Lucky for me, sometimes my job gets me some cool perks, one
of those being, new movies. Magnolia Pictures was awesome enough to let me
watch Man On Wire, which opened this past weekend in Little Rock at Market Street Cinema. And I
have to say...I really enjoyed it.
The back story is basically this: Frenchman Philippe Petit is a wire walker whose
dream was to walk a line between the Twin
Towers in New York City. The first second he saw they
were being built he had his heart set on doing the impossible.
The film documents several other wacky attempts by the wire walker, including
between the towers of Notre Dame and across Sydney
Harbor's Coathanger Bridge.
The documentary is an amazing blend of interviews from friends, accomplices,
and Philippe himself, who sometimes acts out things as he tells the stories.
Then they weave in actual photos, video, and reenactments of the entire story.
The documentary has this very "French" feel to it, if that makes any
sense to you. A scene I'm thinking of in particular is a reenacted sequence
where a young Philippe is visiting the dentist. It had a very cool kind of
"Amelie" feel to it. While it is a little long, it's definitely
exciting and you feel the excitement that Philippe STILL feels about his
journey to the Twin
Towers. All of the photos
and videos from his wire walking expeditions are breathtaking. It's hard to
believe that anyone would even imagine doing that, let alone pulling it off.
No doubt, the man is insane. Not in a "they're coming to take me
away!" kind of way, but more in that man driven by passion sort of way. He
absolutely wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to fulfilling his
dreams.
I hope I haven't given away too much of the story, although you could very
easily go to Wikipedia and read up on the man and all of his adventures, but if
you're in for a very beautiful, sort of artsy-feeling documentary, I'd highly
recommend this one. And if nothing else, guys can take their girlfriends and
pretend like they're all artsy and deep and thoughtful. I think she'll be
impressed.
