I have always been a keen appreciator of Banksy's satirical art and social commentary, so you can imagine my excitement when I finally got the chance to watch Exit Through the Gift Shop...only to find that it was about a lot more than just Banksy. This documentary follows a French amateur filmmaker on his journey to finding Banksy and hopefully making a film about him. Along this journey, he encounters other grafitti artists such as Shephard Fairey of OBEY fame and Invader and along this journey, finds himself on the other side of the lens.
This documentary film begins with a satirical logo of Paramount Pictures as "Paranoid pictures" , as one would expect from a supposed film about Banksy, followed by an extremely visually appealing montage of the process of making graffiti art. Our first introduction to Banksy still maintains a mystery about him, as he is silhouetted over and above the fact that he is wearing a black hoody and his voice is somewhat muffled. Our introduction is Bansky is actually an introduction to Thierry Guetta, an aspiring filmmaker. We then see a fair amount of Guetta's footage, almost as if to say, "judge for yourself how good or bad a filmmaker Thierry is." Moreover, using his real footage maintains the authenticity of what the film is now about.
I commend the fact that more than half of the footage of graffiti artists at work in the early hours of he morning is either silhouetted or shot from behind he artist for the purposes of anonymity, as this is deemed an illegal practice in a lot of states. Even with some of the anonymity, the true sense of the story is not lost. The use of time lapses also reveals to us how the creative process of making graffiti is a time consuming one, as we see Guetta going to film at midnight and we witness the sunrise with him and this is the nature of graffiti - you wake up the next day and suddenly it's there.
There is a great sense of progression throughout this film, as the narrative takes us from when Thierry Guetta was running a clothing warehouse to the day he bought his camera to the day he met his first graffiti artist subject and eventually to when he becomes the big deal, so essentially we start feeling like we have known him for years as we watch his character develop into the world phenomenon known as Mr Brainwash. We only get little peeks into the actual lives of the artists even though it s their art that is largely featured.
This is a film that relies largely on visual appeal and as such, there are a lot of beautiful shots of the art - captured from rooftops, in moving vehicles, from below and the closeups that make you fee like you can almost smell the spray paint used.
Concerning Thierry "Mr Brainwash" Guetta, Some have speculated that is a completely satirical piece - a mockumentary, but even so, one can't help, but commend the visual aspect of this film and that ultimately, the grand narrative is that of the anonymous nature of graffiti artists such as Invader and Banksy, but their work is globally appreciated, thus showing that you do not need to know (or have seen) someone's face to appreciate their work. We know this all too well with Sia.
This documentary film begins with a satirical logo of Paramount Pictures as "Paranoid pictures" , as one would expect from a supposed film about Banksy, followed by an extremely visually appealing montage of the process of making graffiti art. Our first introduction to Banksy still maintains a mystery about him, as he is silhouetted over and above the fact that he is wearing a black hoody and his voice is somewhat muffled. Our introduction is Bansky is actually an introduction to Thierry Guetta, an aspiring filmmaker. We then see a fair amount of Guetta's footage, almost as if to say, "judge for yourself how good or bad a filmmaker Thierry is." Moreover, using his real footage maintains the authenticity of what the film is now about.
I commend the fact that more than half of the footage of graffiti artists at work in the early hours of he morning is either silhouetted or shot from behind he artist for the purposes of anonymity, as this is deemed an illegal practice in a lot of states. Even with some of the anonymity, the true sense of the story is not lost. The use of time lapses also reveals to us how the creative process of making graffiti is a time consuming one, as we see Guetta going to film at midnight and we witness the sunrise with him and this is the nature of graffiti - you wake up the next day and suddenly it's there.
There is a great sense of progression throughout this film, as the narrative takes us from when Thierry Guetta was running a clothing warehouse to the day he bought his camera to the day he met his first graffiti artist subject and eventually to when he becomes the big deal, so essentially we start feeling like we have known him for years as we watch his character develop into the world phenomenon known as Mr Brainwash. We only get little peeks into the actual lives of the artists even though it s their art that is largely featured.
This is a film that relies largely on visual appeal and as such, there are a lot of beautiful shots of the art - captured from rooftops, in moving vehicles, from below and the closeups that make you fee like you can almost smell the spray paint used.
Concerning Thierry "Mr Brainwash" Guetta, Some have speculated that is a completely satirical piece - a mockumentary, but even so, one can't help, but commend the visual aspect of this film and that ultimately, the grand narrative is that of the anonymous nature of graffiti artists such as Invader and Banksy, but their work is globally appreciated, thus showing that you do not need to know (or have seen) someone's face to appreciate their work. We know this all too well with Sia.
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