The amplified fake

Sound resources in Orson Welles’ F for fake

Abstract

Based on the analysis of scenes from the film F for fake (1973) by Orson Welles, the text seeks to investigate the role of sound thinking in the creation of the atmosphere of artifice and fakery proposed by the film. Observing part of Welles’ artistic trajectory, the reflection emphasizes how sound thinking played a fundamental role in his works, from the remarkable radio performance War of the worlds (1938), culminating in the more experimental F for fake. Among the resources used by Welles in the sound composition of the film are the overlapping of voices and noises and the juxtaposition of sound fragments extracted from different scenes, composing a mosaic of sounds that acts in the creation of the multiple-layered atmosphere from which the film is built. The strategies used by Welles in F for fake indicate paths in the construction of what we call “fake effects”, a conceptual ramification of the notion of “presence effects” elaborated in the writings of Josette Ferál (2012). In addition, the text develops reflections on the fundamental role of sound design – as well as the insertion of moments of silence – in Welles’ works based on the theoretical support of Débora Opolski, Michel Chion and Jonathan Rosenbaum.