Marcel Marceau

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Marcel Marceau, 1977
Marcel Marceau, 1963

Marcel Marceau (born March 22, 1923 in Strasbourg , France , † September 22, 2007 in Cahors , actually Marcel Mangle ) was a French pantomime . He was familiar to the audience as "Bip", the tragicomic clown in a striped shirt with the white make-up face, the battered silk hat and the red flower .

Life

Marcel Marceau grew up in Strasbourg as the son of the Jewish butcher , prayer leader and singer Karl (Kalman) Mangel and Anna née. Werzberg on. Even during his youth he was noticed because he spoke little and preferred to express his impressions and ideas through facial expressions and gestures . The silent film stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton aroused his interest in the drama stage early on in order to make the "art of silence " (L'Art du Silence) his profession . Attending the drama school was initially impossible due to the Second World War .

When war broke out in 1940, his family had to flee. In 1942 Marcel and his brother Simon (Alain) joined a group of the French resistance movement in Limoges , which later became part of the resistance organization Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP). Here he had to forge passports. He also made an identity card for himself in the neutral name of Marceau and kept it as a souvenir after the war. From 1943 he helped smuggle Jewish children into Switzerland three times. Later he fought as a member of the French army against the German occupiers. Because of his good knowledge of English, he was a liaison officer to the 3rd US Army under General George S. Patton .

His father Charles was arrested by the police of the Vichy regime in Limoges in February 1944 , deported via Drancy to Auschwitz and murdered there.

In 1946 Marcel began his training at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris . His teachers were Charles Dullin and Étienne Decroux , who also taught Jean-Louis Barrault . At the side of Barrault and Madeleine Renaud Marceau played in the Compagnie Barraults on stage the " Harlequin " in the pantomime Baptiste based on the film Children of Olympus . The positive criticism encouraged him to perform his own mimodramas . In 1947, at the age of 24, Marceau appeared in Paris for the first time as "Monsieur Bip". In this role that made him world famous, he toured the globe for over 40 years.

Marcel Marceau at the age of 81, Dresden 2004

The Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau , which he founded, was unique in the world and performed numerous well-known plays as mimodramas, including a. Gogols Der Mantel (with Soubeyran ) and Tirso de Molinas Don Juan. He finally made his international breakthrough in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1951 he planned a four-day guest performance in Berlin , but then stayed for two months. Bertolt Brecht and the critic Friedrich Luft also came to his performances , who wrote afterwards: "Marceau is making a new art, you have to see it."

It was similar for him in 1955 on his first US tour. A two-week guest performance turned into a six-month successful tour between Broadway and Hollywood . During this time he got to know his idols Charles Laughton , Buster Keaton , Stan Laurel , Oliver Hardy and the Marx Brothers personally. He met his greatest role model, Charlie Chaplin , at Orly Airport in Paris in 1967. Since the 1960s, he was also known through solo appearances on television . In the later cult science fiction film Barbarella by the French director Roger Vadim from 1968, he played Professor Ping.

In addition to his tours and television appearances, Marceau campaigned for the training of young artists. In 1978, with the help of the then Parisian mayor Jacques Chirac, he founded the acting school École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris, Marcel Marceau, in which subjects were offered in addition to pantomime, the mime corporel dramatique by Étienne Decroux , acting , classical dance and fencing . With the best graduates he formed a new troupe in 1993, the Nouvelle Compagnie de Mimodrame. Since 1950 he has also been a member of the international Salzburg seminar , which he personally supported financially through several artistically sensational benefit events.

Marceau also had success as a painter and draftsman . His works were u. a. shown in Germany, France, Japan and the USA . He also wrote and illustrated several books, including The Story of Bip and Pimporello, the story of an old street mime and his affection for a little feral girl, a tribute to Charlie Chaplin's The Kid .

Marcel Marceau died in 2007 at the age of 84 in Paris with his family, as his children announced. During the funeral ceremony, which was attended by around 300 people in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris , Marceau's hat with the red flower was placed on a table. Former French Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat said prayers in Hebrew and French.

Marceau got into three marriages, all three of which were divorced. The sons Michel and Baptiste emerged from the relationship with Huguette Mallet. He then married the Polish dancer and choreographer Ella Jaroszewicz , founder and director of the Paris pantomime studio Magénia and the ensemble of the same name. The third marriage to Anne Sicco has two daughters, Camille and Aurelia.

Effect and reception

In the course of his career, Marceau had constantly expanded the subjects and expressive possibilities of pantomime and presented them to his audience in the famous Pantomimes de Style . The permanent repertoire included The Creation of the World; The tribunal; The mask maker; The stairs; In the Volksgarten; The bird catcher; The court of justice; The hands - battle between good and evil; Youth, maturity, old age, death; The Pickpocket's Nightmare; The Bureaucrats and The March Against the Wind. He also referred to his pantomime pictures as "screams of silence " and understood them as a way of expressing the awkwardness of people.

Marceau has influenced numerous artists from all genres to this day. He inspired Samuel Beckett to the pantomime finale in the endgame . Samy Molcho , Milan Sládek and Jango Edwards stressed his influence on their careers. German mimes like JOMI , Peter Makal and Rolf Mielke learned from him. The actor Anthony Hopkins and the dancer Rudolf Nureyev cited his role model. Michael Jackson was inspired by the march against the wind created by Marceau to create the moonwalk , which later became his trademark . This led Marceau in 1976 in the silent film -Hommage Silent Movie by Mel Brooks on. (In this film, ironically, Marceau was the only actor who spoke a word, namely "Non!")

In 2005, the 80-year-old pantomime went on tour. In his Paris school he still gave masterclasses and accepted all premieres. In doing so, he insisted on the most important feature of his body art:

“The film actor has to make us forget that he is acting. The pantomime is not allowed to do that, it has to be in constant tension. "
"The pantomime is the art of posture."

A film with the title Resistance about Marcel Marceau's work in World War II is to be shot mainly in Bavaria.

Filmography (selection)

honors and awards

Publications

Literature, audio book

  • Wolf Gaudlitz: Marcel Marceau - Moved by Silence. The great pantomime in conversation with Wolf Gaudlitz; a portrait . Publishing house audio book, Freiburg / B. 2007, ISBN 978-3-89964-251-3 (2 CDs).

Web links

Commons : Marcel Marceau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Memorial sheets at Yadvashem (Jerusalem) for Karl Mangel
  2. ↑ "Marcel Marceau dies aged 84" , The Guardian , September 23, 2007
  3. ↑ cf. Bui / Monnin: Ils sont devenus français. Paris: Lattes, 2010. p. 436 ff.
  4. ↑ "The Sculptor of the Moment" , Die Zeit , July 1, 2004, No. 28
  5. ^ "Adieu - a star of silence left" , Süddeutsche Zeitung , 23 September 2007
  6. ↑ Film about French pantomimes Marceau planned orf.at, November 22, 2017, accessed November 22, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Marceau, Marcel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lack, Marcel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pantomime
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg , France
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 2007
Place of death Cahors , France