F for Fake: Orson Welles enjoying himself on Ibiza in the company of two fakers, Emyl de Hory the great art faker, and Clifford Irvine who faked the autobiography of Howard Hughes, just at the time the scandals surrounding them were beginning to unfold. De Hory could make the most beautiful drawings and paintings in any modernist style, Picasso, Matisse, Van Dongen, Modigliani, and fool any expert eye, and yet could never make his own work. Because of him 'experts' have been discredited, and what matters now is provenance. Orson Welles performing magic tricks, not least with the editing table, faking reality by making films, who long ago crossed swords, to his disadvantage, with Howard Hughes. F for Fake, made in between The Deep, unfinished due to the death of Lawrence Harvey, although it is said to be complete except for one scene, and The Other Side of the Wind, with John Huston and Jeanne Moreau, which should have been released last year, 2008, after decades of legal wrangling about ownership. Something to look forward to.

Welles as a guerilla film-maker, operating with minimal resources and able to produce extraordinary results because he understood what is needed to create an illusion.