F for Fake (1974) (The Criterion Collection/Masters of Cinema) [3 DVD9s]

Reality and artifice, truths and lies, the means and the ends — these are the poles traversed by Orson Welles in his landmark examination of the nature of authenticity and artistic essence: F for Fake. Described by Welles as “a new kind of film,”? F for Fake — a.k.a. Fake!, a.k.a. About Fakes, a.k.a. ? (“Question Mark”?) — is a prism of a movie, a kaleidoscope in which fiction, documentary, and the poetic essay interlock, fragment, and recombine to form one of the most entertaining and profound works in all of cinema.

How to describe a film so unlike any other ever made? In a nutshell… — F for Fake opens with a couple of magic tricks, segues as though by sleight-of-hand into the story of master art-forger Elmyr de Hory and his relationship with biographer Clifford Irving (a sequence ‘remixed’ by Welles with extant footage from François Reichenbach’s documentary work-in-progress, Elmyr), then hones in on Irving when word gets out that his purported biography of recluse-mogul Howard Hughes is a first-class hoax in its own right. Here the film erupts in all directions, as Welles contrasts the sprawl of ‘70s Hollywood with the halcyon Tinseltown that produced Citizen Kane; contemplates the continent that provided him with an artistic refuge some 800 years after the anonymous construction of the cathedral at Chartres; and, lastly, recounts a meeting between that most un-anonymous of artists — Pablo Picasso — and Welles’ companion Oja Kodar, which took place in her youth, and during which…… — The nutshell here clamps shut; the film itself, however, opens up onto infinite space.

Exhilarating, hilarious, and marvellously idiosyncratic, F for Fake comes to us from that late period of Orson Welles’ cinema which, although perhaps less widely known than his Hollywood years, nevertheless found one of the movies’ greatest masters at the top of his powers.

Disc Features:
* Glorious progressive transfer from a new high-definition restoration
* Exclusive audio commentary by the film’s cinematographer Gary Graver and Bill Krohn (US correspondent for Cahiers du cinéma)
* Jonathan Rosenbaum on F For Fake – a 28 minute video piece
* 40-page booklet featuring the writing of Fred Camper, Jean Cocteau, Craig Keller, Joseph McBride, & Peter Tonguette

Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles’s free-form documentary F for Fake, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.

Disc Features:
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary by star and co-writer Oja Kodar and director of photography Gary Graver
* Introduction by director Peter Bogdanovich
* Orson Welles: One-Man Band, an 88-minute documentary from 1995 about Welles’s unfinished projects
* Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery, a 52-minute documentary from 1997 about art forger Elmyr de Hory
* A 2000 60 Minutes interview with Clifford Irving about his Howard Hughes autobiography hoax
* A 1972 Hughes press conference exposing Irving’s hoax
* Extended nine-minute trailer
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Plus: A new essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum

Movie:
YEAR: 1974
COUNTRY: France / West Germany / Iran / United States
DIRECTOR: Orson Welles

DVD:
DVD RELEASE: 2005 (CC) 2007 (MoC)
STUDIO: Criterion / Eureka! Masters of Cinema
CATALOG: CC 288 / MOC #31
SYSTEM: NTSC (CC) / Pal (MoC)
SCREEN: 1.66:1
COLOUR: Colour
AUDIO: English Dolby Digital Mono
SUBTITLES: SDH (CC) / None (MoC)
RUNTIME (MOVIE): 88 mins (CC) / 85 mins (MoC)

Extraction:
ENGINE: DVD Decrypter
DVD: 3 Full Dual-Layer DVDs
FILE EXTENSION: .ISO (Image)
FILE SIZE: 5.81GBs (MOC) 6.36/7.17GBs (CC)
SCANS FILE SIZE (600 DPI): 57MBs (MOC) 28MBs (CC)
TOTAL FILE SIZE: 20.19GBs

Scans (MoC)

http://www.filesonic.com/file/21337741/FFFMcScs.rar

http://www.fileserve.com/file/BdxWmrs

Scans (CC)

http://www.filesonic.com/file/21337669/FFFCCScs.rar

http://www.fileserve.com/file/sNrXVE2

Disc (MoC)

Disc is Pal and has no subtitles

http://netfolder.in/7cH32gD/FFFMc

http://www.fileserve.com/list/QzhXBUn

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/709f370b9ca8634d9

Disc 1 (CC)

http://netfolder.in/TFTufED/FFFCC1

http://www.fileserve.com/list/Q34wauX

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/e69d0f6312ce0e94d

Disc 2 (CC Extras)

http://netfolder.in/gq9Ta2t/FFFCC2

http://www.fileserve.com/list/BVd8Bh9

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/507073aedd27d4334

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