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.
