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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on February 8, 2016 at 9:26pm

Hi,

That is a superb documentary. Elmyr is a little full of himself  - "...Matisse line was never that strong. Never!..." - yeah, well, that's because Henri was doing it first ;) Orson is his usual genius self. It is a beautiful film. Good shots of the cathedral Monet painted...in fact, it is highly underrated technically now that i think about it. And Irving...and Hughes...lets not forget the Hitler diaries. But what is said it often true - hang a good forgery on an established wall and book - it becomes real (this of course in the 1950's and w/o today's technical instruments and aides re chemical analysis). Also, it must be pointed out that all of Elmyr's works look tragically cartoonist and of the 1950's - stuck there. Him, Otto Wacker and Van Meegeren would never stand a chance today. Wacker was brought down technically just with X-rays. Enjoy!!!

Eric

Suggestions? Film? Well, with Welles, The Trial or The Third Man. Both superlative ventures into b/w and shadow. Both brilliant. A love of Kafka and an understanding of the story is handy for The Trial and remember - Welles wanted Gleason to play The Advocate! It would have been perfect!

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 8, 2016 at 9:37pm

"hang a good forgery on ..." jumped out at me as being so true.

When asking about other movies I meant of similar subject matter not Orson Welles movies.

Yeah, I wonder what the biggest forgery of last 100 years is, Howard Hughes, Hitler DIAries, some WW2 tale???

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on February 8, 2016 at 11:28pm

Hello,

Yeah, I figured afterwards - forgery films. However, handwriting analysis is shown in The Third man,and one camn certainly make a argument about The Trial containing all sorts of forgery. There is another film more or less about just Elmyr - not sure of it's title. They track Mark down and he disagrees with every painting now ascribed to Elmyr. I see I mangled my own sentence - should read "...But what is said is often true - hang a good forgery on an established wall and boom - it becomes real..."

Eric

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 9, 2016 at 8:28am

thaNKS, didn't know about third man and trial

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 9, 2016 at 8:56am

Yes Orson Wells visuals are great. You have a very good knowledge of art-I have never heard of oTTO Wacker or others.

Was not aware of Elmyrs but I am Hungarian and take a little pride that one of the great forgers is Hungarian. And part of the  Hungarian generation (born at turn of century) that produced  genius' who defined the 20th century-johnny von Neumann, leo Szilard, Teller, Gabor and others.

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Permalink Reply by wascher on February 9, 2016 at 12:55am

I've actually been meaning to sit down and watch this one:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3212568/  Beltracchi:  The Art of Forgery.  It deals with art and forgeries mainly, but it looks interesting (yet irritating at the same time).

Most of what I deal with lately is forgers trying to pass off their awful drawings as that of Michael Jackson's, so it falls in line with a lot of what I've been following. 

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on February 9, 2016 at 3:50am

That was an excellent movie Wascher and I highly recommend it! It is also on Netflix.

I also recommend http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0487092/

Who the $#%& is Jackson Pollock, about a $5 painting find at a garage sale that the owner believes to be a Pollock and the trials of getting it authenticated.

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Permalink Reply by wascher on February 10, 2016 at 2:01am

I watched it on Netflix yesterday.  I honestly have a hard time watching subtitled films - mainly because I don't just sit down to watch, I am always doing other things at the same time. 

There is another doc on you-tube that is quite good on another family that forged art and passed it off - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lQ4jliIbOc .... even to the very last part of the doc its amazing how the family conned... the "old man" even fakes his disabilities and isn't in a wheelchair normally - so he didn't get sentenced to a jail as nobody would take him at that age with his disability. 

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 9, 2016 at 9:15pm

Just finished watching The Hoax, a Hollywood style thriller about the Howard Hughes forgeries and fake autobiography by Clifford Irving.  I don't know how much is based on truth, but what balls this guy had!

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Permalink Reply by Rich on February 10, 2016 at 6:13am

Incognito with Jason Patric was a film about an art forger. Saw it years ago - I think it was decent, not great.

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 16, 2016 at 6:34pm

Just saw the Masterminds tv episode on Anton, the guy who forged Mormon letters from founder, forged  Abe Lincoln, George washinton, Daniel boone, etc,  and ended up bombing people. possibly craziest forger

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Permalink Reply by wascher on February 16, 2016 at 8:06pm

The BBC does an art/forgery type show called Fake or Fortune which I found online awhile back - it deals mainly with the story of a piece passed down and the show tries to see if they can find provenance to support the pieces.  I like watching this one as you can see how difficult it can be to prove pieces legit... but how great when they can.

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