| Philippe Petit | |
|---|---|
Petit at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009 |
|
| Born | 13 August 1949 Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France |
| Occupation | High-wire artist |
Philippe Petit (French pronunciation: [filip pəti]; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, on 7 August 1974.[1] For his feat (that he referred to as "le coup"[2]), he used a 450-pound (200-kilogram) cable and a custom-made 26-foot (8-metre) long, 55-pound (25-kilogram) balancing pole.
Contents |
Petit was born in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France; his father, Edmond Petit, was an author and a former Army pilot. At an early age he discovered magic and juggling. At 16, he took his first steps on the wire. Petit learned everything by himself as he was being expelled from five different schools. "Within one year," he told a reporter, "I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, 'What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.' So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art."[3] He also became adept at equestrianism, fencing, carpentry, rock-climbing and the art of bullfighting. Spurning circuses and their formulaic performances, on the sidewalks of Paris he created his street persona. In the early 1970s, he frequently juggled and worked on a slack rope in New York City's Washington Square Park.
Beginning in the 1970s, Petit began eyeing world-famous structures as stages for high-wire walks, which he executed as a combination of circus act and public performance. He performed his first such walk between the towers of the Notre Dame de Paris. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney, Australia.[4]
Petit's most famous work was his performance which he executed at the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) in Manhattan.
He was first inspired to attempt what he called his "coup" on the Twin Towers while he sat in his dentist's office in Paris in 1968. In a magazine, he came upon an article about the yet-to-be constructed buildings, along with an illustration of the model. He became obsessed with the towers, collecting articles on them whenever possible.
The "artistic crime of the century" took six years of planning, during which Petit learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind, and how to rig the steel cable across the 200 ft (61 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)). He traveled to New York on several occasions to make first-hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and New York-based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to make aerial photographs of the trade center.[2] His friend Francis Brunn, the German juggler, provided financial support for the attempt and its planning.[5]
Petit snuck into the towers several times, hiding on the roof and other areas in the unfinished towers, in order to get a sense of what type of security measures were in place. Using his own observations and Moore's photographs, Petit was able to make a scale model of the towers to help him design the rigging he needed to prepare for the wirewalk. He made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, to make it easier to get into the buildings, Petit carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that he could blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with a French architecture magazine so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to do the high-wire walk were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed.
On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew were able to ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment, and to store this equipment just nineteen steps from the roof. In order to pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow. They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the space between the towers until they were able to pass the 450-pound steel cable across. Two cavalettis (guy lines) anchored to other points on the roof were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.[2]
On Wednesday, 7 August 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core[6]) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.
As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:
I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.[7]
Petit was warned by his friend on the South Tower that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire unless he got off. Rain had begun to fall, and Petit decided he had taken enough risks, so he decided to give himself up to the police waiting for him on the South Tower. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. Provoked by his taunting behaviour while on the wire, police handcuffed him behind his back and roughly pushed him down a flight of stairs. This he later described as the most dangerous part of the stunt.[8]
His audacious high-wire performance made headlines around the world. When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."
Although movie cameras were on the roof during the walk, the person who was supposed to film the walk did not do so, apparently due to exhaustion from pulling the heavy cable tight after some of it had fallen, creating slack while the rigging was being set up.[9]
The extensive news coverage and public appreciation of Petit's high-wire walk resulted in all formal charges relating to his walk being dropped[10] in exchange for what was supposed to be a free show of juggling for a few children in Central Park. Instead, he transformed it into another high-wire walk, in the Park above Belvedere Lake (which has now become Turtle Pond). Petit was also presented with a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' Observation Deck by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He autographed a steel beam close to the point where he began his walk.
Petit's high-wire walk is credited with bringing the then rather unpopular Twin Towers much needed attention and even affection.[11][12] Up to that point, critics such as historian Lewis Mumford had regarded them as ugly and utilitarian. The landlords were having trouble renting out all of their office space.[11]
Sandi Sissel filmed the original act and released it as the cinema verité documentary, High Wire (1984), with music derived from Philip Glass's Glassworks.
The documentary film Man on Wire by UK director James Marsh, about Petit's 1974 WTC performance, won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. The film also won awards at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Petit was on stage to help accept the award, making a coin vanish in his hands while thanking the Academy "for believing in magic" and then balanced the Oscar by its head on his chin to cheers from the audience.[13]
Petit has made dozens of public high-wire performances in his career; in 1986 he re-enacted the crossing of the Niagara River by Blondin for an Imax film. In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, mayor Jacques Chirac invited him to walk a wire strung from the ground, at the Place du Trocadéro, to the second level of the Eiffel Tower.
Petit briefly headlined with the Ringling Brothers' Circus, but circus life did not agree with him. It was during his stint with the circus that he suffered his only fall, from 45 feet (≈ 14 meters) during a practice walk, breaking several ribs. He says he has never fallen during a performance. "If I had, I wouldn't be here."[14]
Petit regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally on a variety of topics and subjects. He single-handedly built a barn in the Catskill Mountains using the methods and tools of the 18th-century timber framers; and currently, he is working on his eighth book, A Square Peg.
Among his friends who have associated themselves with some of his projects are such diverse artists as: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Werner Herzog, Annie Liebovitz, Milos Forman, Volker Schlöndorff, Twyla Tharp, Peter Beard, Marcel Marceau, Paul Auster, Paul Winter, Debra Winger, Robin Williams and Sting.
Petit has been presented with the James Park Morton Interfaith Award, the Streb Action Maverick Award, The Byrdcliff Award, is the recipient of the New York Historical Society Award and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Petit shares his time between New York City where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and a hideaway in the Catskills.
| Year | Walk | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Vallauris | Vallauris, Alpes-Maritimes, France | performance for artist Pablo Picasso's 90th birthday |
| Notre Dame Cathedral | Notre Dame Cathedral Paris, France |
||
| 1973 | Sydney Harbour Bridge | Sydney Harbour Bridge Sydney, Australia |
|
| 1974 | World Trade Center | World Trade Center New York City, New York, United States |
|
| Central Park | Central Park New York City, New York, United States |
inclined walk over Belvedere Lake | |
| Laon Cathedral | Laon Cathedral Laon, Picardy, France |
crossing between the cathedral's two spires for an international television special | |
| 1975 | Louisiana Superdome | Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
walk for the opening of the stadium |
| 1982 | Cathedral of Saint John the Divine | Cathedral of Saint John the Divine New York City, New York, United States |
walk celebrating renewal of the cathedral's construction following a forty-year hiatus |
| Concert in the Sky | Denver, Colorado, United States | high-wire play directed and produced by Petit for the opening of the World Theatre Festival | |
| 1983 | Skysong | New York, United States | high-wire play directed and produced by Petit for the opening of the State University of New York Arts Festival |
| Centre Georges Pompidou | Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, France |
||
| 1984 | Corde Raide-Piano Volant | Paris, France | high-wire play directed and produced by Petit with pop-music singer-songwriter Jacques Higelin |
| Paris Opera | Paris Opera Paris, France |
high-wire improvisation with opera singer Margherita Zimmermann | |
| Museum of the City of New York | Museum of the City of New York New York City, New York, United States |
high-wire performance for the opening of the museum's "Daring New York" exhibit | |
| 1986 | Ascent | Cathedral of Saint John the Divine New York City, New York, United States |
concert for grand piano and high wire on an inclined cable over the nave of the cathedral |
| Lincoln Center | Lincoln Center New York City, New York, United States |
high-wire performance for the reopening of the Statue of Liberty | |
| 1987 | Walking the Harp/A Bridge for Peace | Jerusalem, Israel | high-wire performance on an inclined cable linking the Jewish and Arab quarters for opening of Israel Festival under the auspices of Jerusalemite Mayor Teddy Kollek |
| Moondancer | Portland Center for the Performing Arts Portland, Oregon, United States |
high-wire opera for the opening of the center | |
| Grand Central Dances | Grand Central Terminal New York City, New York, United States |
high-wire choreography above the concourse of the terminal | |
| 1988 | House of the Dead | Paris, France | creation of the role of the eagle in a production of From the House of the Dead (1930), an opera by Leoš Janáček directed by Volker Schlöndorff |
| 1989 | Tour et Fil | Paris, France | spectacular walk – for an audience of 250,000 – on an inclined 700-metre (2,300-foot) cable linking the Palais de Chaillot with the second story of the Eiffel Tower commemorating the French Bicentennial and the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen under the auspices of Parisian Mayor Jacques Chirac |
| 1990 | American Overture | American Center Paris, France |
high-wire play for the ground-breaking ceremony of the center |
| Tokyo Walk | Tokyo, Japan | Japan's first high-wire performance to celebrate the opening of the Plaza Mikado building in Tokyo's Akasaka district[15][16] | |
| 1991 | Viennalewalk | Vienna, Austria | high-wire performance evoking the history of cinema for the opening of the Vienna International Film Festival under the direction of film director Werner Herzog |
| 1992 | Namur | Namur, Belgium | inclined walk to the Citadel of Vauban for a telethon benefiting children with leukemia |
| Farinet Funambule! | Switzerland | high-wire walk portraying the 19th-century Robin Hood of the Alps culminated by the harvest of the world's-smallest registered vineyard to benefit abused children | |
| The Monk's Secret Longing | Cathedral of Saint John the Divine New York City, New York, United States |
high-wire performance for the Regents' Dinner commencing the centennial celebrations of the cathedral | |
| 1994 | Historischer Hochseillauf | Frankfurt, Germany | historic high-wire walk on an inclined cable to celebrate the city's 1,200th anniversary, viewed by 500,000 spectators and the subject of a live, nationally broadcast television special |
| 1995 | Catenary Curve | New York City, New York, United States | humorous interlude during a conference on suspended structures given by the architect Santiago Calatrava |
| 1996 | ACT | New York City, New York, United States | medieval performance to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a New York City youth program |
| Crescendo | Cathedral of Saint John the Divine New York City, New York, United States |
theatrical, allegorical New Year's Eve performance on three different wires set in the nave of the cathedral as the farewell tribute to The Very Reverend James Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral, and his wife Pamela | |
| 1999 | Millennium Countdown Walk | Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History New York City, New York, United States |
Inauguration of the center |
| 2002 | Arts on the High Wire | Hammerstein Ballroom New York City, New York, United States |
benefit performance for the New York Arts Recovery Fund on an inclined wire, with clown Bill Irwin and pianist Evelyne Crochet |
| Crystal Palace | Jacob K. Javits Convention Center New York City, New York, United States |
||
| Crossing Broadway | New York City, New York, United States | inclined walk, fourteen stories high, for the television talk show The Late Show with David Letterman (since 1993) |
| Year | Film | Location | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Concert in the Sky | Denver | Centre Productions, Inc., directed by Mark Elliot | |
| 1984 | High Wire | New York | Prairie Dog Productions, directed by Sandi Sissel | |
| 1986 | Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic | Canada | Blondin | Seventh Man Films for the IMAX System, directed by Kieth Merrill |
| 1989 | Tour et Fil | France | FR3/Totem Productions, directed by Alain Hattet | |
| 1991 | Filmstunde | Austria | Werner Herzog Productions, directed by Werner Herzog | |
| 1993 | Profile of Philippe Petit | Washington, D.C. | National Geographic Explorer Special | |
| 1994 | The Man on the Wire | Germany | Documentary of the rigging and artistic preparations for Hisorischer Hochseillauf, Hessischer Rundfunk Television | |
| 1994 | Historischer Hochseillauf | Germany | Live broadcast of the walk, Hessischer Rundfunk Television, directed by Sacha Arnz | |
| 1995 | Mondo | France | Costa Gavras Productions, directed by Tony Gatlif | |
| 1995 | Secrets of Lost Empires: The Incas | Peru | PBS/NOVA and BBC co-production, directed by Michael Barnes | |
| 2003 | The Center of the World of New York City: A Documentary Film, Episode 8: People & Events: Philippe Petit (1948-) | New York City | PBS | |
| 2005 | The Man Who Walked Between the Towers | USA | Michael Sporn Animation and Weston Woods Studios | |
| 2008 | Man on Wire | UK | Wall to Wall/Red Box Films, directed by James Marsh, Academy Award winning documentary |