finally watched banksy’s “exit through the gift shop”  last night.  won’t say much about it– would be preaching to the choir–hence yet another circle jerk.  all needs to be said is it is great.  a keen observation of the modern art world/ market.  where anything and everything will sell to a wall street knucklehead provided it comes with the right story and inflated praise…

it is one big con, really.  which brought me back to orson welles and i just had to re-watch “F for Fake” with the beautiful oja kodar.   “gift show” and “F” are really the same film.  at least they have the same message– the art market is nothing but a big con, a giant hoax.  especially when it comes to “modern art”.

of course when it comes to production value, originality and artistic merit, there really is no competition here: “F for Fake” was eons ahead of the “gift shop”– “gift shop” was a great story adequately executed.  kudos to banksy for a strong first film.  but, “F” is by the guy whose first film happens to be “citizen kane”…  “F” is a masterpiece of editing.  sorry for preaching to the choir here but it really is– its rapid pace and intercuts, seen in film for the first time in “F” in 1974, is what we know as TV reporting/ MTV style editing today.  what we take for granted today, and what feeds our short attention spans, was created by welles, all the way back in 1974, in “F for Fake”.  if you haven’t seen it, run to the video store…

here is a link to the first 10 minutes or so:

and here is another to the original trailer– the trailer’s quality is not even close to the film but gives a great glimpse into the film and welles’ genius: