James Marsh does 'Wire' act

 

A chat with your resident Gold Rusher is the only thing standing between Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker James Marsh and his impossible-to-forget subject, the insanely talented and brazen tightrope walker Phillippe Petit.

"Since the film celebrates something he achieved, this recognition should be as much for him as for me," Marsh said from his home in Copenhagen today, shortly after learning he's among the contenders for the best documentary Oscar. "I'll have to call him as soon as I can."

Not so fast, friend. We were so thrilled to have Marsh on the phone that we made him our latest Q&A victim. (We're not completely heartless -- we only kept him for about a half hour!)

GR: Since Petit is such an exuberant presence, so over-the-top and expressive, was there ever a time during this project that you just wanted to tell him to put a sock in it?

JM: No! I really wanted him to go further. To have a documentary subject whose recollections are so visceral is just amazing. I really enjoyed having him re-enact some of the events for me. I encouraged it!

GR: Do you second-guess yourself on the decision not to include any references to 9/11 in the film?

JM: It was a defining choice for me to tell Phillippe's story in a very pure way. I was of course very aware of the subtext and I know what it brought to the film. But it was about the world we lived in then, the Twin Towers then. I don't regret not making an explicit reference to 9/11. I still feel it was the right choice.

GR: Did you see this as a straight documentary or were you trying to do a genre-bender?

JM: I wanted to make it like a feature, like a heist movie, to use dramatic reconstructions. The structure of the book gave me the idea, and then I opened it up for all these different points of view of the people involved. Whatever genre it's labeled doesn't matter to me.

Marsh, who has bounced back and forth between features and documentaries, is now at work on "Nineteen Eighty," a straight-up thriller about the Yorkshire Ripper that's headed for HBO and/or theatrical release. 

If you haven't seen the stunning "Man on Wire," do so immediately.