Something to watch tonight: Thursday 8 August

Man on Wire (Marsh, 2008)

Today’s recommendation is prompted by this article from today’s New York Times (gift link).

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Philippe Petit’s incredible tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.

He is 74 years old now and still walking. Indeed, he’s performing a tightrope walk show (called Towering!!) at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine where he is artist-in-residence.

The cathedral, in Morningside Heights in Upper Manhattan, is a special place for Petit: He has been an artist in residence there since 1980. The dean of the cathedral at the time, Rev. James Parks Morton, granted Petit the title to stop the police from arresting him after an illicit high-wire walk across its 601-foot-long nave. Two years later, he walked across Amsterdam Avenue to the cathedral to inaugurate a new phase of construction.

The venue has a personal resonance, too. The ashes of his daughter Gypsy, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage when she was 9, are interred in the cathedral. He said this show is important to him on many levels, and the connection to his daughter adds another.

The new show is not all high-wire walking, though Petit will walk along a 20-foot-high wire inside the cathedral, flanked on either side by a seated audience. “Towering!!” is composed of 19 scenes evoking different points in the story of his 1974 walk. The musician Sting, a friend of Petit’s, will also perform.

The Oscar-winning documentary, Man on Wire, was a smash hit and still has the capacity to leave audiences agog. I reviewed it for Capital Times back in January 2009:

Don’t miss Man on Wire, finally getting a wide release after wowing Festival audiences last year. In 1974 crazy Frenchman Philippe Petit recruited an oddball crew to perform the stunt of a lifetime – a wire-walk between the newly constructed World Trade Center Towers in Manhattan, 411 metres above the ground. Immaculately told, using abundant archive images and footage as well as eye-witness accounts from the still disbelieving witnesses, Man on Wire is a magnificent character study of obsession and single-mindedness. You will be on the edge of your seat, I guarantee it.

Also in that Capital Times column: Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Czech drama Beauty in Trouble (which I rave about but cannot remember at all), Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunited in Revolutionary Road, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway in the rom-com Bride Wars, the too-cute-for-words Hotel for Dogs, surf documentary Bustin’ Down the Door and French WWII adventure Female Agents.

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Where to watch Man On Wire

Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on DocPlay and BeamaFilm (available through some public libraries)

Canada: Digital rental

Ireland: Streaming on NowTV

USA: Streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock, Vudu and Kanopy

UK: Streaming on ITVx (free with ads) and NowTV