F For Fake (1995)

''This is a film about trickery...fraud...lies,'' intones host (and director) Orson Welles to begin F For Fake, his pretentious rumination on the illusiveness of art. To support his thinking out loud, Welles documents the deeds of art forger Elmyr de Hory and fraudulent Howard Hughes ''biographer'' Clifford Irving. Along the way, he indulges in his own cinematic trickery to prove how easy it is to get away with a lie. Sometimes all this is provocative; sometimes it's just tedious. Never, however, does this rambling narrative pin down its point. Finally available on video, it's a curio only a Welles completist could love. C