Beltracchi - Die Kunst der Fälschung

This story is so unique and interesting. This one guy is capable of taking over the styles of different artists and gets away with it. A true genius and artist.

Some would say he is arrogant when he says he can paint everything and maybe even better as Ernst or Davinci, but honestly he is right. He absolutely can.

Very good documentary.

Beltracchi's journey is what some will deem despicable and others like myself will look at with awe. Birkenstock has captured Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi's rise and fall of undermining the art world with poise. The film follows the couple through their estate, dinner parties with friends, and old rounds of gathering supplies, reminiscent of the days before their arrest. The victims of the Beltracchi's are visited and recall their time acquiring one of his forgeries. The movie is subtitled as it is mainly in German, but also features some French and English. Although the story is told clearly by Wolfgang, Helen, and others involved in his master scheme, in the translation the attention to small details like the emotions Wolfgang felt painting at the same place as many artists of the Fauvist movement are lost. That set aside, Birkenstock makes sure to let both sides have their say in terms of the ethics behind forgery. One theme is carried throughout—Wolfgang is not sorry and it's up to the viewer to agree or not.

If you wouldn't know from whom a painting is, but loved it still, would it matter if someone else made it? If it looks like a duck ... well you know the saying, but apparently in this case it's not a duck (not that back then it always was a duck either). But the man behind one of the biggest scandals in the art world (according to the press I reckon and this movie), is mesmerizing enough to keep you interested in what he has to say.

He never apologizes, quite the contrary which will make some furious and other bemused. The movie is really good, but whoever saw the (fake?) documentary "Exit through the gift shop" knows there is a "movie" out there that goes beyond what we see here. And while this one is for real, you can't shake the feeling that it couldn't have happened. Not to mention the sums that being paid for paintings ... are you kidding me? It's a documentary in a grey zone because some might actually feel sorry for the buyers and others for the "artist" ...