentary about Elmyr and Irving.

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