The Stranger

This magnificent documentary is about Philippe Petit, the charming, crazy French person who, in August of 1974, strung a cable between the two towers of the World Trade Center and walked and knelt and lay supine on his tightrope for 45 breathtaking minutes. Told through new interviews (Petit: "These twin towers are trotting in my head!"), archival footage, and elegant black-and-white reenactments, Man on Wire is 80 minutes of white-knuckled suspense followed by a surprisingly emotional climax. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.) by Annie Wagner

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It's actually called The Forty Part Motet (A Re-working of Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui 1573, by Thomas Tallis), and Canadian artist Janet Cardiff made it in 2001 by recording 40 amateur singers, both adults and kids, performing the 40-part composition. In the installation, one loudspeaker represents each singer. The 40 speakers stand in an oval in a soaring, 35-foot-tall gallery. Depending on where you stand, individual voices are buried in the group's great wash of sound, or the single, closest voice becomes all you can hear. It's sonic sociology. (Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave, 253-272-4258. 10 am–5 pm, $7.50.) by Jen Graves

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"They're so fucking delicate, people," one of Jack's new friends muses after the two of them save a young girl from a car crash. You can't help falling in love with Jack's big brown eyes, eager face, and his sincere stammer. Jack grew up in an English prison after being party to a hideous crime as a boy. He's been released but isn't remotely free. The suspense telescopes into the past and the future as we learn what he did and whether he can live a normal life. The last three minutes of Boy A are mawkish crap, but everything else is perfect. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.)

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The Alliance Française de Seattle is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading Frenchness throughout the region, and those socialist cheese-eaters have finally discovered the way to our hearts: comic books. Fantagraphics Books cofounder Kim Thompson talks about 20 artists who've made French comics among the best in the world, and the slide show is followed by a free reception to kick off a week of French comics-related goodness, including multiple appearances by genius memoirist and comics revolutionary David B. (Alliance Française de Seattle, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 632-5433. 7 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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Tintin is more than a comic about a boy reporter who travels the world to fight dictators, criminals, and bullies. It is also satire, anthropology, reportage (The Blue Lotus is an excellent primer on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria), and a pop-art fountainhead that influenced Lichtenstein and Warhol. Tintin et Moi, a 2003 documentary based on 14 hours of interviews with Tintin creator Hergé, discusses the artist's evolution from right-wing Catholic propagandist to secular humanist and defends Tintin as a definitive graphic record of the 20th century. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 267-5380. 7 and 9 pm, $8.50.) by Brendan Kiley

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