Sunday 2nd August

Man on Wire

Director: James Marsh
Year: 2008
Stars: Philippe Petit, Jean-Francois Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix

I wasn't sure how interesting you could make a film about a man walking across a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. It turns out, pretty interesting.

I first heard about this a while ago, reading about it in a film magazine. The review was really positive, and although I was intrigued, I was unsure about it. The film works because the central character, Philippe, is both incredibly charismatic and totally mad. After watching him in this documentary for an hour and a half, you're a lot closer to understanding why he chose to perform a totally illegal act and string up some wire across the two towers to walk across (I'm making it sound a lot easier than it was).

The film makes you think too though - in the end, was it worth it? There's more of a story to tell here than you might think, and it's a rewarding hour and a half of film viewing.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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