Top

film

Stories

 

The Fascinating Everyday Lives of the Flying Wallendas Explored in The Show Must Go On

Comments (0) By Alan Scherstuhl Wednesday, Feb 20 2013
TFA
The Show Must Go On

Details

The Show Must Go On
Directed by Paula Froehle
Screens Friday, February 22
The Morgan Library & Museum

Related Content

More About

The worst happens some ten minutes in to The Show Must Go On, an engaging, low-key doc on The Flying Wallendas, the wire-walking circus family that has been defying gravity with exquisite balance foe eight generations now. Their signature feat, created by now-gone patriarch Karl Wallenda, is a seven-person tightrope pyramid that stacks Wallenda atop a pole atop other Wallendas also atop poles atop a base of Wallendas walking the wire. It's thrilling, a feat of daring and coordination and last-century discipline. It looks so difficult that viewers might not be surprise to learn that it collapsed, once, in Detroit in 1962, sending Wallendas to the dusty circus ring below—and killing two. (This is glimpsed here in a series of upsetting stills.) But Wallendas gotta fly, and Karl must have given a speech for the ages, because here they are, 50 years and several generations later, still pyramiding across wires without a net. "We may as well just do it five feet off the ground if we're going to use a net," scoffs Tino, a sixth generation performer and the current Wallenda leader. The move, running just an hour, follows Tino and family on a short tour of fairs; despite occasional runs with the Big Apple Circus, life for these likable, normal-seeming folks isn't what it was for their predecessors. What drama there is here concerns the breaking-in of a non-Wallenda wire-walker, one whose nerves could send the pyramid crashing. Also, Tino suffers a crisis of confidence: "I feel like Superman one show, Tinkerbell the next," he says. But then he thinks about the grace that matters as much to the act as strength and adds, "Actually, Tinkerbell would be pretty good." Director Paula Froehle makes these high-stakes lives seem amusingly ordinary but no less fascinating.

Related Content

Check out this week's featured ad for Restaurants
More Ads >>
 
My Voice Nation Help
1 comments
  Livefyre
Sort: Newest | Oldest
scohen3725
scohen3725

This is a great documentary! Well worth seeing and there is a special screening of it on Friday, Feb 22d at 7:00PM at the Morgan Library on 36th St. The fimmaker will be there as well. 

 
VOICE Daily Deals

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places

Slideshows

Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more!


Box Office

  1. Star Trek Into Darkness, 70.2 mil, 83.7 mil
  2. Iron Man 3, 35.8 mil, 337.7 mil
  3. The Great Gatsby, 23.9 mil, 90.7 mil
  4. Pain & Gain, 3.2 mil, 46.7 mil
  5. The Croods, 3.0 mil, 177.0 mil
  6. 42, 2.8 mil, 88.8 mil
  7. Oblivion, 2.3 mil, 85.6 mil
  8. Mud, 2.2 mil, 11.7 mil
  9. Peeples, 2.2 mil, 7.9 mil
  10. The Big Wedding, 1.2 mil, 20.3 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

More News Stories >
©2013 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places New York

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city