OK, I’ll admit I fell asleep the first two times I saw this astounding “documentary” (and final directorial effort) by the late, great Orson Welles… but not because the film was boring. Hell, Welles’ own “trailer” for the film clocks in at over nine minutes… for a film that’s under an hour and a half long. Even more amazing, it’s not even a trailer, but a separate film shot around the same time that ended up not being shown to promote the film before it vanished for a bit and was later found and restored (*whew!*).

Um, where was I again? Oh yeah: On the contrary, dear readers, I’d been really looking forward to seeing this film each time, but in both cases, it was shown very late at night (actually, very early in the morning) and I’d been awake both times for a bit longer than I’d expected. The third time wasn’t the charm, either, as it was on again at a very late hour and I took a nap in front of the TV so I’d be refreshed and ready to go. Of course, guess who slept through the first hour of the film? Did I mention that I don’t have a TiVO or other fancy (or dated) video recording device? *Sigh*…

And so it went until attempt number four…

I’ve since seen it about eight more times since and it’s one of those rare movies that stands up to repeated viewing because you’ll keep seeing something you’ve missed or you’ll be trying to piece together more of the narrative (which even when you do, it seems part of Welles’ grand design that you walk away confused and amused with his work). Without spoiling things, the film deals with the art of illusion as represented through everything from stage magic, cinema, a few true stories about actual famous forgers and more. What makes this so brilliant is the director himself narrates while playing with images and facts, sending the brains of the viewers into overdrive trying to figure things out. And just when you get your “A-ha!” moment, Welles pulls the rug out from you on more than one occasion, leaving you with more questions than answers.

Of course, in this age of Wikipedia (can you smell that smoke from my eyeballs rolling back so fast in my head?), opinions presented as  “facts” and more people who rely on technology to tell them how or what to think rather than people actually learning to retain information, this is one of those films that will baffle some. Yes, you can sit in front of your TV or monitor watching this gem while Googling or *bing(!)*-ing up information about every character on screen. But shame on you if you do, as half the fun, no, ALL the fun here is being bamboozled by Welles and his movie while trying to figure out where the truth actually lies.

Anyway, go get this on DVD or download it (legally!), grab some smart friends who need to get their minds twisted (make sure they either haven’t seen this yet or if they have, make sure they don’t yak away the fun stuff beforehand), put away your tech toys and prepare to be surprised by a master at work. The editing alone is innovative and there’s a ton of things to discuss after all is said and done.  Maybe pair this with Welles’ unfinished psuedo-documentary, “It’s All True”, a multi-story inspired work with some pretty amazing cinematography and an interesting take on its subject matter. That and it’s got the greatest spontaneous leaping sheep sequence in all of film, I’ll bet…