This film – maybe the key film to this programme – is a playful treatise on the subject of fake while being one too. Welles presents himself as a charlatan conjurer and alleges that he will speak the truth and nothing but for the next hour about several striking examples of forgeries. To do so, Welles recuts a TV film by François Reichenbach about the master forger of paintings Elmyr de Hory. Reichenbach’s material provides him with almost all the film he needs, which resulted, ironically enough, in Welles being accused of deception. His film about fake was alleged to have included too little Welles. This looks in a curious way like the nice story that Welles tells in the film about a young lady (Oja Kodar) who spent a summer with Pablo Picasso. In exchange, she was given about twenty paintings on condition she didn’t exhibit them. The had them copied and then burned the originals. The painter had no answer to this. True or false? (GjZ)
