MAN ON WIRE will have a special screening at the Museum of the Moving Image in honor of the tenth anniversary of 9/11
MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, 2008)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, September 11, free with museum admission of $12, 4:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.manonwire.com
Winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance, Edinburgh, and Los Angeles Film Festivals, Man on Wire is a thrilling examination of Philippe Petit’s attempt to walk on a wire connecting the two towers of the World Trade Center. Using archival footage, home movies, still photos, black-and-white re-creations, and new interviews with all the primary characters, director James Marsh (The King, Red Riding: 1980) sets up Man on Wire like a heist film as Petit and his cohorts discuss the detailed planning that went into the remarkable event, including getting the wires and cable to the top of the South Tower and hiding under a tarp as a security guard has a smoke right next to them. Petit, who had previously — and illegally — traversed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, had become immediately obsessed with the Twin Towers as soon as he learned they were being built; Marsh intercuts scenes of the construction of the WTC as Petit puts together the seemingly impossible caper, leading to his August 7, 1974, walk between the two towers, more than a quarter mile above the ground.
Petit has a relationship with the World Trade Center unlike anyone else’s; interestingly, Marsh and Petit do not so much as even hint at the destruction of the towers on September 11, 2001, a questionable decision that leaves a gap in the film. (They could have at least mentioned it in the end captions.) Still, Man on Wire is an exhilarating documentary; even though you know that Petit survives, you’ll be breathless as he balances high above Lower Manhattan, one tiny step from death. The film is having a special screening on September 11 at 4:00 at the Museum of the Moving Image in honor of the tenth anniversary of the tragic events.