Philippe Petit is a compelling screen presence as himself: a flamboyant storyteller who makes painstaking preparation entertaining. Man on Wire earns our enthusiasm by giving that charm room, without overlooking how much he asks of other people.
Fi1m perspective
In Man on Wire (2008), Philippe Petit recounts the preparations for his Twin Towers walk with enough enthusiasm to make joining the team sound tempting. James Marsh gives him time to talk, and the flamboyance helps us understand why others agreed to help. We were caught up in his excitement, then uneasy at how much work his companions were being asked to do. That is a large part of the documentary's appeal: it allows Petit to persuade us while keeping the demands on his helpers in view.
Petit began as a street juggler and wire walker in the 1960s, and treats a walk as a theatrical performance rather than a test of nerve. The rigging and the practice belong to the work, which is why Marsh's attention to preparation suits him so well. The 1974 undertaking supplies the film with the makings of a heist, and Petit supplies its excitement. He is persuasive without making the original wish seem remotely sensible.
The film is less assured when it illustrates what he has already made interesting. Igor Martinović's cinematography gives the reconstructions the air of a caper, though their staged quality can pull attention away from the people remembering. We would sometimes rather stay with Petit or the archive material. Michael Nyman and J. Ralph's music brings pleasure to the planning, but some cues insist on excitement that is already there.
His book supplied the basis for Robert Zemeckis's The Walk (2015); he later played the Brussels MC in Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme (2025). Neither credit is what our enthusiasm rests on. In Marsh's documentary, we can see a performer making his own experience entertaining, and a director sensible enough to leave his egotism visible. Start with Man on Wire, and listen to the helpers as carefully as to Petit.
Biography
Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist. He gained attention for unauthorised high-wire walks between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971, the pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on 7 August 1974.
The 2008 documentary Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh, recounts the planning and execution of the World Trade Center walk. Petit appears in the film as himself and is credited as a writer. The documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2009. A dramatisation, The Walk (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis, starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit.
