Light Show #1: F For Fake

And for his final trick, that old raconteur, huckster and magician Orson Welles draws us into his tangled web of intrigue and lies in the dazzling F For Fake. Welles himself, while making merry on the isle of Ibiza, introduces us to master art forger Elmyr de Hory and hoax biographer Clifford Irving, and in doing so asks his audience to question the veracity of everything they see and hear.

Fiction and documentary is mangled and inter-spliced, and Welles's game is to remain one step ahead by never assuring the viewer which is which. This is cinema as a dazzling parlour game, and it's also one of the best-edited films ever made.

F For Fake, dir. Orson Welles, France/Iran/West Germany 1973, 35mm, 88 mins

Screening as part of Light Show #1 – a celebration of celluloid magic curated by MUBI, ICA and Little White Lies