Banksy, take note... This is guerilla art...

On Monday morning I was splonging around on The List when I noticed an ad informing me that the film Man on Wire was showing at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Having seen a trailer for the film previous to the eye hurtingly shit Babylon AD, and noticing that Man on Wire was only showing for the next two days, I decided that I should haul my arse out of bed and go and see it on the big screen where the sense of scale would be better far than watching it in a few weeks time when the DVD is released. I was not dissapointed.

This film should be seen on as large a screen as possible (IMAX would be ideal) as the risk that the star of the film, a Frenchman named Philippe Petit, took in doing this stunt are pounded into your mind by the images on the screen. Imagine standing on the edge of a pair of buildings, that at the time were the worlds tallest at 415m, now try to imagine stepping onto a 3/4" thick wire and walking from one tower to the other.

This movie is not only a tribute to the man who walked the walk instead of just talking the talk but to the World Trade Centre building itself. Memories of that day were certainly not far from the front of my mind as I waited for the movie to begin and I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the auditorium that felt the same. The Timing was appropriate. The film, more so.

For the last seven years the images in my head I associated with the words World Trade Centre were ones of aircraft crashes, falling men, deadly debris and crushing concrete. Now though, thanks in part to this film I can think of the World Trade Centres and think of something positive and life affirming.

Images ©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau/Polaris Images.