Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Those who have bothered to read the other 8 entries in this list instead of skipping to the top two will recall my sage aphorism: "Everyone loves a tiny French man."  This is proved true yet again, in the inspiring documentary that is Man On Wire.  Honestly, the protagonist's name is quite literally Phillipe Petit. 

When you mention this documentary to people they'll go oh yes that one that won the Oscars and stuff.  Yes indeed my pretties.  A documentary wins an Oscar every year but for some reason this is the one that people remember.  Man On Wire also won lots of other prizes elsewhere and is quite simply marvellous. 

It's essentially Ocean's Eleven for day-dreamers (because day-dreamers don't get Ocean's Eleven... everything happens really fast and then you're like, wait, what happened, it's happened already?  that happened?  where was I when that happened......???  And it's just all pretty baffling).  Well this almost-heist is simultaneously much more ridiculous and much more straight-forward in narrative than Oceans Eleven.  It's also real life.  What more could you want? 

And obviously, Philippe's tightrope-walking feat itself is hugely awe-inspiring.  All in all, very much worthy of my second-from-the-top spot. 

1.  Exit Through The Gift Shop

Ok, ok.  I actually genuinely only just realised that three of my top 10 documentaries feature tiny French men.  Clearly my obsession must run deeper than I'd realised.  This one has another in it.  I'd say this guy is the best French man of all time, perhaps.  Except Poirot.  OH.WAIT.NO.HE.WAS.BELGIAN. 

I don't wan't to spoil this doc by talking lots of gibberish about it and ruining the story.  I'm just going to tell you that it has BANKSY in it.  But it's not even about Banksy.  THAT right there, is proof of just how cool this film is.  That's right, this documentary is the epitome of cool.  Thierry Guetta (aka.  Mr. Brainwash) is the most amazing creature ever created by our absurd culture and his story makes amazingly entertaining viewing.  Trust me: watch it.  You'll enjoy.  I guarantee.