Man on Wire

James Marsh, UK/USA, 2008, 94 mins. Certificate: 12

On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a 25 year old French wire walker, acrobat and street performer, enters illegally New York’s Twin Towers, along with his friends/collaborators, and provides an unprecedented spectacle of… eight times back and forth of walking, lying, even dancing, on the wire they secretly installed between the rooftops of the two iconic twin buildings. But the police is not happy with his antics… This is the true story of a unique daredevil.

Reviews

This Oscar, BAFTA and more than 40 other awards winner, is considered one of the best documentaries of all time. With the use of archival footage, dramatic reconstructions and contemporary interviews with no less than the man himself, director James Marsh narrates the extraordinary story, not only of that unbelievable stunt in New York but also of other of Petit’s “air walks”, whilst his personal life an character come to life, through the interviews of his friends and family.

As the new, CGI-cladded dramatisation of Petit’s story, “The Walk”, is currently out in UK cinemas, we invite you to experience the “real deal”, a true story that reads-and is watched- like an action-packed film, with the original footage merging brilliantly with the reconstructed scenes and the words and explanations from the man himself; the real “Man on Wire”.

★★★★★ ‘”Man on Wire” succeeds in taking us right back to the year 1974 when this all happened. We feel like we are witnessing this act like it just happened yesterday.’ Ben Kember, www.examiner.com

‘[It] most perfectly recaptures that sense of fun. Of pure joy, and poetry in being and doing. It is also one of the best documentaries about an artist you will see. (…) This film is a treasure.’ Julie Rigg, www.abc.net.au

‘James Marsh’s documentary raises the bar for the genre to skyscraper height.’ Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com