Features
Letterbox DVD specialises in art house, world cinema and classic film from all eras of film-making.
Editorial features are written for your information and, we hope, your enjoyment. The archive facility enables you to read the back catalogue of features – perhaps giving you an outline introduction to the work of a director you were unfamiliar with, or maybe summarising the career of an actor or actress.
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Exit Through The Gift Shop
directed by Banksy, 2009
Banksy is the street-artist who, love him or loathe him, has virtually become a household name over the last few years through his graffiti-art pieces that appear overnight and now sell for big bucks. His reputation is global, having left his mark from New Orleans to the West Bank and all points in between.
Incredibly, despite huge media interest, he has managed to remain anonymous so far, since identification would lead to arrest for vandalism of public spaces. His artworks, at least the pieces that can be moved, have been the subject of hugely oversubscribed gallery exhibitions and he has succeeded in controlling the media frenzy to great effect.
When a Los Angeles based French shop-keeper and amateur film-maker, Thierry Guetta, wanted to make a documentary following Banksy, it was assumed he would receive short shrift from a man who fiercely guards his identity. Instead however, Banksy seized the initiative and turned the cameras on Guetta himself, and the fascinating results of both men are brought together in Exit Through The Gift Shop, a part-documentary, part-spoof that has answered few questions about the mystery man but won much critical praise at the same time.
He enlisted Rhys Ifans to narrate the final results, and whether or not the blacked-out hooded figure we see is actually Banksy, there is no doubt the end results of the film carry the slick trademark of a man who knows what he’s doing.
Beginning with Guetta’s attempts to locate Banksy, we meet up with other artists Shepard Fairey, Invader, and with Banksy’s permission, the main man himself. However, when he realises that the man with the camera is a pretty poor film-maker, Banksy convinces Guetta to try his hand at graffiti instead, and he adopts the street-name Mr Brainwash.
This is the point when the camera watches Mr Brainwash’s often calamitous attempts to leave his own mark on the streets, and his incompetence becomes increasingly comic to view. Ironically, despite the tacky results of Guetta’s work in his new role as street-artist, much of his work is now proving increasingly valuable amongst collectors of the genre.
As Banksy himself said, reputedly, Guetta attempted to film the un-filmable....and failed!