Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007)

Subject: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 07:32 AM

The greatest of mimes.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/09/23/marceau.ap/index.html

What a joy he was to watch.

RIP Mr. Marceau.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: goatfell
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 07:46 AM

that is a shame, how sad.

Tom

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: GUEST,patty o'dawes
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 07:58 AM

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: GUEST,albert
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:03 AM

what a lovely man!
albert

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:32 AM

Always reminds me of a Monty Python sketch. They were looking at name plates at the entrance to a building and reading them out. One of them went as follows [if I remember aright] Marcel Marceau, Leaning Against the Wind Inc.

Rest in peace, and don't blink!

BTW, I sort of blame you for all those eedjits with white faces, that block the pavements in big cities.

Giok

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Cats
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:34 AM

An incredible artist. Also the only person who had a speaking part in Mel Brookes 'Silent Movie'.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: bobad
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:43 AM

I trust he went quietly.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Mike Miller
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:45 AM

Marceau's fame is all the more remarkable when one considers the general attitude toward classic mime. It is, I suppose, an aquired taste and Marceau's reputation was. more. based on name recognition than acceptance of the form. To the world, he was mime. I defy anyone, except a mime, to name another mime. The sad fact is that, with the loss of Marceau, we have seen the last acceptable mime.
Here's a piece of trivia. What was the movie, in which Marceau spoke and what did he say?

                   Mike

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:01 AM

Question: When a mime dies, does he then begin to speak?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:09 AM

A little before my time but R.I.P.



Scooby.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Declan
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:40 AM

Mike,

The movie is already named above.

The word, I believe was a four letter word used to denote excrement.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:58 AM

I think he said, "Non."

I was fortunate enough to see him perform live many years ago in a very small auditorium on-campus.    I left the theater wonder-filled.

Of the skits I saw him perform over the years (mostly on television), I think his most powerful skit was Youth, Maturity, Old Age, Death (referenced in the above linked article.)   

I'll always stop to watch a the street performance of a mime. We used to sell on the pier at sunset in Key West. I number of excellent mimes performed there over the years, and I would always be sure to take a break from the booth to watch. Mime is the most powerful and moving of the performing arts to me.

Much gratitude to Bip for inspiring more generations of mimes.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: goatfell
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:59 AM

a great man

as God would say to him come quitely

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: John Hardly
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 10:05 AM

I am not making this up...

The newscast this morning said that "he went quietly".

I suppose he's gone to that great invisible box in the sky.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Severn
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 10:16 AM

As a matter of a mutual admiration society between the two, Marceau's appearences on the old Red Skelton TV show, with joint as well as solo stuff, were always a joy to watch. This said by someone who loves Silent Film Comedy but never cared much for mimes other than Marceau, who, along with his other multitude of virtues, never accosted me on a city street.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 10:30 AM

I agree Severn. Red and he had a very special relationship. I too really don't care for mimes but can enjoy the art of pantomime (ala Red's version). Somehow MM didn't come off in the same way as the street mimes although he might be considered the father of them all.

BTW, the obit above is quite good.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Effsee
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 10:32 AM

RIP the quiet man. Didn't David Bowie study with him for a while?

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:06 PM

!..................................<;^(    Merci Marcel...

          Bless...
          bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:07 PM

I reckon street mimes are like street musicians. Some of them are excellent. Some are not.

I'm not often in big cities, and most of the street mime I have seen has been at street fairs and festivals, so perhaps my experience is different, but I don't get why some of you experience the street performance of mime as more intrusive than other kinds of street performance, including busking.

I don't care for mimicry - but a story well-told by a skillful mime (and yeh, I'm another fan of ol' Red) is like the best poetry - parsed of any extraneous movement or expression. The art of mime is the art of paradox. 90% of it's power rests with the imagination of the observer - but the imagination of the observer is the captive of the performer.

Maybe I simply like the lack of ambiguity. As a therapist, I spend my days listening to people while studying faces and body language, noting especially the frequent dissonance between the conscious content of the words and the unconscious communications of the body.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:38 PM

I agree, Janie. I've never lived where I could see a lot of mime, but the good ones do not mimic, imo.

I never knew this about Marceau, bless him:

With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance. Marceau altered children's identity cards, changing their birth dates to trick the Germans into thinking they were too young to be deported. Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with Gen. George S. Patton's army.


May he rest in peace,

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Cats
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 12:40 PM

Mike Miller ~ In Silent Movie he said 'No!'.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Mike Miller
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 01:24 PM

Cats is correct but, like Marceau, I have no comment.

                Mike

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Peace
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 02:17 PM

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 04:26 PM

Another obit at Mime Marcel Marceau dies at age 84

World-famous performer played range of human emotions for 50 years
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:41 a.m. CT Sept 23, 2007
PARIS - Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, French media reported Sunday. He was 84.
France-Info radio and LCI television said the family had announced the death of Marceau. No other details were released.

One wonders which talk-show host will be first to say "he had no last words." (?)

"Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, the world-famous Marceau played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, he was famously chatty. "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop," he once said.""

He had much to say, with and without words.

John

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Greg B
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 04:43 PM

I wonder--- will they bury him in an imaginary glass coffin?

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 05:38 PM

I was fortunate to see him perform in Berkeley, once when I was a child, once when in college. I loved his "David and Goliath" sketch, with a rock-like set he would repeadedly go behind, then emerge as David, then Goliath, making himself appear smaller, then larger.

Mike Miller, for your challenge to name one other mime, there was Jean-Louis Barrault, who I knew of only because of the 1943-45 movie "The Children of Paradise," that became a cult classic when re-shown in the 60's and 70's. It starred him, who was France's "other" great mime of Marceau's era. But your point is well-taken. Marceau brought mime to international fame as nobody else had done.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 07:51 PM

A moment of silence....

Subject: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 09:32 PM

PARIS (AP) - Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions that spoke to generations of young and old, has died. He was 84. Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece. He played out the human comedy through his alter-ego Bip without ever uttering a word.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:45 PM

Any last words?

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007)
From: Mark H.
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 03:23 AM

I always thought his version of "Coal 'Ole Cavalry" was the best.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007)
From: GUEST,micca at work
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 03:37 AM

Am I the only one having a smile at the subtle irony of the whole existence and concept of this thread?

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 04:03 AM

I gather friends are having a two minutes noise in his honour.

RtS
(the voice made for mime)

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007)
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 02:49 PM

Damn, RogertS, I thought for a moment I was going to get to be the one to throw that in.
How nice to see the indications that a noted performer was also a worthy human being. I'm sure there are still some out there, but they don't make good fodder for the media.

Subject: RE: Obit: Marcel Marceau, Actor and Mime (Sep 2007
From: open mike
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 03:49 PM

i also saw him in Berkeley at the Zellerbach..in Berkeley.
this mentions that he was there nearly every year for 20 years..

Marcel Marceau converted corporeal ("body language") mime
into an art that could be readily communicated. Through his
distinguished style and characters he made this art known to the
world. Marceau opened a school in Paris in 1978 and also taught
workshops in America. He appeared at Zellerbach Hall almost
annually for 20 years, from 1972 to1992