The Final Act: RIP Marcel Marceau
September 25th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
Marcel Marceau, the maestro of mime died last week. He was 84. The IHT has a report here and here is the NY Times report. Salon has an extensive article about Marceau — the man and the mine — in their Brilliant Careers section.
Best known for creating the character Bip with his white face, striped shirt and carnation-topped hat, Marceau conveyed more through his silences than others could hope to in words. Traveling the world to spread his L’art du Silence (The Art of Silence), Marceau drew on human experiences and emotions and his shows relied on universal notions rather than regional particularities. According to IHT:
Marceau, who could be quite chatty in interviews, once said of his pantomime: “Mostly I think of human situations for my work, not local mannerisms. There is no French way of laughing and no American way of crying. My subjects try to reveal the fundamental essences of humanity.”
In this he had much in common with his greatest inspiration, Charlie Chaplin. A holocaust survivor whose father died in Auschwitz, Marceau’s silences were informed with all that the human heart can hold, suffer and bear. From the Times obituary:
Like the characters of Chaplin and Dickens, Bip was a small figure in an enormous world that was simultaneously wonderful and terrifying. Made by society to feel inferior, Bip is driven to rebellion. He reflects the radical views of his creator, as well as his ultimate optimism. “We know that the fighting spirit of man is everlasting,” Marceau explained. “Death is absurd, but humanity has to be eternal.”
Marceau is largely credited with reviving the mime form. He was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Officer of the Ordre Nationale du Mérite, and a Commander of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. He won the Deburau Prize for Death Before Dawn, and two Emmy Awards for his television productions.
But he leaves behind an uncertain legacy. As he himself once pointed out: if the man and the art form were one, when the man died, the art form would die with him. One can only hope that this will not be the case.
Mime has long been a lesser cousin of the arts world in western culture, probably because there are so many cheap hucksters looking to make a quick buck with plastered faces and exaggerated gestures. True mime involves restraint and creativity — a fact that many are not aware of. In Asian cultures, mime enjoys more respect and prominence with Kathakali in India and Noh in Japan heavily depending on mime (in combination with music or dance) to convey elaborate stories or messages. In western societies, there are some who are trying to infuse fresh life into the form but popular perceptions often range from skepticism to ridicule. This slightly older article in New Statesman talks about where mime stands today and here is a brief history of mime as an art form in western cultures.