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From: Clem
Category: Art
Date: 25 February 2009
Time: 07:16 PM
Review:
The prospect was not so promising- a bunch of seventies potheads plan to string a wire between the
Twin Towers, accompanied by the music of Michael Nyman . A kind of nerd project in which idealism
confronts the status of the law, followed by a circus act. Why not juggle and wear a harlequin outfit ,
followed by a wank around the cider barrel ?
Nothing however can prepare you for the realisation, that this film amply conveys, of the
transcendence of Philipe Petit's wire walk. From the hoisting of the wire, (without giving much away-
Peter Greenaway would be proud-) to the final realisation of the project- Petit's barely recorded walk
on the wire- this film amazes . Without exaggeration, the film is a model of clarity in conveying what,
paradoxically and irrationally, I was forced to conclude , was one of the great human achievements of
the twentieth century. In some ways, what Petit achieved , and, I'm sure, has subsequently failed to
live up to, is comparable with the moon landings ; the film is deeply moving .