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The real Phillipe Petit
He would come to walk atop Notre Dame and the famous Sydney Harbor bridge, but he couldn't get the idea of walking between the two twin towers out of his head. It's a feat no one else has ever achieved, and after 9—11, no one else ever could.
“Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge – and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.” Phillipe Petit
It's absolutely riveting. The details as engrossing as any crime procedural. The physical risk of the act, so unbelievably high already, intensified because the walk, in fact, was a crime. It's a gripping film about a fantastic human story.
I'm assuming the story got stuck in director Robert Zemeckis' head and wouldn't let go. Why else make another version of the story less than ten years later? Perhaps he found Petit's story so awe-inspiring and mesmerizing he thought it deserved a wider audience than a documentary—even an Academy Award documentary—usually gets. Zemeckis' version has Joseph Gordon-Levitt walking the wire in Petit's place. My first thought is while he makes a passable Frenchman, and takes the role seriously, the rest of the guys in the trailer—outside of Ben Kingsley—look a bit, how do you say 'hammy'. Like Zemeckis can't resist making a joke out of some of the material. As I think of the death defying act, there's nothing funny about it. There are no laughs except perhaps for the laugh of relief you feel when things that can go so terribly wrong, don't. The Walk stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon and James Badge Dale and comes out this fall.
My advice, watch the documentary now. There's no green screen technology here. Man on Wire is the real deal. It's available on Amazon, Google-Play and VUDU, then, see the movie when it comes out in theaters on October 2 in the US. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Petit. Levitt is an actor, while Petit, only Petit is Petit. Incroyable!
Here are both trailers:
Man on Wire
The Walk
Dreaming of France is a weekly meme at An Accidental Blog where you can share your passion for France.
Dreaming of France
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Man on Wire
Phillipe Petit
Robert Zemeckis
The Walk
To Reach the Clouds
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