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Dir. James Marsh
Rating: 7.9 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By James Viola
The sight of then 24-year-old Philippe Petit tiptoeing back and forth across a 140-foot long tightrope between the Twin Towers is certainly awe-inspiring enough, but the true testament to Petit's cunning and artistry is the elaborate planning that he and his friends-turned-accomplices undertook to successfully pull off “the coup." This includes posing as a French journalist to access the roof of the towers; hiding from security guards as Petit and his friends smuggled in equipment; and using a bow and arrow to shoot the wire across the 140-foot gap between the buildings. From his early highwire feats of crossing the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to his infamous stroll 110-stories above New York City, regarded by many as the heist of the decade, Petit's personal recollections are so vivid and poetic you feel you are walking along with him every step on the tightrope. "If I die, what a beautiful death it would be, to die during the exercise of your passion," he says at one point. “I need to be a castaway on a deserted island of my dreams.” Black and white cinematic recreations accompanied by noir-style narratives add heist-film elements, but the core Marsh's documentary is an invigorating portrait of a man devoted to the art of living. His friends, their faces now creased with age, provide much of the accompanying commentary. They glowingly speak of Philippe's artistic coup, and watching them swell up with tears as they recall how wondrous it was to see Petit seemingly walk on clouds, thirty years removed, shows just how extraordinary the whole event really was. The first question that people asked the 24-year-old Petit following his forty-five minute tightrope walk was, naturally, "why?" The Frenchman calmly answered there was no reason. And that, it turns out, is plenty enough.
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