So, today we got to see a free screening of Man on Wire today at Dobie. The film follows the story of Philippe Petit, a French wirewalker who, in 1974, crossed between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on a tightrope. From a young age, Philippe became fascinated with wirewalking and eventually staged illegal walks between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral, across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and on other major monuments.
After becoming obsessed with the construction of the Twin Towers, Petit and his team began a six-year planning process to sneak into the towers as construction workers and office employees in order to rig the wire for his walk.
The film is beautiful, and Philippe's story is mesmerizing. His joie de vivre approach to life and ever-optimistic attitude make the film very relatable and exciting, as the tension before each walk is very real and terrifying. The three-dimensionality of the height of each walk, as they get progressively more and more dangerous, higher and higher off of the ground, and further and further away from France, plays very well on the two-dimensional screen.
I was a huge fan of the film's editing style, and the actual narrative of the piece, which only encompasses a few days (before and after the WTC wirewalk), is amazingly stretched without losing any of its intensity. What is merely a documentary about a circus performer with a lust for life plays out like the best of Hollywood thrillers. Man on Wire is an excellent docudrama, and I can't wait to see it again.
9 comments:
yes that movie was dope. i loved his accent!
Yes, it was definitly a very well donel film. I agree with you, Ben, on the editing style, how it was intercut with the main event (so to speak) of the film. I felt this editing style kept the film a bit more fresh than had they done it in a chronological way. The intercuts almost had the feeling of a commerical break. Whenever things were getting juicey with the WTC walk they would cut and reveal backstory, which ended up creating a good buildup of intesity for the climax.
One thing I always wonder when I see a documentary with solid, entertaining interviews is just how they got their subjects to speak so openly and freely. It is an amazing thing when you put a camera on someone and their personality just flips and they become nervous and rigid. Two things that I know help are a very friendly relationship with the subject and a comfortable interview enviroment. I am sure there is more to it, though. Philippe was terrific on camera, he had a ton of energy, was well-spoken, and totally natural.
Would have liked to see a little bit about what Philippe is doing today, but I guess that didn't fit well into the documentary.
I thought this was a really compelling documentary. I liked the way it opened right into the action to immediately grab your attention. As Alex mentioned it continued to go back and forth between the night of the main event and the history leading up to that moment.
The 16mm footage was really extraordinary. This was a subject matter that was ready for a documentary, in fact I'm surprised it took so long. The archival footage was very well shot and allowed greater insight to the subjects. I would have been curious to know more about Anne and why she followed Phillipe. I like the part where she said something like, "I wasn't able to have my own destiny, I could only follow his."
That being said I was really shocked by the part where Phillipe cheats on Anne right after conquering the towers. Then again this is documentary and not a Hollywood movie. Jean-Louis' interviews were very moving and I wondered how long or if he had ever talked about the incident before. He seemed to be reliving that experience for the first time and I think the audience could really feel the emotional impact it had on his life.
The flashbacks in the film where extremely well done, they had a strong cinematic quality. I'm not sure if I would like this in all documentaries but in this case it really built suspense and engaged me. Although, sometimes the flashbacks felt a bit over done with the security guard standing two inches from the Frenchmen. Whether they were actually that close to getting caught or they magnified it in their minds is something I might ask myself. Regardless, what they managed to do was absolutely insane and incredible. It is almost to good to be reality and that is what makes some documentaries so incredible to watch.
This documentary had a very "dream-like" quality to it. The old footage was so personal, and really pulled you into the life of the main character. It was just so exciting and passionate that it really made you feel like you were a part of it.
I loved the interviews as well, like Alex said it was amazing how comfortable they seemed to feel in front of the camera. This seems to be a key part to a successful film.
My favorite aspect of the entire film was the EPIC black and white photography that documented the main event/climax of the story. It was just so surreal to see this black figure floating in mid air above the two towers. It was a really great film.
I think the movie was beautifully shot. Many of the comments that I had were already mentioned. I don't know if I said this in class, but I remember at the end of the movie I felt sorry for him. In the end, when he was in his backyard still walking on the tight rope, i remember thinking, wow after he tells that story he looks so empty.
I remember wondering why he was alone as the movie closed. I felt sorry for his friend and his girlfriend. I felt like there was all this amazing build up and the film almost made me obsess over the stunt as much as they did and then after it was done the film closed and it did so with such a lonely feeling.
I began the film really entrapped and enthralled with the main character, but I felt myself become progressively tired of him and his self righteous approach to his own story.
I also loved the narrative strategy employed as it was a way of stretching out a short event to add anticipation and creating a feature length film.
Yvonne makes a good point about the sadness in the characters at the end of the movie. Being the good feminist I am, I am always disappointed to watch a woman lose herself in someone else's identity. Additionally, I think Philippe's story ended as beautifully tragic as it did heroic. He spent his entire youth working towards achieving the impossible and once he does, he has nothing left to strive towards. He is left with his memories and an empty hole in his being that is no longer filled with his obsession.
I have to agree with both Yvonne and Megan. At first I felt very inspired by Philippe's story until the very end...he obtains his dream, but at what cost? Hurting his friends and loved ones? And I wonder if he ever acknowledges that.
Perhaps his tragic flaw was this disregard for others' feelings beside his own. And perhaps that is why his eventual fame reveals it more obviously. When I remember that footage of him and his friends enjoying themselves by running around in the grass, I can't help but feel that Philippe missed the point.
Other than that, the documentary was a beautiful, thrilling, and compelling story. The music was occasionally a little too loud, but worked great with the subject matter. The editing and cinematography made me feel like I was watching a film, not a documentary...which in my opinion is the best type of documentary.
It is tough to follow up all of these intelligent posts that I agree with. I must say this was a true eye-opener for me in the realm of documentary. The work put into this documentary was insane and it can be noticed when you walk out of the theatre. I thought the music was great, the characters were incredibly real, and the archive of footage is something that gets me excited. Films like these truly inspire me because there are people with interesting stories like these that do crazy shit everyday. Us as filmmakers have the oppourtunity to find the ones with a plethora of information that is already gathered and the information that needs to be harvested by you. I like the amount of stills they used in the film, because the incredible photos told a lot for a picture with barely any movement. At first I thought the ending was insane with him banging some random chick and saying duece out to his friends. I thought about it for awhile, and i think its unique because he was built up to be an untouchable person that could just make it through anything, but the craziness at the end kind of reminded me that even after you conquer the world, it can still crash down on you and everyone else. Ultimately I really enjoyed this film, and saw some things I might experiment with in my work.
I also really liked Man on Wire. I had never heard of Phillip Pettit and his amazing accomplishment. It was clear in this film that Pettit knew he would become a legend. The abundant footage from his practice wire days was such good quality that I at first questioned its authenticity. The footage helped the film tremendously, because with a subject like tight wire walking, talking heads do not suffice. It never got old to see the ease with which Pettit traversed the thin rope, practicing until the amazing event that would be unbelievable to audiences without the visual proof. The Twin Towers construction footage was a nice historical marker in the film, and it resonated with me in a different way than with Pettit. The film was so beautifully shot, and the reenactments so true to life that the film seemed more like a narrative than a documentary. They blurred the lines so much that a few times I asked myself whether or not I was watching Pettit’s footage or a reenactment. Even the interviews were stylistically dynamic enough, and Pettit animated enough to resemble fiction. Even though we knew that Pettit had made it across, there was still that suspenseful feeling of impending doom as if he could still fall. At the end of the film, the feat this man achieved was still somewhat surreal. I did not end up liking the subject himself (I found him to be totally self-absorbed) but it makes sense that you would have to be pretty eccentric to actually do what he did. Overall, the filmmaker’s use of historical and personal footage, reenactments, and candid interviews did a great job portraying Pettit’s story.
Post a Comment