MAN ON A WIRE

I have never quite understood why Oscar® winners in categories such as Best Documentary or Best Foreign Film are so quickly pushed off the edge of the stage and forgotten. Such was the case with Man On A Wire. It won the Oscar® for Best Documentary last year and to my knowledge was never heard of again. But then again, it is a documentary about a French wirewalker. Not what you would consider a riveting night’s entertainment. The thing is, Man On A Wire is not really out to be “in your face”. It is out to tell a story, simply, beautifully, unexpectedly.
Well the “man” mentioned in the title Philippe Petit, French wirewalker. And the “wire” mentioned in the title is a high wire, in this case fixed between the Twin Towers (of yore) in New York. But ofcourse, as you can imagine, doing this is actually illegal. (and why that would be I find it hard to understand, I seriously doubt there are enough people trying wirewalking between skyscrapers to actually cause a problem). Anyway, Philippe isn’t going to let a small matter such as American Laws get in his way so he gathers his accomplices round him and hatches a plan. The documentary tells us of the accomplishment of this plan. It makes for quite an exciting story and a fascinating insight into Philippe’s mind…
I strongly recommend you shed your prejudices and watch this film. But don’t expect it to grab you and carry you off on a journey the way Hollywood films do. It has a more minimalistic approach. By this I don’t mean minimalistic in the cinematic sense per se, I mean yes there are plenty of reconstructions but not as much or as in your face as you might expect from a counterpart. Infact a lot of it relies on the European story-telling tradition with just a camera and Philippe, Annie (his girlfriend at the time) or another one of his friends and accomplices telling the story. Their narrative is interspersed with reconstructions and recorded footage of Philippe practicing, pulling off other stunts (highwire between the towers of the Notre Dame in Paris for instance).But apart from the bits you are shown (mostly as they were at the time) there is plenty left to the imagination. I would go as far as saying the experience is cross between watching a documentary and reading a book… But there is great grace and beauty in this minimalism. In fact, the sight of Philippe, reduced to almost the size of an ant in perspective with the New York sky line, reclining (yes reclining. As in lying down. Oh, by the way, I have vertigo!) on an invisible wire suspended between two of the highest buildings in the world is surprisingly… Poetic. Definitely esthetic. And I privately feel that that “snapshot” captures the very soul of the film. You’ll see what I mean once you’ve seen it.