By Mary Damiano

Philippe Petit, the tightrope walker who walked between the Twin Towers in 1974, is the subject of the documentary, Man On Wire

Man on Wire
Documentary celebrates wacky Frenchman’s dream

We live in a post 9/11 world, illustrated by movies and TV shows that feature a shot of the Twin Towers gleaming in the center of the New York City skyline. Just one glimpse of one of those shots and there’s a flash of that day that changed the world and the accompanying sadness, if only for a moment.

The documentary Man on Wire is especially poignant as it features the World Trade Center as a co-star. It’s the true story of Philippe Petit, a tightrope walker who, for 45 minutes on August 7, 1974, danced on a wire strung between the twin towers, 1,350 feet in the air.

The documentary mixes real footage and interviews with some reenactments to tell its story. Petit was driven to walk between the towers before they were even built. The idea came to him as he read a story about the proposed construction of the World Trade Center that featured an illustration of what the buildings would look like. From that moment he was driven, determined to fulfill what he considered to be his crowning achievement.

The film chronicles how Petit prepared for what’s been called “the artistic crime of the century,” how he drew an international gang of thrill seekers enchanted by his crazy dream. In fact, Petit’s gang of helpers one qualm with the whole scheme seemed to be that they didn’t want to be party to the death of a friend should he fail. Curiously, that was the one thing that didn’t concern Petit. “If I died,” he says in the film, “what a beautiful death—to die in the exercise of your passion.”

There’s a special poignancy about Man on Wire, because of the footage of the Twin Towers. We’ll never forget the images of them coming down, so there’s a wistfulness about watching them built. The documentary lovingly juxtaposes these scenes with Petit’s preparations, and it’s like watching a romance, following each lover, anticipating their fateful meeting.

At the climactic moment when Petit finally lives his dream, viewers with vertigo might get a little queasy at the height, the risk, the possibility of failure. Some might wonder what drove Petit, whether he was a show-off or showman, but he sums it up like this: “Life should be lived on the edge of life.”

Ultimately, Man on Wire is a valentine not only to the human spirit, both Petit’s and those who dreamed and built the Twin Towers, to the glorious buildings themselves, and to a simpler moment in time when New Yorkers turned their eyes toward the sky not in horror, but bemused delight.

Man on Wire
Rated PG-13
Running Time: 90 minutes
English/French
Director: James Marsh. With: Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Paul McGill

Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Marsan, Gregg Sulkin and Ben Newton, the eccentric family in Sixty Six

Sixty Six
Bar Mitzvah boy vs. the World Cup

A bar mitzvah is arguably the most important day in a Jewish boy’s life. But what is that boy to do when his bar mitzvah falls on the same day as the World Cup final?

It’s a comic quandary for Bernie Reubens, the protagonist of Sixty Six, which is based on director Paul Weiland’s childhhood.

The film is set in London in 1966. Bernie is a nervous, geeky kind of kid, who gets picked last for games—even his relatives can’t get his name right. Bernie’s family is close-knit but eccentric, especially his proud but phobic father, a superstitious bundle of nerves who can’t catch a break. Bernie feels invisible, hapless and forgotten, an outsider in his own family.

But on the day of his bar mitzvah, his rabbi assures him, that will all change. The spotlight will turn on and Bernie will be the center of attention. That’s all Bernie needs to hear to turn into a pint-size party planner, agonizing our seating charts, color schemes and menus to make his special day the social event of the season. When Bernie discovers the World Cup falls on the same day, and that if England plays no one will come to his party, he sets out on a new mission: to keep England from making it into the big game.

The period details in Sixty Six make it a textured, fascinating film, but it’s the intelligent, funny script and fine performances that keep it grounded in timelessness. Helena Bonham-Carter is wonderful as Bernie’s mom, while Eddie Marsan embodies the lovable schlub that is Bernie’s dad.

While the film centers on Bernie’s unrelenting quest for the perfect bar mitzvah, it’s his relationship with his father that’s at the heart of the story. In many ways, Sixty Six is a coming of age story for both father and son.

Sixty Six
Rated PG-13
Running Time: 93 minutes
Director: Paul Weiland. Screenplay: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. With: Helena Bonham-Carter, Eddie Marsan, Gregg Sulkin and Stephen Rea.

Ben Wishaw and Matthew Goode play out an unusual relationship in Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited
Love and faith among the moneyed class

Passion and faith clash in Brideshead Revisited, a new film about the complex dynamics of a titled British family during the early part of last century.

Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel received a definitive filming in 1981 with an 11-hour miniseries starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Edwards and Laurence Olivier.

The story concerns Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) a lower middle class atheist who attends Oxford and becomes fast friends with Sebastian Flyte (Ben Wishaw), a spoiled, fragile, alcoholic rich boy. Charles discovers exactly how rich when Sebastian takes him to the family home, Brideshead Castle, on the scale of Buckingham Palace. It’s clear that Sebastian has more than a platonic interest in Charles, who is immediately smitten by Sebastian’s sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell). But the family is ruled by Sebastian and Julia’s mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson), and to say she’s devoutly, zealously and obsessively Catholic would be an understatement. Charles’ declaration of atheism makes a romantic relationship with Julia out of the question in Lady Marchmain’s eyes, although that doesn’t stop them from trying.

Brideshead Revisited deals with a whole bunch of isms—Catholicism, homoeroticism, classism—all set among the regal British gentry between the two World Wars. It’s a complex story about faith and passion and how one can usurp the other. This version is lushly filmed and features some wonderful performances, especially by Thompson and Michael Gambon who, as Lord Marchmain, is still married yet lives in Italy with his mistress.

But for all its beauty, there’s something lacking in this version of Brideshead Revisited. Maybe it’s that the story and theme of the book had to be compressed too much to play the big screen. Maybe it’s that ultimately it feels like a low-rent version of one of those gorgeous Merchant-Ivory films from the 1980s. Maybe it’s that the three young leads lack the requisite chemistry for such a passionate plot. Maybe it’s that after the 1981 miniseries, Brideshead Revisited didn’t need to be filmed again because the new version adds nothing new.

Brideshead Revisited
Rated PG-13
Running Time: 133 minutes
Director: Julian Jarrold. Screenplay: Andrew Davies and Jeremy Block, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. With: Ben Wishaw, Matthew Goode, Emma Thompson, Hayley Atwell, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi, Jonathan Cake

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