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Man on wire - Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Paul McGill, James Marsh

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century.

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. James Marsh's documentary brings Petit's extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as "the artistic crime of the century."

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Philippe Petit documentary high wire walking crime between Twin Towers World Trade Centre French Sydney

Persons of interest

Annie Allix .... Herself
Jean-Louis Blondeau .... Himself
Ardis Campbell .... Annie
David Demato .... Jean Louis
David Forman .... Himself
David Roland Frank .... Alan
Barry Greenhouse .... Himself
Aaron Haskell .... Jean Francois
Jean François Heckel .... Himself
Paul McGill .... Philippe Petit
Jim Moore .... Himself
Philippe Petit .... Himself
Alan Welner .... Himself
James Marsh .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Man on wire official movie site
Man on wire film production notes
Man on wire QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

British Independent Film Awards 2008: Won: Best British Documentary
Sundance Film Festival 2008: Won: Audience Award: World Cinema - Documentary (James Marsh), Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema - Documentary (James Marsh)

Studios and distributors:

Madman Cinema

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

I thought that this film would be a chore to watch, that it would be one of those movies that I see just to make the distributor happy, but it turns out that Man on wire is a funny, intense, artistic documentary that recovers and recreates history from the "Hey, you remember when...?" file and puts it up on the big screen. Philippe Petit is a clearly-insane Frenchman who can't help but string up bits of wire between high things and walk across it. Clearly insane.

His hippy 70s friends are great support for his larger-than-life character, egging on his artistic genius, providing practical support, fighting, laughing and, almost inevitably, falling in love. If this was fiction you'd say that it was hackneyed but it isn't, it's life and it makes you go "Wow!".

And then you wonder how exciting is your life? Walked across a tightrope 400 metres above the ground recently?

The Philippe Petit documentary movie Man on wire is directed by James Marsh and stars Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Paul McGill.