Results tagged “manonwire”

Phillipe Petit (aka "Man on Wire") stopped into The Colbert Report last night and seemed to get off as easy as any Frenchman could expect facing down the man who has a "Freedom Sundae" named after him. Since Petit does not like to answer interviewer's queries as to why he participated in his death-defying feats, Colbert bucked the question by asking him why he didn't not do it.

Compared to the hype that surrounded the first film adaptation, this second X-Files movie is opening almost discreetly this weekend. Is the studio’s subdued promotional effort a sign that I Want to Believe is a mess, or is Space Chimps just sucking all the air out of the room? The Times’s Manohla Dargis says, “I wanted to believe. But with his big-screen blowup of his great and weird television series The X-Files, Chris Carter has turned me into a reluctant skeptic. Baggy, draggy, oddly timed and strangely off the mark.” Amy Biancolli at the Houston Chronicle is even more succinct: “The truth is, they're boring now.”

In August 1974, Philippe Petit, a Frenchman with a passion for walking on wires, captivated New York City as he stealthy made his way to the top of the World Trade Center. Once there, he walked across a cable strung between the Twin Towers, a historic feat that's vividly depicted in a new documentary, Man On Wire (which will be screening tonight). The famous walk turned a void 1/4 mile above the streets into a stage, and made Petit into an instant "folk hero." He now lives upstate in Woodstock, and yesterday we talked with him about those 45 minutes between the towers, that first daring step onto the wire, and the ones that followed.

   

In August of 1974, a 24-year-old Frenchman named Philippe Petit snuck into the World Trade Center, reached the top, and walked across a wire cable that was strung between the Twin Towers. New York watched captivated below. Some fun facts: it took 6 years to plan the stunt, the gap between the towers was 140 feet, and even though it was illegal, charges were dropped and Petit was merely sentenced to entertaining kids in Central Park (where he walked over Belvedere Lake).

            

Next week some of the best films from this year's Sundance Festival will unspool at BAM during their third annual Sundance Institute takeover. The ten day mini-fest features 10 dramatic features, 12 documentaries and 36 shorts. Most of these selections screen just once or twice, and not all of them have distribution, so you've got to stay on your toes if there's something you want to see.

               

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival begins April 23rd and runs through May 4th, with over 200 feature length narrative films, documentaries and shorts from around the world. This year also features discussions with filmmakers, music events, a family film series, an ESPN Sports Film Festival and other special presentations. Check out last week's preview of some of the narrative feature films in the festival, or brave the entire program of films.)