Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Rape of Europa

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop won me over with its good natured look at graffiti artists and their ambivalent relationship with the established art world. The film was started by Thierry Guetta who sought to document a burgeoning movement by filming artists such as Shepard Fairey and Swoon as they spray, affix, silk screen and assemble their works surreptitiously on private and public property. Mr. Guetta amassed thousands of hours of video, but lacked the organizational skills to cut it into a viable shape.

Enter Banksy, one of the artists Guetta documented, who shaped the footage into an amusing and provocative whole. Banksy's take on all this is nicely summarized by its title: which suggests how capitalism coopts even those rebelling against it. This point is again made in the coda of the film in which Guetta himself has become a mediocre, yet commercially successful graffiti artist.

The liveliness of this documentary was emphasized to me by the one I watched next, The Rape of Europa. Based on Lynn H. Nicholas' highly praised book chronicling the Nazi's looting of the European art world, the film is a stodgy parade of talking heads. If you are interested in art and World War 2, like I am, the film is a passable illustration of the book. As a stand alone film, it is listless. (9/29/16)