Tarto in Japan

The scene takes place 35 years ago, on August 7th 1974 in New York...The day before, a small group of men illegally entered one of the world's most prestigious business centers, the World Trade Center, with an insane project in mind.

After a long night at the top running against the clock, everything is finally ready. Soon, one of them is going to walk on a cable strung between the Twin Towers, without a net, 1350 feet above the ground...His name is Philippe Petit.

This extraordinary adventure was recently put to screen as a "documentary", winning several awards in many festivals around the world, notably the Oscar for Best Documentary.

You can find more details about the synopsis at www.magpictures.com or www.walltowall.co.uk for instance.

But if Philippe Petit is a talented artist, he doesn't have much skill in organization and it is his best friend, a professional photographer, who will carefully plan all the details...It is also him who, after seven hours of a continous and desperate fight against time, will eventually succeed in securing the cable, saving the coup from a seemingly certain failure.

Even though the movie is presented as a "documentary", it is not faithful to the actual events, the narrator alters the facts and takes liberties with truth. I'm working on a website that will bring another perspective and shed some light on the pending questions. I will post another message when it is online, but right now you're probably wondering how I know those details and how that story is related to Japan...

Well for once, this post has nothing to do with Japan whatsoever. If I'm writing about it, it's because the wire walker is my godfather and the photographer's name is Jean Louis Blondeau...

...He's my father.

In the meantime, please check out www.jlblondeau.com. The first collection, "Precarious moments", traces the years of complicity between the high wire artist and his best friend, with nice pictures and texts, notably about their first clandestine coup in 1971 at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris:

Gentlemen, please have a look at it before you rush to the "Nudes" collection!...

Here are some other links:

Vanity Fair article

New York Observer article

Post on "Tony blog"

Exhibition at the National Arts Club of New York

Of course, there are lots of videos available on youtube and dailymotion.