Man on Wire

Man on Wire is a documentary telling the story of when in 1974 Philipe Petit did a high wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. It is riveting.

Petit is a natural story teller - and it has to be said, very French. Also included in the film are the various talking heads of Petit's co-conspirators - an eclectic mix of old friends from France, people who worked in the the WTC, and a couple of, well frankly, potheads. One of the accomplices sports the finest moustache you are going to see in a film this year.

The film tells the story from the start - almost in the style of a heist movie - and includes film of Petit's previous high wire walks between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is spellbinding. The movie is excellently executed - from the superb Michael Nyman soundtrack to the correct (but possibly controversial??) decision not to mention the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

No film footage of the Twin Towers walk exists, but there is footage of the Paris and Sydney walks, and the stills of the event are superb and suitably vertigo inducing. It's also a strangely emotional film - perhaps best summed up by the NYPD cop who says "I figured that I was watching something that somebody else would never see again in the world - it was once in a lifetime."

Simply stunning.