adventurous,extraordinary, passionate and provoking …

“All art is quite useless”

“If I die…what a beautiful death! To die in the exercise of your passion”

While I was doing some research photography on top of the South tower of the World Trade Center (for his upcoming coup) I got Philippe to hold my camera while I did a handstand on the edge. I wasn’t really afraid of this as I had my handstand down and I am not afraid of heights. It was an amazing moment to be on the NY’s tallest building and be doing a handstand on the edge of the roof. No one was around and it was a serene and tranquil moment. The photographs that I took that day became the documentation that was eventually used in the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire.

Jim Moore doing handstand on top of the World Trade Center @1974

Man On Wire is about 30 minutes too long and Philippe Petit is an unpleasant narcissist. (Good wire walker though.)

Gavin and Stacey has me frenziedly looking around for a noose and a hook. Alison Steadman and Rob Brydon: GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!

Imagine que um lunático chega pra você e pede ajuda pra invadir o WTC e armar uma estrutura pra que ele possa atravessar de uma torre a outra se equilibrando sem nenhuma rede de proteção ou qualquer outro dispositivo de segurança. Alguns malucos toparam ajudar o goiabíssimo Philippe Petit que, em 7 de agosto de 74, executou a traquinagem.

A história é deliciosa e Man on Wire, o filme que a conta, ganhou o Oscar 2009 na categoria Documentário. Recomendo muito.

This morning in the NYT, I found that the National Book Award winner for fiction is “Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin, a novel featuring a sprawling cast of characters in 1970s New York City whose lives are ineluctably touched by the mysterious tightrope walker who traverses a wire suspended between the Twin Towers one morning.” Apparently, the book uses the walk as only a touchstone, but still.

I wish I had time to read fiction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/books/review/Mahler-t.html?ref=books

(Some months ago on the super secret diary blog I posted this:)

This film chronicles Philippe Petit’s path to the high-wire walk he made between the World Trade Center towers in August of ‘74. It’s a wonderful documentary, and the amount of footage they had from the early 70s, when Petit and his friends were dreaming up the performance, was amazing. These guys filmed so much of their planning—and the film maker artfully wove the old footage into the interviews with Petit and his accomplices—that it really turned out a riveting, dramatic  sequence. The emotions everyone invloved in the project harbor to this day bubble to the surface and ultimately, to me, that’s what makes this film such a lovely piece of work.

Petit was on the wire for about 45 minutes. What he did was . . . magic. Watch this film and be breathless.

Colum McCann’s new novel, Let the Great World Spin, is a masterful tale that layers the stories of eight disparate characters on top of the artifice of the most daring crime of the 20th Century; August, 1974, in New York a man walks a tight rope between the top of the two recently built Twin Towers.

Man on Wire is the incredible documentary which covers this artful crime.  The two of these wonderful pieces of work combined, make for an interesting cultural creation.

“When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk.”

- Philippe Petit

James Marsh, vencedor de um prêmio Oscar pelo documentário O Equilibrista (Man On Wire), que conta a história do artista Philippe Petit, que atravessou as torres gêmeas por uma corda bamba em 1974, foi escolhido para dirigir o terror em primeira pessoa Vatican Tapes.

O filme mostrará a filmagem de um suposto exorcismo feito pelo Vaticano, que não obteve sucesso, um misto de O Exorcismo de Emily Rose e [REC] ou Atividade Paranormal, filme que ainda não estreou aqui no Brasil.

Ainda não existem datas sobre as filmagens e nem uma possível data de estréia do filme, mas assim que souber disponibilizo as informações.

Two days, two movies- such is this time of year.  Fortunately the Library is on the way home from work.

Today’s selection: Man on Wire.  For those not in the know, it’s a documentary about Phillipe Petit’s August 7th, 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center buildings.  There’s more to it than that, and it’s definitely worth a watch.  I can relate to his passion.

What do we have in common?  He really likes his unicycle.  There’s a fair amount of footage of him tooling around effortlessly on one wheel.

Want to join the club?  You can.

Butler YMCA.  4:30-6:30pm Saturdays.  Free.  Sign a waiver (or have your parents do so if you’re under 18) and wear a helmet.  We even have extra unicycles to lend.

But wait- there’s more.  This Saturday Dave, Nate, Matt, and I are meeting to MUni ride in North Park.  11 am by the pool.  I’ve never ridden with Matt before, and Dave’s my first unicycling friend.  You’re welcome to join in too.

Phillipe’s inspiring.  I need to figure out where to put a slackline…

Impossibile è un opinione. Illegale non significa criminale. Lo è anche incontrare degli amici per strada e occupare suolo pubblico senza autorizzazione.

Filippe Petit: è impossibile, certo! quindi mettiamoci al lavoro.

Scared of heights? Not if you were Philippe Petit in 1974. Man of Wire is a cinematic treat to watch. It is not just a documentary; it is an experience that puts you right on the edge of your seat from the start. 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature, you don’t want to miss this rare look into the “world’s greatest stunt”. Philippe makes Evel Knievel look like an amateur performing in a low-budget circus!

Come and join us for a good cause and raise money for The Sick Kids Hospital.

When: 4pm, Wednesday, October 21 2009
Where: Amphitheater @ IBM Toronto Lab
Price: $4 (all proceeds go to the Future Blue Sick Kids Fund, part of the 2009 ECF Campaign)

Synopsis: A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City’s World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974, what some consider, “the artistic crime of the century.” (IMDB.com)

“Exhilarating!” – New York Times
“Magnificent!” – Wall Street Journal
“A Superb film that works like a thriller” – Robert Ebert
“8/10” – IMDB.com

-Mirza

Philippe Petit sets out on an epic journey.

(Magnolia) Philippe Petit, Jean-Francois Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix, David Forman, Alan Welner, Mark Lewis, N. Barry Greenhouse, Jim Moore. Directed by James Marsh

Our human nature is to expand the boundaries of our perceptions, whether the physical borders of our environment or the emotional or mental limits of our capabilities. We don’t always know why we must push these limits, but to do so is the heart of our human nature.

Philippe Petit is a French wire-walker and performer. He had run away from home at age 15 to join his own private circus, a street performer expert in magic tricks, juggling and wire walking, for which he was self-taught. After awhile, he grew bored with the feats. It seemed almost ugly to him, and he yearned to transform wire walking into an art.

To be honest, although it isn’t spoken outwardly in the film, he also seems to have a flair for the spotlight. He decided to perform some daring feats of wire-walking whose legality was a bit murky, starting with a wire walk between the twin spires of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, and one on two towers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It was the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center that captured his imagination however, and on the morning of August 7, 1974 he stepped out onto a special wire he and his team had managed to stretch unnoticed between the north and south towers and made history.

The feat, which Time magazine called “the artistic crime of the century,” was one of the most defining moments of the Twin Towers until 9-11. It captured the imagination of the entire world. This documentary chronicles the planning that went into it, the execution of the event and its aftermath.

The Oscar winner for Best Documentary Film, Man on Wire has some of the best interviews I’ve seen in a documentary. The personalities of the subjects are nicely captured, and everyone’s role is very clear. Petit in particular is a complex man, and many of the aspects of his personality are represented here. His relationship with Allix is important at the time of the walk, but dissolves as soon as the event is concluded.

The planning that went into the event was meticulous in terms of the mechanics of the walk; getting the equipment up the tower to the roof was less so. Still, it’s fascinating to watch and the re-enactments of the event, the descriptions of how close they came to being detected and their scheme stopped before it started is riveting.

Inevitably, the centerpiece is Petit. When explanations are demanded, Petit shrugs them off. “The beauty of it,” he confesses, “is that there is no why.” He did it just to do it. It is the kind of love that is madness, a joy of life in doing the reckless, the non-conformist’s mazurka. The expression on his face as he dances on the wire between the two towers is all the explanation you will ever need, but it cannot be put into words adequately.

The World Trade Center now inhabits an entirely different locale in our psyche, and wisely director Marsh doesn’t explore that aspect of it. Certainly, the destruction of the towers must have had an impact on Petit but it is the one question that goes unasked; it is much better that way, because the only way for this film to work is to put the Towers where they were that August day; fresh, new, a symbol of a hopeful future. The image of the craters at Ground Zero remains in a different compartment of our memories. In many ways that’s a gift.

This is a movie that has all sorts of emotional resonances; with the daredevil that is Petit, with the urge to do something memorable in all of us, and with the sadness of the loss of something so grand and so meaningful in our lives. Man on Wire can be viewed not only as a documentary of how the deed was done, but also of an allegory of the tightrope we all walk.

WHY RENT THIS: The interviews are compelling and give us a wonderful sense of who the subjects are and their role in the events depicted. While ostensibly a documentary about how the deed was done, it lets us examine the event from a different perspective, one born of our experiences and of the history that followed.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Perhaps you don’t like documentaries.

FAMILY VALUES: Some language and drug/alcohol use but nothing here that would put off parents from showing this to their children.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The phrase “Man on Wire” is the description of the incident as logged on the police report by the NYPD after the event.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There are several documentary features but none really spectacular.

FINAL RATING: 8/10

TOMORROW: The Proposal

Creativity is good. That is why situationists (SI) and their subsequent followers such as Phillipe Petit of Man on a Wire are fascinating and worthy in part of emulation. The part worth emulating is the act of creativity which takes us out of our ‘well trodden path’ and reminds us of our human dignity. However the SI fails to show us what our dignity looks like because it defines itself against capitalism rather than as the image bearer of God.

The Situationist International was a movement with its roots in avant-garde art, Marxism and a demi-dollop of pleasure seeking libertarianism. They do rather sound of the loony left, but what makes them interesting is that they wanted to use situations, or (to use a technical term) ’spectacles’ to allow us to re-evaluate our assumptions and realign our desires and priorities. They are similar to Martin Amis in that they fight a war on cliche, though unlike Amis it is not a war against overused words and badly written books, but a war on our psychogeographical assumptions, the cliches of our physical behaviour or the cliches of our cultural mores reflected in architecture and town planning. The psychogeography are the perceived boundaries constructed around us, the paths that we walk, the billboards that hang around shared spaces. Psychogeography is the space for values we find without as reflections from within.

To a friend of the basic tenets behind capitalism these ideas might sound problematic but they will also appeal since the unconditional pursuit of personal happiness is one of the tenets central to situationism. Situationists, like others of their time and many of ours, desire complete freedom without restraint.

It existed as a formal entity, as a journal and a loose knit group of people, from the late 50s to early 70s. Many of the ideas in the original situationist writings are evident in our shared cognitive space today and they where by no means completely original in their inception. As a group of ’international revolutionaries’ they thought that applying elements inherent in Dada and Surrealist art as well as Marxist ideals was a good way to critique and subvert capitalism. They thought that some characteristics in those forms of art could be translated into practical life and would lead to a re-humanised humanity which had been de-humanised by the industrial revolution and the modern mass media advertising machine.

The industrial revolution, advertising and mass media created an environment, they say, in which man is no longer man, but an object, a consumer of products and a creator of consumables, aware only of a hyper-reality masking what is real. We lack real freedom because society only offers an illusion of choice. They rightly identify the problem of a hyper-capitalist society, but have no sense of the good that the assumptions underlying capitalism bring about in ordering society and motivating work, creating efficiency all while restraining laziness. They are not very balanced, but revolutionaries rarely can afford that sort of academic detachment.

These ideas and their mode applied to situational spectacle, whether consciously or unconsciously adapted, have influenced many artists, humorists, pranksters, tight rope walkers and activist clown-climbers and would be very familiar to Adbusters readers. Inversion of advertisements leads to a subversion of meaning which critiques the status quo. A philosophical short hand for this activity might be ‘the selfish jesters post-modernity.’

Examples of the last two incarnations mentioned above are Alain Robert (the man who climbs skyscrapers without safety paraphernalia) or Phillipe Petit (protagonist of documentary Man on Wire who walked a tight rope across the twin towers in NY). They apply situationist principles, though I am not aware that either one claims to be a situationist, to their vocations and offer a sort of resistance against the monolithic monochrome psychogeography of modern, and in some cases, not so modern architecture. The architecture and their acts on the chosen symbolic structures reflect the values of our time, which are subverted by the actions performed by the climber and rope walker. They defy authority (tall building security) to create spectacles people watch in rapt fascination. But while Alain Roberts justifies his spectacle by saying he does it in the name of raising awareness about global warming, Petit does it in the name of art. Both athletes talk about their experiences in terms of personal transformation and self fulfilment, leading a critical onlooker to feel the exercise is more about ego, the thirst for fame and the wish to be unique or novel and not for the sake of art creation or climbing on behalf of earth atmosphere.

This leads us to the other part of Situation, the dangerous part, the un-articulated assumption that gives the image of dignity its shape. If we usurp God’s role as image giver, if we say that He did not give us our image, as the Genesis account says He did, by creating us male and female, but instead say we alone are to be the makers of our image, our creativity will turn in on itself, leading to a destructive narcissism. God, the triune God, the one God with three persons has created us in his image, which means that we are relational. How then can we alone be the makers of our image, if our image is a reflection of God made in community and relationship, dependent on more than individual freedom?

The assumed unconditional wish for novelty and the desire for freedom without restraint inherent in situationism leads to an incumbent inability to be creative in a positive and inclusive way, because the only thing grasped for through the spectacle is the denial of capitalism and the mass media advertising machine and some vague notion of freedom. I am thankful that this comes out in the documentary about our tight rope walk artist. In Man on Wire, toward the end of the program we are told that Phillipe Petit, after defying the law, received the ‘punishment’ of having to perform for children in Central Park. He is given a life long pass to enter the twin towers when ever he wants to. However his cohorts, his friends who had given so much of their life to help Petit enter the towers and haul his equipment to the top of those colossi were not given such lenient sentences. They were also banished from the US. In the thralls of fame Phillipe betrays his girlfriend with a slew of other women. We are told that the relationship between Petit and his group of disciples fell apart not long after the event. More than 30 years later one of his most devoted supporters could not speak to the camera without crying. Such a strong event. Such power and such destruction. What then really lies behind the spectacle? A moment’s freedom, a man on a tight rope and his successful symbolic victory over the biggest symbol of capitalism? He reminds us that we control capital. That is the right ordering of things which means that capital does not control us. Yes for the image bearer of God, down with Mammon. But what of his team? Their freedom was denied, usurped by Petit, hungry to be the overman and in a strange way living up to his name.

Some restraints, some bonds are good. Let’s not forget to keep these in our psycho-geography.

(Second edit. Sorry if you have seen this in first draft format and I have confused you)

Netflix Synopsis: Philippe Petit captured the world’s attention in 1974 when he successfully walked across a high wire between New York’s Twin Towers. This Oscar winner for Best Documentary explores the preparations that went into the stunt as well as the event and its aftermath. Obsessed with the towers even before they were fully constructed, Petit sneaked into the buildings several times to determine the equipment he needed to accomplish his daring feat.

I first heard about this movie during one of favorite podcasts, Think on NPR’s KERA station in Texas. The passion that came through of Philippe Petite was captivating. I knew then that I had to find it on Netflix. Well, this week, I finally got around to it from the “Watch Instantly” queue.

Now, I have to say this, 8 years after the events of September 11th, 2001, this movie was very errie. That being said, for a documentary, this story is amazing and the performance is absolutely breath-taking. If you can get past the reminders of 9/11, this is a can’t miss movie. It celebrates one man’s passion, possibly slight insanity, determination and skill. And the photography is spectacular.

Sam and Tom venture into the world of Surrogates for no good reason, but emerge stronger for the experience fails to kill us. We move on talk of justice and Roman Polanski, to David Cronenberg remaking himself and to drawing a new career path for Tarantino. Next, the boys all convene to talk about a multitude of documentaries and the pilots of FlashForward and Bored to Death. The conclusion comes in tribute to Patrick Swayze, celebrating him in Road House and Point Break.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 36

Show notes will follow in a later post.

Philippe Petit es un joven funambulista con un único objetivo en mente: asaltar con su arte las torres gemelas de Nueva York. Para conseguir su sueño Petit cuenta con amigos fieles y con una fé sin fisuras que le hace conseguir todo lo que se propone. Mas alla del éxito o fracaso de la misión, Man on Wire documental dirigido por el ingles James Marsch nos descubre el valor de la amistad, la fidelidad, el amor y la poesía, toda una lección de amor propio y vitalismo en una aventura épica conmovedora y real.

]]> http://illustrazioniallegoriche.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/man-on-wire/ Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:21:29 +0000 Hal Incandenza http://illustrazioniallegoriche.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/man-on-wire/

Mr. Vertigo

«A differenza di altri artisti di stada, non coinvolgeva la folla nel gioco. Sembrava invece ammettere il pubblico a condividere il lavorio della sua mente, confidarci una qualche ossessione interiore profonda, inespressa. Eppure dai suoi gesti non emergeva nulla di manifestamente personale. Tutto si rivelava per via metaforica, straniata, mediata dalla performance. I numeri di giocoliere erano esatti ed introversi, come se stesse conversando fra sé. Elaborava combinazioni di alta complessità, intricati modelli matematici, arabeschi di un’assurda bellezza, mantenendo al contempo i gesti nei confini della massima essenzialità. Irradiava un fascino ipnotico, oscillando in un punto imprecisato tra il demone e il clow. Nessuno disse una sola parola. Era come se il suo silenzio intimasse anche agli altri di tacere. Il pubblico guardava, e quando l’esibizione fu finita tutti misero i soldi nel cappello. Mi resi conto di non aver mai visto niente di simile prima di allora.»

(In alto, sulla fune , Paul Auster)

Il funambolismo d’alta quota come preciso traguardo estetico, la sospensione sul filo come l’espressione di un’anarchia irrefrenabile, atto di pura disobbedienza, gesto appena al di qua di quello che consideriamo follia. Philippe Petit realizza il suo sogno (penzolare fra le torri gemelle) ma anche il sogno ad occhi aperti di una folla che, finalmente trascinata fuori dalla gabbia del quotidiano, può contemplare qualcosa di meraviglioso, un’utopia che si realizza marchiando a fuoco le memorie. Lo stupore è la parola chiave, lo stupore che diventa qualcosa per cui vale la pena vivere o morire.

Life is a rebellion, says Phillip Petit, the wirewalker who traversed the sky between the world's tallest towers in 1974.

Man builds boxes, hides in them, and then struggles to get out. He does not want to be contained by walls or labels or brands. Nevertheless, so automatically he associates himself with posessions, roles, and assumptions that society finds him acceptable and desirable.

What of desire, though? It would seem those individuals who wanted to visit the moon and walk on air have been outliars of imagination and great passion compared to the standard dreams of men.

Passion, yes! A word derived from Latin suffering; an urge obscure to pinpoint but impossible to deny. Can practicality and necessity force generations worth of passion into dormancy? So few fires burn blue with the urgency of ignition, of grace inherent in pure action. Petit proclaims, What a beautiful death; to die in the exercise of your passion! An inspiring statement, felt by so few... to what does man accredit this superlative flame?

Rebellion does not require violence or death, only dedication. Nor need rebellion be rational. Perhaps passion denies reason, ultimately, and creates the greatest rebels, the most admired movers and makers. Petit lived to observe, arrange, calculate, and plan his wirewalks, for: to Live is to refuse to taper yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself.

[And] it has to be done right... and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhiliration and vibrates along your arms. ... The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others--the living--are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. -HSThompson

Whatever distinguishes man from animal breeds rebellion in his instincts and fuels the pursuit of his desires. But something else distinguishes a man with simple wants from a man with passion in his soul. Something drives him to the edge, and the rest will never quite understand it.

Further reading: Why do you want to live?