Joni Mitchell sang ‘it’s just in dreams we fly’ and even in my rigorously Darwinian view of life as a mammal, I’m inclined to agree that we all aspire to the condition of birds. Philippe Petit personified such dreams – his ultimate aim was to walk across the sky between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Petit had been obsessed by the high-wire all his life but the WTC had been the object of his dreams even before it existed in the real world.
Man on Wire (shown on BBC2 on Sunday) followed those audacious plans to reach the summit of one of the twin towers, sling a wire between the structures and walk on air. It was a gripping film, like a heist movie but this was trespass with the best of intentions – to beat death, to fly, to create a beautiful thing. The actual stunt was never filmed, but the still photography was unbearably moving. Petit was a wind’s breath from death, but he soared, feeling the air on his skin while onlookers far below saw him lie down on the wire, pinned against the sky like a crucifix.
The endeavour signalled the end of a beautiful relationship with his long-term partner and a ‘new beginning’ for both of them. This film was funny, exciting and profoundly elegiac – the twin towers seemed like beautiful but tormented apparitions in a post 9/11 world.
Quite simply, this is the most beautiful documentary ever made.
Tuesday 4 August 2009
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