Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

[fizz]

I've not seen anything as amusing, original and thought provoking as Exit Through the Gift Shop in quite some time. The focus of the film (actually a documentary, some say even a mockumentary and at least one critic has even labelled it a 'prankumentary') is street art, a combination of stencil paintings, graffiti, plastered cutouts, stickers and subversive wall posters. Essentially the product of what happened with an obsessive French immigrant, Thierry, from LA, who liked to video tape every second of his life, started filming street artists at work starting with his cousin 'Invader'and moving on to others in the close knit community till he bumped into the enigmatic 'Banksy'.

Here is where it gets very interesting (and slightly complicated too) - Banksy, a renowned street artist (his work really is quite extraordinary, as we see throughout this film) turns out to be a man of great secrecy. His preserves his identity (no one knows his real name), always has a hood on to cover his face and uses a voice synthesizer while speaking. As we listen and see in the documentary, Thierry befriends Banksy and then films him at work for what is allegedly a monumental documentary that Thierry claims to be working on about street artists. What happens however is that Thierry, who we come to realise has no gift for film making (or really, any other discernable talent, except for talking), is unable to edit whatever footage he has into anything coherent. Bansky then takes it upon himself to use Thierry's footage and make the film (which is this finished product) about...Thierry!

Strange as it may seem, the film is packaged as the work of Banksy (he is credited as the director), but the entire film is nothing more than footage (featuring the narration of Rhys Ifans) shot by Thierry and multiple interviews, mostly with Thierry and Banksky, but also with other street artists as well. The question to ask is, who is interviewing them? Banksy might have interviewed Thierry, but who interviews Banksy? The film never makes this clear, but as a document of this counter culture movement, its highly entertaining in its own unique will. Part of its charm is the character of Thierry. As a boisterous and loud person, he reminded me of Philippe Petit, the main subject in Man on Wire and and indeed both documentaries share a similarity in that they are about Frenchmen living in America who are on a mission. The film, in its third act, makes a very interesting point about art, or our perception of it. It is something I didn't see coming and without giving away what happens to their relationship (it doesn't go well that's for sure) it leaves you asking whether art is really something that gains momentum after collective appreciation (or hype) or is it really subjective.

Rating: 4.5/5

[fizz]

And here are some examples of Banksy's brilliant, subversive, anti establishment street art.

[fizz]

And some more...

[madali]

Love the arts, film sounds great

[ozzylogic]

My ex-boss had some of these up in his cabin, such as the CCTV one at the top.

[fizz]

Love the arts, film sounds great

Here are some more (I promise, these are the last)...love the subversive message in these. You can only imagine what kind of "message" his film/doc conveys...

[kaytee]

Nice one Fizz, I watched this too and was amazed at what these street artists have achieved. Banksy still remains anonymous and a mystery too all. The movie does give us a little insight on what his views and messages are and why he chooses to stay in shadows. Thierry from the start was a person who copies people and just manages to do things better. He used to sell fake TShirts if I remember correctly to selling artwork which is inspired by Banksy and others.
Surprising when watching this I also was thinking of Petit from Man On Wire and how he managed to achieve his feat, similarly we have Banksy and Thierry doing the same.

[X.]

We're going through a phase in culture where anything anti-establishment, no matter how profane and shallow, will be championed. People are desperate for heroes.

[ozzylogic]

He also had one with Jules and Vincent holding bananas. Funky stuff.

[X.]

MOCA is exhibiting the first street art exhibition of its kind in the world next weekend. It's called ART IN THE STREETS. I'm a member and will get to see it a day before everybody else. Banksy is the only major artist who is not exhibiting, but the rest of the whos-who is (incl. LA's own Shepard Fairey).

[madali]

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

How would a documentary about renowned but anonymous street artist Banksy be like? Well, I wouldn't know, because this documentary, while started to be about Banksy, actually turned into a film about the documentary maker, a Frenchman named Thierry Guetta.

On screen, hidden and with a voice synthesizer to disguise his voice, Banksy assures us that the character of the film maker is more interesting than his. I probably would agree. While Banksy's art is interesting, by hiding his life, we doubt a documentary on his life would be. Unless the curtains are pulled away,  but then, that would also kill have the intrigue we have with Banksy's life.

Banksy takes over the filmmaker's task, who has been filming since the last few years and has filmed virtually everything, but he is not necessarily a filmmaker, he is more like a scribe, recording everything, but unable to form it into any coherent. The film he makes, at the behest of Banksy, is awful. So, instead Banksy takes the footage and makes a film out of it, and it leads to the Frenchman's entry into the arts. This is a guy that has never really done any art,  but due to his exposure to the street arts and Banksy's encouragement tries to emulate them, and sets up a gallery of his work. He sells off his business and mortgages his home, and takes loans, and spends it all on a gallery of his work in Los Angeles, without any experience in the matter. And he succeeds.

And so the question. What is art? What is good art? To the Los Angeles art community, his art is good enough to hype over and to buy. To us, the viewers of the documentary, we laugh at the art, feeling the art circle impressed by the art are just taken in by the hype. But step back and think about it a moment. The buyers of Guetta's art seemed to have a positive perception of his art due to the hype created for him, specially due to him being on the cover of L.A. Weekly. But then, before we mock them, how about us? Don't we merely have a negative view of his art mainly due to the film's way of showing his art? Are we not also basing our perception of the art due to the documentary? We feel cleverer than the art circle that bought in Guetta's hype, but what if we have also bought in Banksy's?

3/5

[shariqq]

Banksy directed this controversial opening for a Simpsons episode:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DX1iplQQJTo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/DX1iplQQJTo&rel=1</a>

This is from the episode MoneyBART, S22E3.

[ayaa1977]

Really funny. I am surprised Fox let them satirize the corporate culture this way.