Think about the narrative style in Man on Wire. Discuss this style of narrative in terms of its genre, the documentary. Choose a scene and cinematically describe how director James Marsh heightens suspense. Write a minimum of 2 paragraphs.
The narrative style in Man on Wire has elements common to the documentary film genre and elements that are not. The voice-over narration from several different perspectives—the talking heads technique—is one such element the film uses that is often attributed to documentaries. The main character could be said to be Philippe Petit, but his support crew were as much the central focus of his story as he was. The structure of the narrative was more unusual, flipping between the main event and all the events that led up to it. In the previous two documentaries, they stayed mostly within their own timeframe, but in this film the content went way back in time to some of Petit’s earliest memories and tightrope walks. This definitely made Man on Wire a much more stylized documentary than others.
In the scene where the crew is trying to set the wire up at the tops of the buildings, James Marsh utilizes several techniques in order to heighten the suspense. First of all, he uses reenactments to throw the viewers into the scene that Philippe Petit and the others describe. This helps the audience connect with the shadowy younger versions of the crew and feel their worry as the guards in both buildings pace back and forth, so anxiously near their hiding spots. Combined with black-and-white images and plenty of chiaroscuro, this makes for a classic film noir mise-en-scène. Marsh even makes playful use of the music often found in horror or detective movies, the plodding, creeping music that slowly builds up in pitch and volume in order to create the suspense he desires.
Man on Wire sets itself apart from the traditional documentary film. Documentaries tend to be more plain and straightforward but Man on Wire is heavily stylized. This film is special because it intercuts between interviews of Philippe Petit and his team and reenactments of the event being documented. The reenactments make this film feelmore like a non-fictional heist film than a documentary.
In this film, there is a scene where Philippe and Jean have to hide form a security guard that they heard. James Marsh uses numerous techniques in this scene to heighten suspense. First of all, this scene opens with a wide dolly into the tarp that they were hiding under. Marsh chooses to use Hitchcock’s push-pull effect in this shot to open the scene with a feeling of isolation or being singled out. Ominous music and sound design is used in this scene to heighten tension and the foley in this scene is heavily emphasized as it stands out. All the sound effects have an echo that adds to the ominous feeling within the scene. High-key lighting gives the scene a heavy, dramatic feel and slow camera movements help the viewer to feel more anxious. In this scene, intercutting is also used to create suspense. The interview footage helps us to empathize with the two’s tense feelings in this situation. Also, when Jean and Philippe are making their way up the stairs, Marsh intercuts between the two upstairs and the shadow of a security guard walking up the stairs. This makes the audience feel suspense as we know that they will eventually encounter the guard, yet we are unsure of what is going to happen.
What I find most interesting in the way "Man on Wire" presents its narrative is the way it deviates from the preestablished expectations of documentaries as a genre, more or less. Even as the last two documentaries, "Grizzly Man" and "Harlan County, USA" had their own narrative and thematic structures, they remained largely subdued or lateral to the works itself. Much of their narratives were placed either in the editing, or from Werner Herzog inserting himself as a character in his own work. "Man on Wire", on the other hand, presents itself almost as a heist movie. The recreated scenes and animated, almost caricatured interviews with the real people turn the documentary into an almost more straight forward action film, albeit with post interviews driving the actual story.
Consider the scene wherein the police finally arrive to the roof of the tower to see Philippe on the wire. The moment comes as a jolt to the audience; the scene prior was calm and serene as the interviewees describe, tearfully, the pure sublime image of Philippe dancing and moving joyfully on the wire so high above. And then, in one second within the same image, the camera pans from Philippse lying serenely on the rope to the cops out of frame. Their emergence in the scene and in the actual event is such a pivot, including the immediate change from calm piano to heavy, striking strings, gripping the audience from their earlier peace. The interviews here are also given more prominence; less time is allowed for the audience to take in what they see as the previous scene allowed, bringing back the high tension of the moment. Even as we know Philippe does eventually willingly leave the tightrope, the suspense of the moment as each interview describes the moment from their own perspective, and the shock and surreality and even rage of it, creates the kind of tension akin to an action movie.
Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh, is a documentary intertwined with a film noir, making use of much more stylized elements than your typical nonfiction film. There are many clips of reenactments of the Twin Towers “mission” alongside interviews and old footage of Petit and his crew. Numerous documentary filmmakers include some sort of reenactment to provide information in a visually stimulating manner, but usually, they don’t do so to the extent in which James Marsh does. These reenactments take a more cinematic turn, incorporating the properties of noir filmmaking, such as the use of low-key lighting and heavy shadows.
The reenactment of the boys entering the North Tower is the first major glimpse of heavily stylized cinematography within the film. The opening shot is a bird’s eye view of the staircases going up towards the top of the tower. It is quite disorienting to see the ascending staircases in alignment with one another, which creates increased tension to go along with the already suspenseful storyline. The camera then pans down and moves backwards, flowing into the following shot, which is of the boys’ sharp shadows moving against a blank wall. The peaked, moving profiles are mysterious, for the actual appearances of their faces remains masked. This technique has been used in film noir multitudinous times for the purpose of secrecy specifically. These cinematic methods are what set Man on Wire’s narrative apart from those of other documentaries. The use of stylized cinematography is able to enhance the mysterious and exciting tones of Philippe Petit’s high-wire marvel.
James Marsh’s Man on Wire is a documentary that deviates from the typical narrative style of its genre. Although the film does utilize elements commonly found in documentaries, such as interviews of the subject, Philippe Petit, and voiceover narration during some of the footage, Man on Wire often feels more like a film noir than anything else. I think that the film achieves this effect primarily due to the reenactments of the planning stage of Petit’s famous walk between the twin towers. The reenactments are filmed in black and white, with heavy use of shadows and chiaroscuro to heighten the suspense of the scene. This style of low key lighting is often used in the film noir genre to enhance the dramatic tension of the narrative. During one scene, Philippe Petit describes the moment that inspired him to stage his tightrope walk between the twin towers. The scene begins with color footage of New York City in the early 1970s, at the time when the twin towers were built. It then cuts suddenly to a black and white reenactment of Petit in the waiting room of a dentist office. All of the shots are filmed with a steadicam, which slowly build suspense as it moves around the room before settling on a close-up of the newspaper that Petit is holding. This shot is very important to the scene, because the newspaper displays a sketch of the soon-to-be-built twin towers. Next, we see a short sequence of close-up shots of Petit drawing a line between the two towers in the picture, ripping the page out of the newspaper, and abruptly grabbing his hat. The fast-paced editing of this sequence suggests the initiation of Petit’s plans to the audience. This scene, along with other reenactments, build up anticipation until the footage of the actual walk between the towers. After the stylized, dramatic reenactments, the scene of Petit walking between the twin towers feels strangely calming and serene. Although it may seem nerve-wracking to see someone walking on a tightrope a thousand feet above the ground, it was almost a relief to watch after the dramatic build-up to the scene.
Man on a Wire is almost like a mockumentary in how it balances elements of documentaries with stylized techniques. The film switches between Philippe Petit and recreations and pictures of the event with voiceovers overlaying the shot. The syilized mixture of past and present adds suspense and interest to the point the film no longer feels like a documentary.
The effects of past and present are very clear in the twin towers scene. Marsh heightens suspense by teasing the audience with little pieces of what they want to see. At the start of the scene we start in the present, the interviewees setting up the stakes of what happened. Soon a closeup of Petit on the wire is shown, giving the audience a taste of the heights the man went to as he recounts how very close death was that day. It is unclear from the pictures what happens to him across the two buildings, leaving the audience wondering. From there Marsh adds quick shots of Petit between the two buildings while cutting back and forth between interviews. The images of Petit are no longer closeup and clear, instead from all the way on the ground, or a similarly vague position. We hear how Petit heard the crowd and saw what no one else has seen and as the scene moves forwards the shots get quicker but closer with more clarity. This gives the viewer the sense we are being led up to something, building suspense as each voiceover and image becomes more and more exciting.
Although Man on Wire consists of elements found in documentaries, some might say that it deviates from the orthodox nature of most documentaries. It does indeed incorporate documentary elements such as voice-over narration and interviews of the subjects involved in the narrative, however, the way the film is executed is far more stylized. It simultaneously consists of external elements that create a sort of heist-like nature of the narrative. As the film includes reenactments of the project and the continuous flipping between the past and the present subdues the more classic documentaries we have watched previously. Albeit, each documentary was a little different in its own right, it was no where near the stylistic depth of Man on Wire.
In the scene where Philippe and Jean are secretly working on the project overnight and a security guard comes through to check, James Marsh utilizes different cinematic techniques to heighten the viewer's suspense. Instead of having the subjects simply retell the story, it is actually reenacted to resemble how it went down. By doing this, the viewer is able to connect more emotionally which then creates more suspense as they can physically feel as if they are witnessing the subjects almost getting caught by a security guard. On top of that, the shots are also in black and white which add on to the mysteriousness of the security guard and the question of whether or not they all get caught.
James Marsh's "Man on Wire" presents a unique spin on the traditional documentary. While there are plenty of typical "talking head" scenes, also included in the film are reenactments of events in Philippe Petit's conquest to walk between the Twin Towers on a tightrope. This makes the film more so like a traditional film as opposed to other documentaries. Most other documentaries rely solely on primary source footage, voice-over narration, "talking head" style interviews, or any combination of these; however, adding in the element of reenactment deviates from these norms to create the effect of the audience being in the action. This has both benefits and hindrances.
One scene in the film depicts the emotional and physical risks of Petit's rope-walking. The scene begins with Petit and his partner discussing these risks, and Petit's insistence on following through with his goals. Petit, at one point even says "If I were to die, what a beautiful death". These clips are then juxtaposed with footage of Petit doing rope work in Sydney, Australia. The only sound the audience experiences during this is some non-diegetic music being played in the background. The lack of any sort of dialogue is almost haunting, and conveys the serious nature of a potential failure on Petit's part.
James Marsh’s film, “Man on Wire”, was a very interesting in that it didn’t really look like a typical documentary, it had a bit of an creative flair to it. While still having the typical aspects of a documentary, like voice overs and interviews, it also included things to make sure that the audience was sucked in.
Marsh uses a lot of the shots and the background music to really heighten the suspense. Especially with the black and white reenactments, it’s almost as if it’s a flashback and the audience is here for the ride while the actual people who were part of Philippe Petit’s crew were narrating the whole thing. Also while this is happening the music follows along really well with it, because you can hear sort of horror movie-esqe sounds to enhance the effect on the audience.
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ReplyDeleteThe narrative style in Man on Wire has elements common to the documentary film genre and elements that are not. The voice-over narration from several different perspectives—the talking heads technique—is one such element the film uses that is often attributed to documentaries. The main character could be said to be Philippe Petit, but his support crew were as much the central focus of his story as he was. The structure of the narrative was more unusual, flipping between the main event and all the events that led up to it. In the previous two documentaries, they stayed mostly within their own timeframe, but in this film the content went way back in time to some of Petit’s earliest memories and tightrope walks. This definitely made Man on Wire a much more stylized documentary than others.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene where the crew is trying to set the wire up at the tops of the buildings, James Marsh utilizes several techniques in order to heighten the suspense. First of all, he uses reenactments to throw the viewers into the scene that Philippe Petit and the others describe. This helps the audience connect with the shadowy younger versions of the crew and feel their worry as the guards in both buildings pace back and forth, so anxiously near their hiding spots. Combined with black-and-white images and plenty of chiaroscuro, this makes for a classic film noir mise-en-scène. Marsh even makes playful use of the music often found in horror or detective movies, the plodding, creeping music that slowly builds up in pitch and volume in order to create the suspense he desires.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMan on Wire sets itself apart from the traditional documentary film. Documentaries tend to be more plain and straightforward but Man on Wire is heavily stylized. This film is special because it intercuts between interviews of Philippe Petit and his team and reenactments of the event being documented. The reenactments make this film feelmore like a non-fictional heist film than a documentary.
ReplyDeleteIn this film, there is a scene where Philippe and Jean have to hide form a security guard that they heard. James Marsh uses numerous techniques in this scene to heighten suspense. First of all, this scene opens with a wide dolly into the tarp that they were hiding under. Marsh chooses to use Hitchcock’s push-pull effect in this shot to open the scene with a feeling of isolation or being singled out. Ominous music and sound design is used in this scene to heighten tension and the foley in this scene is heavily emphasized as it stands out. All the sound effects have an echo that adds to the ominous feeling within the scene. High-key lighting gives the scene a heavy, dramatic feel and slow camera movements help the viewer to feel more anxious. In this scene, intercutting is also used to create suspense. The interview footage helps us to empathize with the two’s tense feelings in this situation. Also, when Jean and Philippe are making their way up the stairs, Marsh intercuts between the two upstairs and the shadow of a security guard walking up the stairs. This makes the audience feel suspense as we know that they will eventually encounter the guard, yet we are unsure of what is going to happen.
What I find most interesting in the way "Man on Wire" presents its narrative is the way it deviates from the preestablished expectations of documentaries as a genre, more or less. Even as the last two documentaries, "Grizzly Man" and "Harlan County, USA" had their own narrative and thematic structures, they remained largely subdued or lateral to the works itself. Much of their narratives were placed either in the editing, or from Werner Herzog inserting himself as a character in his own work. "Man on Wire", on the other hand, presents itself almost as a heist movie. The recreated scenes and animated, almost caricatured interviews with the real people turn the documentary into an almost more straight forward action film, albeit with post interviews driving the actual story.
ReplyDeleteConsider the scene wherein the police finally arrive to the roof of the tower to see Philippe on the wire. The moment comes as a jolt to the audience; the scene prior was calm and serene as the interviewees describe, tearfully, the pure sublime image of Philippe dancing and moving joyfully on the wire so high above. And then, in one second within the same image, the camera pans from Philippse lying serenely on the rope to the cops out of frame. Their emergence in the scene and in the actual event is such a pivot, including the immediate change from calm piano to heavy, striking strings, gripping the audience from their earlier peace. The interviews here are also given more prominence; less time is allowed for the audience to take in what they see as the previous scene allowed, bringing back the high tension of the moment. Even as we know Philippe does eventually willingly leave the tightrope, the suspense of the moment as each interview describes the moment from their own perspective, and the shock and surreality and even rage of it, creates the kind of tension akin to an action movie.
Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh, is a documentary intertwined with a film noir, making use of much more stylized elements than your typical nonfiction film. There are many clips of reenactments of the Twin Towers “mission” alongside interviews and old footage of Petit and his crew. Numerous documentary filmmakers include some sort of reenactment to provide information in a visually stimulating manner, but usually, they don’t do so to the extent in which James Marsh does. These reenactments take a more cinematic turn, incorporating the properties of noir filmmaking, such as the use of low-key lighting and heavy shadows.
ReplyDeleteThe reenactment of the boys entering the North Tower is the first major glimpse of heavily stylized cinematography within the film. The opening shot is a bird’s eye view of the staircases going up towards the top of the tower. It is quite disorienting to see the ascending staircases in alignment with one another, which creates increased tension to go along with the already suspenseful storyline. The camera then pans down and moves backwards, flowing into the following shot, which is of the boys’ sharp shadows moving against a blank wall. The peaked, moving profiles are mysterious, for the actual appearances of their faces remains masked. This technique has been used in film noir multitudinous times for the purpose of secrecy specifically. These cinematic methods are what set Man on Wire’s narrative apart from those of other documentaries. The use of stylized cinematography is able to enhance the mysterious and exciting tones of Philippe Petit’s high-wire marvel.
James Marsh’s Man on Wire is a documentary that deviates from the typical narrative style of its genre. Although the film does utilize elements commonly found in documentaries, such as interviews of the subject, Philippe Petit, and voiceover narration during some of the footage, Man on Wire often feels more like a film noir than anything else. I think that the film achieves this effect primarily due to the reenactments of the planning stage of Petit’s famous walk between the twin towers. The reenactments are filmed in black and white, with heavy use of shadows and chiaroscuro to heighten the suspense of the scene. This style of low key lighting is often used in the film noir genre to enhance the dramatic tension of the narrative.
ReplyDeleteDuring one scene, Philippe Petit describes the moment that inspired him to stage his tightrope walk between the twin towers. The scene begins with color footage of New York City in the early 1970s, at the time when the twin towers were built. It then cuts suddenly to a black and white reenactment of Petit in the waiting room of a dentist office. All of the shots are filmed with a steadicam, which slowly build suspense as it moves around the room before settling on a close-up of the newspaper that Petit is holding. This shot is very important to the scene, because the newspaper displays a sketch of the soon-to-be-built twin towers. Next, we see a short sequence of close-up shots of Petit drawing a line between the two towers in the picture, ripping the page out of the newspaper, and abruptly grabbing his hat. The fast-paced editing of this sequence suggests the initiation of Petit’s plans to the audience. This scene, along with other reenactments, build up anticipation until the footage of the actual walk between the towers. After the stylized, dramatic reenactments, the scene of Petit walking between the twin towers feels strangely calming and serene. Although it may seem nerve-wracking to see someone walking on a tightrope a thousand feet above the ground, it was almost a relief to watch after the dramatic build-up to the scene.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMan on a Wire is almost like a mockumentary in how it balances elements of documentaries with stylized techniques. The film switches between Philippe Petit and recreations and pictures of the event with voiceovers overlaying the shot. The syilized mixture of past and present adds suspense and interest to the point the film no longer feels like a documentary.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of past and present are very clear in the twin towers scene. Marsh heightens suspense by teasing the audience with little pieces of what they want to see. At the start of the scene we start in the present, the interviewees setting up the stakes of what happened. Soon a closeup of Petit on the wire is shown, giving the audience a taste of the heights the man went to as he recounts how very close death was that day. It is unclear from the pictures what happens to him across the two buildings, leaving the audience wondering. From there Marsh adds quick shots of Petit between the two buildings while cutting back and forth between interviews. The images of Petit are no longer closeup and clear, instead from all the way on the ground, or a similarly vague position. We hear how Petit heard the crowd and saw what no one else has seen and as the scene moves forwards the shots get quicker but closer with more clarity. This gives the viewer the sense we are being led up to something, building suspense as each voiceover and image becomes more and more exciting.
Although Man on Wire consists of elements found in documentaries, some might say that it deviates from the orthodox nature of most documentaries. It does indeed incorporate documentary elements such as voice-over narration and interviews of the subjects involved in the narrative, however, the way the film is executed is far more stylized. It simultaneously consists of external elements that create a sort of heist-like nature of the narrative. As the film includes reenactments of the project and the continuous flipping between the past and the present subdues the more classic documentaries we have watched previously. Albeit, each documentary was a little different in its own right, it was no where near the stylistic depth of Man on Wire.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene where Philippe and Jean are secretly working on the project overnight and a security guard comes through to check, James Marsh utilizes different cinematic techniques to heighten the viewer's suspense. Instead of having the subjects simply retell the story, it is actually reenacted to resemble how it went down. By doing this, the viewer is able to connect more emotionally which then creates more suspense as they can physically feel as if they are witnessing the subjects almost getting caught by a security guard. On top of that, the shots are also in black and white which add on to the mysteriousness of the security guard and the question of whether or not they all get caught.
James Marsh's "Man on Wire" presents a unique spin on the traditional documentary. While there are plenty of typical "talking head" scenes, also included in the film are reenactments of events in Philippe Petit's conquest to walk between the Twin Towers on a tightrope. This makes the film more so like a traditional film as opposed to other documentaries. Most other documentaries rely solely on primary source footage, voice-over narration, "talking head" style interviews, or any combination of these; however, adding in the element of reenactment deviates from these norms to create the effect of the audience being in the action. This has both benefits and hindrances.
ReplyDeleteOne scene in the film depicts the emotional and physical risks of Petit's rope-walking. The scene begins with Petit and his partner discussing these risks, and Petit's insistence on following through with his goals. Petit, at one point even says "If I were to die, what a beautiful death". These clips are then juxtaposed with footage of Petit doing rope work in Sydney, Australia. The only sound the audience experiences during this is some non-diegetic music being played in the background. The lack of any sort of dialogue is almost haunting, and conveys the serious nature of a potential failure on Petit's part.
James Marsh’s film, “Man on Wire”, was a very interesting in that it didn’t really look like a typical documentary, it had a bit of an creative flair to it. While still having the typical aspects of a documentary, like voice overs and interviews, it also included things to make sure that the audience was sucked in.
ReplyDeleteMarsh uses a lot of the shots and the background music to really heighten the suspense. Especially with the black and white reenactments, it’s almost as if it’s a flashback and the audience is here for the ride while the actual people who were part of Philippe Petit’s crew were narrating the whole thing. Also while this is happening the music follows along really well with it, because you can hear sort of horror movie-esqe sounds to enhance the effect on the audience.