James Marsh, 2008
The true story of a man (Philippe Petit) who walked a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center.I'm not generally a fan of documentaries. Well, that's not really true. I generally tend to like documentaries, I just never like them a lot. There's always that lack of design or structure that prevents it from really taking off, because you can't really write a documentary (even though they have writers) and you can only sort of direct them. Man on Wire is the exception to this rule. It's structured and plotted like a well-built thriller, based around the complicated plot to break into the WTC, string a wire between the towers, and pull the stunt. A significant portion of the film is made up of very striking re-enactments of the break-in, which are shot in black and white and become increasingly abstract as we approach the wire-walk. The backstory is interspersed in a way that feels like flashbacks from a narrative film, and it all just flows in a way that documentaries generally don't. Terrific stuff.
8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment