Tonight!

At 7:00 & 9:00

Top 5 Top 5 Lists Related To, But Not Including, F For Fake

Top 5 Films Directed By Orson Welles:

1. Touch Of Evil
2. Citizen Kane
3. The Lady From Shanghai
4. Chimes At Midnight
5. Mr. Arkadin



Top 5 Films Featuring Orson Welles But Not Directed By Him:

1. The Third Man (Reed)
2. King Of Kings (Ray)
3. The Muppet Movie (Frawley)
4. Catch-22 (Nichols)
5. Transformers: The Movie (Shin)



Top 5 Documentaries:

1. Histoire(s) du cinema (Godard)
2. Sans soleil (Marker)
3. Don't Look Back (Pennebaker)
4. The Man With A Movie Camera (Vertov)
5. The Last Waltz (Scorsese)



Top 5 Films Featuring Orson Welles But Not Directed By Him That I Haven't Seen Yet:

1. Jane Eyre (Stevenson)
2. The Long, Hot Summer (Ritt)
3. Compulsion (Fleischer)
4. History Of The World, Part 1 (Brooks)
5. Is Paris Burning? (Clement)



Top 5 Films Of 1973:

1. Mean Streets (Scorsese)
2. Badlands (Malick)
3. Don't Look Now (Roeg)
4. Sleeper (Allen)
5. The Long Goodbye (Altman)

Links: F for Fake

Criterion has Jonathan Rosenbaum's critical essay on F for Fake used in the DVD release.

A lengthy review of the film appears on Slant.com

And finally, for those of you that are into that sort of thing, a post-modern take on the film by Robert Castle, courtesy of Bright Lights Film Journal.

Have fun.

"There is a man, a certain man..."

Jack White is a man of prodigious talent. He is a uniquely gifted songwriter, an amazingly skilled guitarist and, as was recently discovered, a kick-ass drummer. In his many bands, particularly the White Stripes, White manages to craft simple, catchy, quirky and deeply personal songs that continually succeed in an increasingly fractured music world. He is easily the greatest and most universally respected rock star to come down the pipeline in over a decade.

Looking beyond the wide range of the above-mentioned qualities, Mr. White's greatest gift is his impeccable good taste. His knowledge and admiration for the blues has served his songwriting well throughout his career, his unflinching devotion to analog equipment makes his recordings stand out amongst the glut, and most importantly his heroes are by and large visionary artists who pushed the envelope of their given field while maintaining a deep respect for the past. No man is more influential on the work of Jack White than Orson Welles.

The evidence is incontrovertible. The White Stripes song "The Union Forever", off of the album White Blood Cells, takes its entire lyric from lines from Welles's screenplay for Citizen Kane, co-written with Herman J. Mankiewicz (screw you Pauline Kael!).

White's record label and recently-opened Nashville record store are both called Third Man, after the Carol Reed masterpiece starring Welles as the enigmatic Harry Lime.

The song "Take, Take, Take" on the White Stripes album Get Behind Me Satan, details the fictitious encounter a star-struck fan has with actress Rita Hayworth, Welles's wife of five years in the 40's. About a year after the album's release, White married model Karen Elson, a redhead like Rita.

It is difficult to say which of the myriad qualities Welles possessed affected Jack White the most. Could it be Welles's ability to juggle multiple functions on any given project, sometimes being the writer, star, director, producer and editor, much like the multiple roles White puts upon himself in the music world? Or perhaps how Welles, post-the Magnificent Ambersons debacle, managed to work wonders within the confines of a limited budget and a dearth of materials? What about the way Welles seemed a man from a different era, displaced in his own time?

Personally I think the idea Jack White took most to heart from Orson Welles was his embellishment on his own past. The lies Welles made up about his upbringing, his artistic career and personal life, influenced White's public persona and the perception he feeds his audience. After his father passed away, an underage Welles travelled to Europe. One day he found himself outside the door to the Gate Theatre in Dublin. He weaseled himself into an acting gig there by telling the manager that he was a Broadway star. This lie opened the door for his subsequent career, starting with his acclaim on the stage, which led to his creation of the Mercury Theatre, which produced the legendary War of the Worlds broadcast and made Welles famous.

It is obvious that Jack White learned a lesson from this. From the outset Jack insisted that he and White Stripes drummer extraordinaire Meg were brother and sister, instead of a divorced couple. When the truth came to light sometime later, White ignored it, maintaining the illusion he had created. He knew that the idea of a two-piece rock band comprised of siblings made for much better copy than the truth. As with another hero, Bob Dylan, White acts as a man from a bygone era, a blues-man from the crossroads, a drifter and a loner, instead of a blue-collar carpenter from Detroit.

In perpetuating blatant falsehoods about who they were Orson Welles and Jack White managed to create much more than impeccable artistic bodies of work; they created themselves.

F For Fake Warm-Up: Errol Morris Talks To Ricky Jay About Lying

Documentarian Errol Morris (The Fog Of War, Fast Cheap and Out Of Control), who himself famously blurred the lines between fiction and non-fiction film through the extensive use of recreations in his great The Thin Blue Line, has a conversation on his New York Times blog with actor/magician Ricky Jay (Boogie Nights, The Spanish Prisoner) that serves as a perfect appetizer for this week's Metro Classic, Orson Welles's documentary about fakery, forgery and film.

In Part One, they discuss PT Barnum, sleight of hand and the difference between lying and deception. In Part Two, Morris dissects some paintings, picks a fight with Immanuel Kant and tells us why we wouldn't want to live in a world without lying. It all starts with Emily Dickinson:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind –

Coming Attractions: F for Fake

Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00 & 9:00.

Giveaways: Touch of Evil DVD and gift certificate for Rain City Video, respectively.

See you there!