The story of how on earth a man managed to rig up a steel cable, that would support his weight enough to walk on, between tower 1 and tower 2 of The World Trade Centre is simply stupefying. Man On Wire delivers the experience of crazy French man, Philippe Petit’s walk at the very top of the world wrapped up in all the vertigo, fantasy and emotion you’d expect to come with the “artistic crime of the century”. Marsh does well to construct two moods in his film, the anticipation of the event prior to its execution and the elation after. 

 

 

The recreations of the events building up to the point at which Petit steps out into the void help an otherwise disjointed story flow a bit better than it would have otherwise. And once Petit steps off the building there is something inherently beautiful and tranquil about the event which Marsh does a brilliant job of conveying – with a little help from Debussy.