DVD Review: ‘F for Fake’ gets an A for ambiguity

I’m a total fan — a sucker, if you will — of movies that somehow tell a story while simultaneously looking at themselves from the outside. That is to say, I’ve (almost) never met a meta I didn’t like.

“F for Fake” was the last Orson Welles feature to be released. On some level, it pretends to be a documentary or perhaps an “essay film,” on the lines of several titles by Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini and Chris Marker.

Welles joined up with Francois Reichenbach, who had shot interview footage with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with Clifford Irving, de Hory’s biographer. The latter soon became the world’s most famous literary con artist, when he claimed to have collaborated with Howard Hughes on the latter’s “autobiography.”

Welles acts as narrator — really more of a circus ringmaster — and explains, in a deliberately roundabout manner, an interconnected web of frauds. These stories involve Pablo Picasso, de Hory, Oja Kodar (the woman closest to Welles for his final 20 years), Irving, Hughes and others, possibly including Welles himself. It might be more accurate to describe him as a stage magician, who turns a hat full of lies into truths — or maybe vice versa.

Some of the supplements Criterion adds have the feel of being part of “F for Fake” itself. An alleged trailer — nine minutes long — has little footage from the actual movie. We also get an often awkward 45-minute appearance Welles made in 1975 on the old “Tomorrow” show, hosted by Tom Snyder. (Through the mists of memory, Snyder makes a less convincing Snyder than the imitation Dan Aykroyd used to do on “Saturday Night Live.”) The most relevant documentary is “Orson Welles: The One Man Band,” a German production whose hour-and-a-half running time includes fascinating snippets from Welles’ final movie, “The Other Side of the Wind.”

Additionally there is Clifford Irving in 2000 on “60 Minutes” admitting that he had lied through his teeth in his original 1972 appearance (of which we see snippets). Next, as though in answer, is the audio of the 20-minute phone press conference, in which the notoriously reclusive Hughes makes it clear that he didn’t know Irving and hadn’t written any autobiography. Finally there is a commentary track from Kodar and Welles associate Gary Graver, both of whom were centrally involved in the film itself.

F for Fake (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray, $39.95)

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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).