Fridae

The second best movie of the week is Man On Wire, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary as well as a string of other awards. Some folks think it won the Oscar because of sentimental reasons - it features haunting images of New York's twin towers in 1974 - but we think the documentary stands on its own as a good piece of cinema and a quirky tribute to existentialist humanity.

Man on Wire centers on Frenchman Philippe Petit who walked on a wire between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre in 1974. He had no official permission, so he and co-conspirators had to smuggle the shackles and wires past the guards before setting up their contraption on the roof.

His extraordinary deed attracted shock, outrage and admiration. And when he came down from the towers, he was promptly arrested by the police.
 
When asked why he did it, he said he simply wanted to - and that  was a good enough reason as any. Director James Marsh covered the why briefly and the how extensively, with dramatic reenactments of the days preceding the event. What emerges is an entertaining and sometime enthralling look at how the coup was carried out.

You may find Philippe to be something of a nutjob, but he also makes a good case for living life the way one wants to - without rules, without guilt, without fear. And certainly, the image of him balancing on a wire between the two now-fallen towers will not be forgotten by the world.

A must-see for docu lovers.