1. 21/03/2014 13:46'The Imposter': Documentary Reveals Stranger-Than-Fiction Story Of Frédéric Bourdin's Mind-Blowing Deceptions
Page 1 of 3http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/the-imposter-documentary_n_1669745.html
A still from "The Imposter," a new documentary from
Bart Layton.
Michael Hogan
Michael.hogan@huffingtonpost.com
'The Imposter': Documentary Reveals
Stranger-Than-Fiction Story Of Frédéric Bourdin's Mind-
Blowing Deceptions
There are rules you're supposed to follow when you make a documentary.
Bart Layton just happens to think they're ridiculous.
"There's this idea of documentary purity that is not terribly realistic," says the British director,
whose debut feature, "The Imposter," sails into limited release this weekend on the strength of
a 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating (at press time). "I think everyone who's ever picked up a
camera or sat in an edit suite will be aware that there are lots of subjective decisions being
made. This idea that you can create a film that is purely objective, it's just not a realistic
ideology."
Layton's film tells the stranger-than-fiction story of Frédéric Bourdin, a charming young
congenital liar who in 1997 persuaded authorities on two continents that he was Nicholas
Barclay, a Texas boy who had gone missing three years earlier at age 13. Somehow, even
Barclay's family fell for his act, taking him into their home and treating him as one of their own, despite the fact that Bourdin was 23, had
the wrong eye color, and spoke with a French accent.
How on Earth could that happen? And who's to blame? The film grapples with those questions without offering any definitive answers.
"What I wanted to do was something I found more interesting and possibly more challenging, which was to present the audience with
different and in some ways conflicting versions of the truth," Layton says.
The most compelling -- and warped -- version of the truth comes from Bourdin himself. Layton shot his interviews with the titular
impostor over the course of two days in London, and quickly gained insight into how Nicholas Barclay's family could have fooled
themselves into believing he was their lost son.
Sponsored Links
1 Odd trick Kills diabetes
100% scientifically-proven way to control
blood sugar in 3 short weeks
FightYourDiabetesToday.com
4 ODD blood pressure fighters
Easily fight high blood pressure naturally
with these 4 foods.
http://www.bloodpressurenormalize...
5 Ways to LOWER blood sugar
1 EASY tip to increase fat-burning, lower
blood sugar & decrease...
http://info.fixyourbloodsugar.com
Buy a link here
"He invites sympathy," Layton says. "He has this
childlike quality about him, and he can be very
charming. And at other times he can be quite
repellent, because he can be remorseless and
you're reminded about what he did. So as a
filmmaker, I was asking, How can I find a way of
getting the audience to experience a bit of that?"
In addition to giving Bourdin plenty of screen time, Layton decided to dramatize the scammer's version of events with actors -- a
practice generally frowned upon in the documentary world but common in television, where Layton has enjoyed a successful career as
the producer of such programs as "Locked Up Abroad" (about young Brits who wind up in jail overseas) and "Breakout" (about prison
escapes).
March 21, 2014
Posted: 07/13/2012 7:46 am Updated: 07/13/2012 7:46 am

2. 21/03/2014 13:46'The Imposter': Documentary Reveals Stranger-Than-Fiction Story Of Frédéric Bourdin's Mind-Blowing Deceptions
Page 2 of 3http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/the-imposter-documentary_n_1669745.html
250
words
Layton understands why some purists condemn "reenactments," but he says the technique suited his story too well to pass up. "Where
'reenactment' gets dangerous is when you're trying to persuade the audience that it's something other than what it is, when you're trying
to convince the audience that this is a piece of archive or this is cinema verité," he explains. "What I wanted to do is make it very clear
from the beginning that this isn't what must have happened, this is a visualization of what someone wants you to believe happened.
You know you've got an unreliable witness and yet you still go along with it, and that's part of what makes this a different kind of
documentary."
Layton also shot scenes based on accounts given by Barclay's half-sister, Carey Gibson, who traveled to Spain to retrieve the man she
desperately hoped was her brother. An article in The New Yorker had painted Gibson and her family in a very unflattering light --
suggesting that they had sinister reasons for playing along with Bourdin's deception -- but Layton insisted on giving both versions of
events, however dubious, their dramatic due.
"I had this idea that you might root for all of these
people knowingly," Layton says. "Weirdly, you root
for the sister to get her brother back, even though
you know that the person she's going to meet is
not her brother. And weirdly, maybe you're rooting
for [Bourdin] to find a family."
Not surprisingly, Layton's unorthodox approach --
give the liars a platform and let the viewer sort it
out -- has inspired some vehement reactions
among audience members. "In Sundance and
South by Southwest, I was literally mobbed by
people wanting more -- and not even wanting to
ask questions but wanting to give their opinion," he
says. "And in every one of those screenings, you
had people who are completely split."
In the end, Layton says, the story was so
improbable that he had to toss out the old rules
and try something radical. "There's an aspect
where you feel like you're reading not the synopsis of a documentary but the synopsis of a bad screenplay," he admits. "It's that much
stranger than fiction that it requires a treatment that is stranger than documentary."
EARLIER ON HUFFPOST:
6 people are discussing this article with 6 comments
Start a conversation...
Preview Submit
Highlighted Most Recent Oldest Most Faved My Conversations
mamacat 2
1,500 Fans
For as long as I knew him, Dad liked to say, "Truth is stranger than fiction." He told
me stories from his time in World War II that would be unbelievable, if they weren't
true.
I think this is another one of those cases that he was talking about. If this were a
work of fiction, no one would give it a second glance, on the grounds that it is too
improbable to think of as real.
Over and over again in our lives we run up against stories like this one, wherein
"Truth" truly is stranger than fiction. This story is the kind of thing that one couldn't,
and shouldn't, make up.
13 JUL 2012 2:06 PM
REPLY FAVE SHARE MORE
Ric R. (Watching_rock_grow) 1

3. 21/03/2014 13:46'The Imposter': Documentary Reveals Stranger-Than-Fiction Story Of Frédéric Bourdin's Mind-Blowing Deceptions
Page 3 of 3http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/the-imposter-documentary_n_1669745.html
1,416 Fans · Earth is our collective home, take care of it.
Sounds like a timely release when liars are all over the political scene.
13 JUL 2012 2:16 PM
REPLY FAVE SHARE MORE
dansup
514 Fans
hope this plays in my area, too often the good flicks don't
13 JUL 2012 4:36 PM
REPLY FAVE SHARE MORE
3 PEOPLE IN THE CONVERSATION Read Conversation →
Dean_Crockett
0 Fans
You know the point that is being missed in all of this, the reviews, the speculation,
and the film makers themselves, is that a 13 year old boy is missing and has never
been recovered. More attention has been placed on the criminal than the victim. If
the efforts and money spent on making movies and documentaries were put into
helping find what happened to Nick, maybe the family could have closure instead of
ridicule.
So, my question is how much did the producers pay the criminal for his side of the
story? I know the family didn’t take a dime to tell their side of the story. Think about
that..
19 JUL 2012 9:48 PM
REPLY FAVE SHARE MORE
BrooklynBobby
4 Fans
How do you know that the family didn't get paid? Do you you them personally?
19 AUG 2012 6:20 AM
REPLY FAVE SHARE MORE