Man on Wire

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2007, 94 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

On 7 August 1974 Philippe Petit – a French visionary, street artist, pickpocket, tightrope walker and, above all, an idealist prepared to die to fulfil his dream – managed to pull off the “artistic crime of the century”. “It would be wonderful to die whilst realising one’s passion,” says the French adventurer today, a man who illegally stepped out onto a steel wire suspended between New York’s twin towers, at the time the highest buildings in the world. Petit and his team of accomplices spent eight months planning the event. In a stunning re-enactment, director James Marsh pieces together the memories of everyone involved which reveal that, even though the feat was plotted down to the last detail, it would only have taken a slight hitch and there would’ve been no picture on the international front pages of Petit dancing on a wire between the twin towers, almost 500 metres above the ground. The superbly constructed film incorporating a thrilling dramatisation of this unique accomplishment, makes use of the many authentic shots and photographs which Petit and his colleagues took, and, at the appropriate moment, surrenders to the compelling music of Michael Nyman.

About the director

James Marsh (b. 1963, Great Britain) graduated from Oxford University and then worked for the BBC. His first documentary Troubleman (1994) chronicled the last years of soul singer Marvin Gaye, who was murdered by his father, a fundamentalist preacher and occasional transvestite. His next film was a documentary about the bizarre eating habits of Elvis Presley, The Burger and the King (1996). Marsh also made a documentary profile of John Cale from the band The Velvet Underground. In 2005 Marsh’s feature debut The King was screened at Cannes, starring Gael García Bernal. In 2003 he filmed the documentary The Team about a group of homeless men in New York who try to organise a soccer team. His film Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) was screened at Karlovy Vary in 2000 in the section Forum of Independents.