Jason Goldberg '14 urges you to see indie darling Beasts of the Southern Wild, a magical film set to make a mark at this year's Oscars and on overall cinema history.

Americans know Philippe Petit as the man who bridged the Twin Towers on a high wire in 1974. But “le coup,” as Petit calls the event, marks only one chapter in a lifetime of performance, expression and mystery. In anticipation of his lecture today, at 5:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium, the Sun spoke with Petit, who explained the intentions of his work and imagined walking a tightrope across Ithaca’s gorges.

Has there been a screen icon in the past 20 years who can convey a mix of sophistication, eccentricity and penetrating intelligence quite like John Malkovich? During his career, he’s played evertyhing from psychos (In the Line of Fire, Con Air) to heroes (The Man in the Iron Mask) to god-kings (Eragon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) to odds and ends (Of Mice and Men, Burn After Reading, Disgrace). In fact, he’s the only actor to come to mind who is so delightfully willing to parody himself that he participated in a genre-bending comedy about space-time where people traveled down an office corridor through his body into a ditch by the Jersey Turnpike (Being John Malkovich). Yet, somehow, he’s always playing himself.

Not too far from the Hogwarts-style dining hall, a different kind of magic was stirring in the halls of Risley. This past weekend, the Risley Theater hosted three performances of “An Evening of Wonder,” a mind reading and magic show presented by Risley’s own stage wizard and psychological illusionist extraordinaire, Jon Tai ’11. And as its name suggests, the show was nothing short of wonderful.