Man on Wire (UK, 2008) June 19, 2009

On a misty gray morning in August 1974, a French performance artist named Philippe Petit rigged a metal wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center with a small crew and crossed over it eight times within an hour. Petit's feat was unlawful and precarious, but not pernicious. It may even be our fondest memory of the Twin Towers. James Marsh's new documentary, 'Man on Wire,' pays tribute to this Frenchman's fine accomplishment. Drawing mostly from interviews with Petit and his motley crew of accomplices and actual video footage of them planning the stunt, Marsh paces the story as a suspenseful heist.