Exit Through the Gift Shop
| Exit Through the Gift Shop | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Banksy |
| Produced by | Holly Cushing Jaimie D'Cruz James Gay-Rees |
| Starring | Thierry Guetta Banksy Shepard Fairey Invader André |
| Narrated by | Rhys Ifans |
| Edited by | Tom Fulford Chris King |
| Music by | Roni Size |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Revolver Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
| Countries | Template:Film UK Template:Film US |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $4,790,751 |
Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film is a Gonzo Documentary which tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. It is presented as a documentary, but reviewers have questioned its factuality. The film charts Guetta's constant documenting of his every moment on film, to his chance contact with his cousin, the artist Invader, and his documenting of a host of street artists with focus on Shepard Fairey, and also Banksy though the latter's face is never shown, and his voice is distorted to preserve his anonymity. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2010. It is narrated by Rhys Ifans. Music is by Geoff Barrow. It includes Richard Hawley's "Tonight The Streets Are Ours."[1]
Synopsis
Thierry Guetta is a French immigrant living in Los Angeles, making a living for his family by running a vintage clothing shop. He also has a strange obsession of carrying a camera anywhere he goes, constantly filming his surroundings. On a holiday in France, he discovers his cousin is Invader, an internationally known street artist. Thierry finds this fascinating, and accompanies Invader and his friends, including the artists Monsieur André and Zevs on their nocturnal adventures, documenting their activities. A few months later, Invader visits Thierry in LA, and arranges a meeting with Shepard Fairey. Thierry continues filming Fairey's activities even after Invader has left home for France. While Fairey is confused by Thierry's enthusiasm, Thierry states that he wishes to make a complete documentary about street art, and the two traverse the entire United States, shooting one-of-a-kind footage of other famous artists at work, including Seizer, Neck Face, Sweet Toof, Cyclops, Ron English, Dotmasters, Swoon, Borf and Buffmonster. What Guetta fails to tell Fairey is that he has no concrete plans to compile his footage into an actual film, and he admits that his constant archiving of his surroundings is a method of preserving memories, after he lost his mother at the age of 11.
During his filming, he continues to hear more about Banksy - a prominent and secretive artist who he hasn't caught on tape yet. His attempts to contact Banksy meet with failure, until one day Banksy visits LA without his usual accomplice who is refused entry to the US. Stuck in LA without a guide, Banksy contacts Fairey, who calls Thierry. Thierry becomes Banksy's guide in LA, later following him back to England, winning the privilege to film Banksy on his home turf - a feat that confuses Banksy's crew. Banksy, however, sees the opportunity of having street art, which he recognises as having a "short life span" documented, and after Thierry aids him in recording both production, deployment and crowd reactions of his "Murdered Phone-box" piece, Banksy asks Thierry to film the preparations of his "Barely Legal" show. The two become friends, as Thierry provides Banksy with some relief from his anonymity. Returning to LA, Thierry becomes bored, and eventually ends up producing his own stickers and decals and putting them up in the city.
Banksy's show is being prepared in Skid Row, Los Angeles, and while in LA, Banksy has the idea of deploying a Guantanamo Bay detainee doll in Disneyland. He visits the location and places the doll while Thierry continues filming. A few minutes later, however, the rides stop, and the park's security system catches on to Thierry, and he's taken to an interrogation room, while Banksy switches clothes and blends into the crowd. During interrogation, Thierry refuses to admit any wrongdoing, and when allowed a phonecall, covertly tips Banksy off his situation, who immediately leaves the park. When forced by the security, he quickly destroys the evidence in his camera, but stashes the videotape in his sock and is eventually let go, much to the amazement of Banksy.
A few days later, "Barely Legal" opens, and the show becomes an overnight mainstream success. Street art prices begin to rocket in auction houses. Banksy is both surprised and disillusioned by the sudden hype surrounding street art, and urges Thierry to finish his supposed documentary. Banksy discovers that Thierry has been dumping his tapes, often unlabeled into plastic boxes without any inclination to ever watch them again. Prompted by Banksy's pressure, Thierry begins to edit together the several thousand hours of footage, and produces a film called "Life Remote Control". It is basically 90 minutes of distorted fast cutting about seemingly random themes. Banksy realises Thierry has no ability as a filmmaker whatsoever and deems his product "unwatchable", but realizes that the street art footage itself is valuable, and decides to have a shot at producing a film himself. To make sure that Thierry remains occupied, Banksy suggests he make his own artshow.
Thierry happily accepts the assignment, adopting the moniker "Mr. Brainwash", putting up street art in the city and 6 months later, re-mortgaging his business to be able to afford renting copious amount of equipment and a complete production team to create pieces of art under his supervision. He rents out a former CBS studio to prepare his first show, "Life Is Beautiful", and scales up his production to a much larger proportion than Banksy initially suggested, but with little focus. When Thierry breaks his foot after falling off a ladder, Banksy catches news of the possible trainwreck the show might end up in, and sends a few professionals to help Thierry out. While the producers take care of the practical side of the show, Thierry spends his time hyping up the show, asking support from both Fairey and Banksy, eventually taping up huge billboards with their quotes, and ultimately ending up on the cover of L. A. Weekly. While the show starts to shape up, it's still far from being complete, yet Thierry spends his time hyping up and marketing his work for tens of thousands of dollars. Eight hours before the show opening, paintings are still missing from the walls, and everyone is working around the clock, but since Thierry is busy giving interviews, the eventual layout of the show is decided by the crew itself.
"I think the joke is on... I don’t know who the joke is on, really. I don’t even know if there is a joke."
Despite all this, however, the show becomes a raging success with the crowd, and after the first week of the show, Thierry sells almost a million dollars worth of art, with his pieces showing in galleries all around the world, to the utter confusion of both Fairey and Banksy. In an ending montage, Thierry insists that time will tell whether he's a real artist or not.
Production
Banksy has said in interviews that editing the film together was an arduous process, noting that "I spent a year [...] watching footage of sweaty vandals falling off ladders"[2] and "The film was made by a very small team. It would have been even smaller if the editors didn't keep having mental breakdowns. They went through over 10,000 hours of Thierry's tapes and got literally seconds of usable footage out of it."[3] Producer Jaimie D'Cruz wrote in his production diary that obtaining the original tapes from Thierry was particularly complicated.[4]
Reception and speculation
The documentary received overwhelmingly positive reviews, holding 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Academy Awards.[5][6] One consistent theme in the reviews was the authenticity of the film: Was the film just an elaborate ruse on Banksy's part, or did Guetta really evolve into Mr. Brainwash overnight? The Boston Globe movie reviewer Ty Burr found it to be quite entertaining as a farce and awarded it four stars. He dismissed the notion of the film being a "put on" saying "I’m not buying it; for one thing, this story’s too good, too weirdly rich, to be made up. For another, the movie’s gently amused scorn lands on everyone." [7] Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 stars out of 4, starting his review saying that "The widespread speculation that “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a hoax only adds to its fascination."[8] The New York Times movie reviewer, Jeannette Catsoulis, wrote that the film could be a new subgenre, a "prankumentary".[9] New York Film Critics Online bestowed its Best Documentary Award on the film in 2010.
Controversy
By the end of the year 2010, several Swiss media reported that the Swiss movie director Joachim Levy accuses Banksy of having "stolen" several minutes of a film of his own and included it in Exit Through the Gift Shop without giving proper reference to his own work [10][11].
References
- ^ Willmore, Alison, "Exit Through The Gift Shop: It's a madhouse, this modern life.", The Independent Eye, IFC reviews of the Sundance Film Festival, January 27, 2010
- ^ Kylie Northover. "Drawn from the shadows, wanted man comes out to play".
- ^ Shelley Leopold. "Banksy Revealed?".
- ^ http://moviecitynews.com/2010/10/entering-the-gift-shop-pt-1-of-2/
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/exit_through_the_gift_shop/
- ^ Hornaday, Ann (November 28, 2010). "2011 Oscar documentary shortlist: Surprises and snubs". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
- ^ Burr, Ty, "Exit Through the Gift Shop: Writing’s on the wall: In ‘Exit,’ street art scene becomes a farce", The Boston Globe, April 23, 2010
- ^ "Exit Through the Gift Shop". Chicago Sun-Times.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette, "On the Street, at the Corner of Art and Trash", The New York Times, April 16, 2010."“Exit” could be a new subgenre: the prankumentary. Audiences, however, would be advised simply to enjoy the film on its face — even if that face is a carefully contrived mask."
- ^ "«Banksy a piraté notre film»". Le Temps.
{{cite news}}: Text "0" ignored (help) - ^ "Art du graffiti: un réalisateur genevois affirme que ses images ont été utilisées illégal." TSR.
Further reading
- "Banksy film to debut at Sundance". BBC News. BBC. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - Knegt, Peter (21 January 2010). "Sundance Surprise: Banksy's "Gift Shop"". indieWire. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - "Sundance 2010: Banksy rocks festival with 'Gift Shop'". Los Angeles Times. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - "FILM REVIEW: Exit Through The Gift Shop". Culture Northern Ireland. 9 March 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2010.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - Jackson, Candace; Schuker, Lauren A. E., "Mr. Brainwash: For Real?", The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2010.
- Ryzik, Melena, "Riddle? Yes. Enigma? Sure. Documentary?", The New York Times, April 13, 2010.
- Exit Through the Gift Shop as commentary on the relationship between art, innovation, and commerce. On Mises.org