By far the most exciting and exhilarating documentary this year, it’s the 1974 story about a man’s psychological and illegal determination to tight-rope walk between the twin towers. Philippe Petit’s dream began the day he sat in his dentist office at age fourteen and read a headline about the construction of the World Trade Center in America. Destined to someday climb them, he practiced on every conceivable bridge – the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia – and every cathedral, including Notre Dame. To mimic the building’s natural sway he practiced bounces on a rope above a cow pasture in rural Paris. His passion was infectious. His passion became his friends’ passion, and they eventually helped him orchestrate every detail of the plan. For Americans viewing the movie, it’s not Petit suspended forty-five minutes between the towers that interests us, nor is it his arrest, or even his zest for life, it’s the irony of seeing the phantom buildings alive again prior to 9/11. It’s the gift of having the towers remembered for something other than the Terrorism strike. (Director James Marsh addressed that issue in a private screening I was fortunate to attend with both the star and director. By choice, he decided to focus on the construction of the buildings paralleling Petit’s own growth and journey rather than ever address their demise.) For Petit, when asked how he felt about the buildings and what he plans to climb next, he said, “I don’t look for the tallest building, or biggest feat, I just do what feels right at the time.” For Petit, the art of tight-rope walking is the same as the artist and his painting, the ballerina and his dance, the writer and his book. It’s his destiny. Or as he said to me with his humorous touch, “Imagine if everyday you got up and could never make a mistake. That’s what happens to me. One false move and I die.” And then, “But what a way to go, if I do, living out my dream on the edge.” Literally. Quite possibly the “artistic crime of the century.” Four tiaras
