About film

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's Twin Towers (World Trade Center). After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, then brought to jail and finally released. Following six and a half years of dreaming, Petit spent eight months in NYC planning the execution of the coup. James Marsh’s documentary brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as “the artistic crime of the century”.