DC Area Premiere

In the summer of 1974, a young, idealistic Frenchman named Philippe Petit captured the attention of downtown Manhattan, and soon the world, with his audacious and awe-inspiring walk along a high wire suspended between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. For nearly an hour, he joyfully crossed between the towers eight times—1,350 feet above the ground—defying death in the most spectacular of ways but finally succumbing to officers camped on both sides of his suspended stage, waiting to arrest him for trespassing and reckless endangerment.

James Marsh meticulously and lovingly reassembles this amazing tale with a visceral immediacy seldom seen in historical accounts. We relive the years leading up to Petit’s feat, from his secret practice ground in rural France to his illegal performances on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia and the Eiffel Tower; from his recruitment of accomplices to the twists and turns of the seemingly insurmountable plot to conquer the world’s tallest buildings in a sublime acrobatic and artistic act, culminating in the breathtaking visual poetry of the walk itself.

Though left unsaid in the film, the resurrection of Petit’s walk is made all the more poignant by our knowledge of the Twin Towers’ ultimate, tragic fate. MAN ON WIRE offers us a moment of quiet reflection to replace the horrific images of the towers’ collapse, as if from their ashes may come the flame of Petit’s artistry—his gift to the world.

-Sky Sitney