Man On Wire

Oscar-winning documentary by James Marsh telling the story of what has since been described as 'the artistic crime of the century'.

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman called Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire suspended between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, at the time the world's tallest buildings.

After an hour of dancing on the wire with no safety net or harness, he was finally arrested for this beautiful but illegal act of daring.

Petit and his team had spent several months planning the performance in detail: bypassing security, smuggling wire and rigging equipment into the towers, suspending the wire between the two towers at the perfect tension to withstand both the wind and the swaying of the buildings - all without being caught.