Man on a Wire - Phillippe Petit's adventure as recounted by Jake Gyllenhaal

When I visited my local theatre to see Elegy last week, I couldn't help but be slightly astonished that the film in the next cinema was Man on a Wire - the drama-documentary tale of Phillippe Petit who, back in 1974, did the unbelievable and put a line up between the two Twin Towers of NYC and walked between them, not once but eight times, at one point even lying on the rope, so far up above the streets.


Not surprisingly, this put me in mind of The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, the animated account of this achievement, which becomes even more inspiring and compulsive when one realises that the voice recalling this magical dance with danger and freedom belongs to none other than Jake Gyllenhaal. It's a short film but every second's commentary and poetry is hypnotic and mesmerising. But the appeal of the animation goes way beyond the obvious - by night, with lights dimmed, the sound of Jake's voice would lull even the most vehement action movie diehard into happy calmness.





Picture from IHJ.