Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
Director: Arne Birkenstock
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 2.0
German art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi - with the help of his wife Helene - made millions creating (often stunning) recreations of works by the likes of Max Ernst and Heinrich Campendonk but, as expected, he got caught and was sent to Europe's version of "prison." Though sloppily edited and lazily presented - Birkenstock is not very good at assembling factual information and presenting it in a clear manner - it is valuable for its scenes of Beltracchi at work and his creative process: seeing people in the fine arts (painting/sculpting, etc.) has always been compelling to me, and he's no exception as he methodically seeks 'accuracy' in his works (even adding dust to the back of the canvas!). Beltracchi himself appears rather nonchalant throughout - he accepts his "sentence" with a shrug (he knew it was coming) - and I'm not confident anything he says can be taken at face-value (he claims he's not a genius ... and neither was Ernst), but this one should queue up the old "If someone can near-perfectly imitate gifted artists is he/she as gifted?" and "Is the whole art world corrupt?" and "What is 'authorship,' exactly?" post-screening debates.
