The Painter and the Thief

A remarkable documentary that goes deep. The main characters reveal themselves with astonishing clarity and honesty. And beautiful art besides.

Interesting film but as flawed as the two central people in it. Indeed, I came away thinking that the recovering junkie/ex-thief wasn't nearly as messed up as the artist whose work he stole. The really interesting aspect that was scarcely touched on was the relationship Barbora had with her real life boyfriend, who rightly began suspecting more than a compassionate connection with the thief. The documentary did not need to be two plus hours long for us to understand that she was filling a need she wasn't getting otherwise, and I do not mean a sexual one.

I started watching this film just from a scene that I saw on social media. I just got the name of the movie and watched it. At first I didn't knew it was a documentary, but as I watched it felt so real, I realized that it was a true story while watching. I doubted it at first tough, but damn, this movie hits the spot, it narrates a beautiful story, and the redemption of them, they were just living their lives, and I was able to experience every hurting part of it. What an amazing movie experience. Incredible.

Fake people making real money from half truths. A despicable movie about despicable people, not the least of which the director who constantly twists and manipulates the timeline to create his own fake story for dramatic effect. The two main characters truly deserve each other, a fake artist ( slide projector paintings are not paintings) and a junkie using each other for their own selfish needs while a spineless boyfriend pays for their affair…rent etc. Not raw, not real, not transparent.

Brilliant and beautiful rumination on the power of art and redemption. So many scenes in this film are so personal and confessional I had to remind myself there was a film maker in the room at the time. The camera is that unobtrusive. As if it's not even there. The underlying story is very unusual, intriguing, and utterly engaging.

Accompanied by the arresting painting talent from Barbora Kysilkova, Benjamin Ree presents a masterful work of passionate filmmaking, a fascinating film that is not only deeply touching, but also evoking and a study of the power of forgivness, as well as a analysis of the stranger than fiction bounds between human beings.

This story did not go where I thought it was going.

The Painter and the Thief lost its steam in the second half, it lacked a bigger purpose and the runtime is too long, but the first half is excellent and the movie is fascinating in the titular complex psychosexual artist-muse relationship that was very well explored through many insightful and thematically rich conversations.

A well-crafted look at our weakness for destruction. A backdoor, not unlike the one Milgram shone light on.

As there is more than one way to skin a cat, there are also many ways to sell an artist. We may see "Swan Song" become a 6 figured painting in the next few years.