I beleive that anyone watching this film who had no real insight or interest in street art in the past will look upon those who buy it as total and utter Mugs!

Only time will reveal why Banksy released this film, but I honestly think there is a hidden agenda.

One thing for sure, Banksy is not revelling in his appreciative fans, more like he is taking the piss out of them ....... which ultimately is ok cuz he is Banksy after all!!

Banksy is a genious, his art is not amazing by any standard but the placing of it and the satire used are mindblowingly good!

He pulls off clever stunts with ease, stuff that anyone of us could have thought about doing but never did!

Mr Brainwash is just another product of Banksy's imagination, he has decided to take someone with no ability whatsoever and prove how easy it is to take money from rich individuals with no mind of their own. He has succeeded and made a movie about it, actually showing all those that have bought work just how stupid they are, but even though the evidence is placed before them they still cant see it!!

Would this stop me buying a Banksy that I liked, no, never. Would I buy a Mr Brainwash piece, no i soddin well wouldn't! I am happy to laugh with or at you Banksy but I won't be part of your joke!!

Unfortunately it's not just the rich who are buying MBWs work - those folks queued up on opening day were hardly rich.

In fact, MBW actually came out to the line and rallied the crowd and said "today I give to you my fans free art that's worth thousands of dollars so you can sell it - I take from the rich and I give to you". He actually sounded like a french robin hood.

Just found out today that my local Showcase in the culturally void city of Peterborough is showing ETTGS, nearly fell off my chair... it looks like the could be given a much wider distribution than I previously thought.
Coming to a multiplex near you!!!

dalston rio

PUD you have summed up what i think a lot of people have been trying to make there posts about, what a clear and correct statement i could not agree more after seeing the movie itself.

Banksy would not make a film or be involved in a film about a talentless nut job for no good reason.... time will tell!

Silky, How many new accounts are being activated post Banksy Film??

No cinema arround in germany, which shows the movie. Any possibilities to watch it before DVD release?

so just seen it... interesting as a documentary, but not one for the cinema? made me think a couple of things:

- how much of all art is just fabricated sh1t?
- how many other artists are out there like MBW who treat it as a commercial business, and does that make the art any worse?
- was that really banksy in the interview chair? i'm not sure it was - seemed like an "expressive actor who talks with his hands".. other footage of banksy during the film showed he was married, had a silver chain on his left hand and silver watch.. the guy being interviewed had none of these

just some thoughts...

;D ;D

funny you should say that, i took my mother & she said exactly the same thing!

"it might be banksy's voice but it certainly wasn't coming from the mouth of the man sitting in that chair"

if that's the case, i wonder why?

Mr Brainwash is just another product of Banksy's imagination, he has decided to take someone with no ability whatsoever and prove how easy it is to take money from rich individuals with no mind of their own. He has succeeded and made a movie about it, actually showing all those that have bought work just how stupid they are, but even though the evidence is placed before them they still cant see it!!

You all are thinking this one to death. Every last one of you should watch the film BEING THERE with Peter Sellers. Having been in this scene, being acquainted with Thierry, etc., he's a dolt and the film is pretty much an extremely accurate representation of what occurred.

Thierry categorically is not a Banksy "project." I've had several discussions on this topic. Additionally, I can confirm that Thierry operated independently of Banksy on tons of occasions. The movie makes this clear.

The tendency to juxtapoz them is because substantial portions of the LA production team that put together Banksy's LA show were hired (key word: hired) to put together Thierry's show. Additionally, Banksy and Shep did give support to Thierry as a friend who for years had helped them as a spotter for bombing missions, and then went out on his own to try to be an paste up entity in his own right.

A lot of MBW cheering squad types who are completely out of the loop have misconstrued this to mean that in some sense Banksy and MBW are one in the same. This is not the case whatsoever. The film is very accurate in its portrayal of MBWs relationship with Banksy.

Its simply a misconstruction of the facts to suggest that MBW was a product of Banksy's imagination - when in fact the tail more or less wagged the dog in this case.

Maybe its hard for a lot of people to realize it, but Banksy got duped by MBW in several aspects (in the first place in letting him film him), and then had to negotiate for the tapes from Thierry - who while a moron, is a bizarrely savvy moron.

The result was this: Banksy realized MBW was a no talent idiot who would never produce a decent documentary and had in his possession tapes that revealed his identity. He went to MBW. MBW didn't freely give this up. He was already a street artist at this point and was planning a show.

As part of the bargain / blackmail, he got Banksy to provide assistance to the MBW LA show, but NOTHING by way of artistic help - this was confined to press, lists, and I would have to assume some financial compensation, but I would doubt it covered the entirety of the costs of the LA show etc.

Thierry hired artists off craiglist to produce most of the work. I buy that he partly mortgaged his house to financed a portion of the show and the massive team that he hired on.

In the documentary, Banksy glosses over the fine points of this. But to suggest Banksy is a grand maestro of MBW or that MBW is a creation of Banksy, is counterfactual.

Sure, without the influence of Shep, Invader, and Banksy, MBW would likely not have undertaken an art career.

But I'll say it again...

The tail wagged the dog.

The part that no one seemed to factor in - including Banksy - was that because MBW lacked any artistic talent to speak of, but had money, no one considered the possibility he would unabashedly hire out for the artistic talent, thus enabling him to do something on a scale bigger than any other artist.

Consequently, no one saw this coming. Any sensible person would think that if someone would chose to take up art as a profession, they'd actually produce art.

But since he was liberated from having to produce the art (because he couldn't) he was able to just spend to produce as much as possible and make a bigger show than an artist who actually creates their own art.

Great post Pud.

And the fact that MBW gave away art is just adding fuel to the fire, if this guy is so in demand, im sure the queue for free art would of been 10x what it was. The people in the queue are there hoping to discover the next big thing, come in your time is up, Banksy has left the building.