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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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 Posted - 07/30/2008 : 20:05:58
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Just a quick post to let everyone know that probably the best film I've seen so far this year doesn't involve a comic book hero or animated character, although the extraordinary Phillipe Petit could reasonably be described as both. I had no particular expectations when I went to a preview of "Man On Wire" other than an interest and vague knowledge of what he achieved.
I'd like to recommend it, without any hesitation at all. I certainly didn't expect to be quite so gripped by the film, find it so inspiring, find it as funny as I did, or most surprisingly to be moved to tears. But I was. I can't think of a recent example in film of the limits of possibility in human endeavour that has been so beautifully expressed.
The ghosts of 9/11 loom large in this film, as they inevitably would given the focus of the majority of the film is Petit's famed, illegal World Trade Centre high-wire walk in 1974, but satisfyingly the terror attacks are never mentioned or referred to, it's left entirely up to the viewer to draw comparisons and I think that makes it the most powerful film about the Twin Towers you are likely to see. It makes me think of Tori Amos' stunning album track "I Can't See New York" - by far the most powerful, yet entirely suggestive, song written about 9/11 - it puts the lyrically shameless and emotionally mawkish songs that explicitly documented the events to shame. As with this film. See it. |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 07/30/2008 : 22:50:04
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Missed it at Sundance this past year...WANTED TO GO but there are just too many. I can't wait. Everybody I've talked to who has seen it is joyous. I'll definitely be there as soon as I have a chance. Thanks for noting it.
I must add that Petit's the Artist In Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, up near Columbia University. So appropriate for a project which will take decades, maybe even centuries to complete, as more stonecutters teach younger 'hood homies their art. |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 07/31/2008 : 00:00:27
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This was shown on the BBC recently in one of their superb doco slots. It was rivetting, as much for what was implied than overt. Petit's skill apart, there are really interesting questions raised about operating outside the usual commercial channels, and also what is art - and not in that snooty way. No one 'owns' him and he defines his life, his world.
Excellent!
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 08/06/2008 : 23:18:16
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Man on Wire
I've just seen this and am with demonic (and the others) -- I similarly both found many moments hilarious and was moved to tears. Further, as the film built up to the actual crossing, I experienced adrenaline and tension to an amazing degree (given that it was already clear that Petit had survived).
Unlike demonic, though, I expected a 9/11 coda and would have liked one. I expected Petit to express sorrow at the destruction of the buildings while acknowledging that that didn't matter compared to the people. Perhaps the film didn't explicitly mention it for artistic reasons (though it is certainly an ever-present shadow, especially when the cop says something like "I was watching something that would never be done again"), but perhaps it just wasn't possible to get a sensitive balance with any mention at all of the loss of the buildings.
I expect that Petit has polished his brand of exuberant eccentricity in the following decades, but it's easy to see how the array of oddball characters were prepared to follow him around the world in his schemes. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 08/08/2008 : 00:49:34
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| By the way, did anyone else think the trousers he wore for the walk looked amazingly unsuitable? The flared ends stuck out as far as his feet! |
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Man on Wire
