Wednesday the documentary about Phillipe Petit's tightrope walk between the World Trade Center Twin Towers was shown again. This film fills me with happiness. It was beautifully made, telling the story of how Petit saw a newspaper article about the not-yet-built twin towers while he was in a dentist's office and immediately wanted to walk between them. He began practicing, kept tabs on the progress of the buildings and finally gathered a team of people, some of whom were strangers to him, to make it possible to sneak in, rig up the wire -- all sureptitiously, and then do it -- walking back and forth for 45 minutes, lying down on the wire. The feat is astonishing. But what's happifying is the man's joie de vivre, his need to accomplish something so exciting, so astonishing. He went into another zone when he stepped on the wire, he proved that it is possible to overcome our natural fear of death. His rational mind knew that he could die, until the moment he had both feet on the wire, and then he went into a different state of mind. This was a work of art. Some people in the audience did not undertstand that it was. One bone headed man spoke of how his sneaking in suggested how easy it is for terrorists to foil guards. It was not about that. The whole movie was about human achievement.
It's a period of different weather every day. Also since the clocks have been reset I will see beautiful dawn skies. This one is all cloud although I love that the lower bank of clouds look like snow capped mountains.
We're had heavy rain, and then warmish sunny days. It will continue this way probably through most or all of November. Perhaps more dynamic than usual because of climate change.
2 comments:
Interesting post on the wire walker. I think many persons obtain a zone area that is put into play when they exercise some parts of their lives. Such as perhaps sports figures, combat soldiers, and some entertainment folks. Plus more I am sure. Good post. -- barbara
Thank you, Barbara. I certainly think people go into altered states at times when total attention is needed,either for artistic purposes or maybe self preservation. This is one of the few instances I know of on film where an almost unimaginable feat is shown as it happened and others in the film react both in a willingness to help make it possible and with awe and wonder after the fact.
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