Marcel Marceau, a quiet word or two

HUNDREDS of people paid tribute last week to Marcel Marceau at his funeral in Paris, when he was buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery alongside other famous artists such as Oscar Wilde and singer Jim Morrison.

His death, aged 84, on September 22 brought to an end a life that had seen him and his family flee their home during World War II, and a 20-year-old Marcel join the Resistance in 1944.

But soon after the end of the war he created his famous character Bip and went on to revive the art of mime and become one of the most recognised artists across the world.

Here, from the archive of journalist Jeremy Josephs, is an interview with Marcel Marceau which took place in 2001:

I am off to Paris to meet Marcel Marceau. And I have to admit that I am feeling rather pleased with myself at having landed an interesting and original celebrity interview. But whereas my editor has given the idea a resounding thumbs up, I soon find that the notion of interviewing the world’s greatest mime is a source of merriment and mirth to many.

"I don’t suppose you’ll be taking your tape-recorder then," a colleague enquires helpfully, ho ho. "What if he mimes the whole thing, what are you going to do then?" Boom boom. "If you want your article to reflect the meeting, I guess you should hand in a blank sheet of paper."

Not very funny, say I, but the cumulative effect of dozens of half-baked gags along these lines is that by the time I arrive at Marceau’s headquarters in the bustling 10th arrondissement of the handsome French capital, I am feeling more than a little nervous. So nervous, in fact, that I have decided to kick off the proceedings with a pre-emptive strike. Only to discover that Marceau, a sprightly 78, has worries of his own.

"I have heard it said," I begin, "that once a mime starts talking, you can not stop him. Might there be any truth in this?"

"No truth at all," he replies in flawless English, much to my relief. "People ask me about my life – I say something – and they start wagging their fingers, with much delight and say: ‘aha – he speaks!’ If you ask an artist about his life of course he is obliged to talk. Then they say that I talk too much. So I can’t win!"

Relieved that the interview has at last got underway, I remind myself that I am sitting opposite the person said to have the most expressive hands since Michelangelo. Described not merely as the greatest mime star of the modern era but an icon of Western culture, Marceau has been performing for the best part of half of a century – and with no signs of letting up.

He created his own special character, known as Bip - a familiar sight, with his top hat with the flower sticking out, and his short jacket. Influenced by the silent film stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Marceau was the architect of a totally new style and tradition, the true creator and master of modern mime.

Alone in white face on an otherwise dark and empty stage, Marcel Marceau as a seasick passenger at the rail of an ocean liner can make you think it's the theatre that's tipping in the storm, not him. When his hands flutter in his bird-keeper routine, you could swear there were doves in his act. And when he tells the story of a trial - playing the parts of judge, prosecutor, defendant, wife, defence lawyer, and hangman - we feel we've met a whole cast of characters from Dickens or Balzac.

And so the inevitable question: how on earth is it possible to move people without uttering a single word?

"Words are important," Marceau explains. "Imagine a world without writers and speakers. But silence is beyond words, for in your imagination you can create movement that replaces words, and when you understand their significance this can move people very deeply. But you cannot say words are not important.

"Words also create images. But as we all know, silence can be golden. Even Shakespeare acknowledged this in Hamlet. No one art is stronger than the other. That said silence is very special. Of course the sensitivity of the actor comes into play and perhaps the spirit of what he does. People are moved by the way you act and of course the story has to be strong.

"I think the performance has to be compelling too. The spirit of the actor has to shine through, combined with his lyricism. These are logical explanations, but the truth is that it remains a mystery to me as to how it was possible to create a whole art form with silence.

"To appreciate silence in an age when communications are so instant and when people hardly ever stop speaking - where there is truly so much noise all around. But there has to be a reason for it on the grounds that I have lasted for more than 50 years."

Over half a century indeed and still going strong. For Marceau has recently embarked on a series of "first farewell" performances. He insists on the word "first" because, he says, "one day all this must end, but it may not be for another five years." He is due to take his show to the United States before he returns for a further French tour. It is his intention to continue to perform all over the world since practising the skills of his art has enabled him to keep physically fit.

"One has to be realistic," he says matter-of-factly. "I know that I am more at the end of my life than at the beginning of my life. I am perfectly well aware of that. Yet when people see me they ask: ‘is it the son of Marceau?’ – some people have even said it’s a miracle. To see a man of my age do what I do.

"That's why I am working on a new mimo-drama with my company and I am going to continue to work so long as I feel I have the strength. As soon as I feel that I am losing my grip then I will know that the time has come for me to take off my make-up for the last time."

"I have a question Monsieur Marceau - but I’m not sure if it’s un peu stupide?"

"Go ahead," Marceau replies in a kindly, avuncular way, "you can ask what you like."

"All right. If mime is all to do with the imagination – then could mimed ice-cream be tastier than the real thing?"

"Well of course!" he says with a huge grin on his face. "Without the slightest shadow of doubt! Let me tell you why, because the imagination can be so much more powerful than reality. The imagination is entirely fiction, it goes beyond reality. Often books are more effective than films for the same reason, because the imagination is allowed to run its own course.

"The essence is the search for perfection. I have been performing for over half a century. Sometimes in front of audiences of up to 4,000 people. And never once has someone called out ‘why don’t you speak?’ I’ll tell you why - because they too can savour their own ice-cream."

Remember those old wartime slogans: ‘mum’s the word’ and that rather stern and time-honoured exhortation that ‘careless talk costs lives’? This was precisely the atmosphere, Marceau explains, which enabled mime to flourish and be reborn.

"The late forties were a good time, it was after the war and the world was open to us. When I was 20 I was in the First French Army fighting against the Germans. I was liberated in 1946 and then the following year I created Mr. Bip.

"As I toured, in Germany and elsewhere, I could see that he was well received. What was interesting was that in this post-war atmosphere it was in fact less dangerous to express your feelings without words. Talking was a far more dangerous activity. So you could say that I was lucky because I was at the right place at the right time. Maybe today I would not have succeeded, who knows?"

Certainly there has been no shortage of others anxious to follow in his footsteps. And many people have tried to imitate his style over the years. I wondered, therefore, if Marceau thought that this might have devalued the currency of mine.

"Copying can never be a good thing," he affirms. "Understanding can be. I like to think that I have created a grammar for the art of mime, just like there is a grammar for any language. You cannot copy Chaplin, he was unique. Nor can you copy Marceau.

"You can understand their spirit and this is why I have established my International School of Mime in Paris. Here we teach the grammar of mine. But creativity comes from the students themselves. Whatever art form you choose, dance, singing or whatever you must have these elementary bases. Copycats are never good mimes."

Indeed it was Chaplin who inspired the young Marceau in the first instance.

"I saw from his work that people could be moved without speaking. I was convinced that mime was a great art. Voila! it was as simple as that. If I hadn’t seen Chaplin maybe I would have become an ordinary actor and not one who sought to express all human feelings and emotions without words.

"When I was 20 I wanted to become a speaking actor, but I saw Decroux in his school and was touched to see how you could move people just with your body alone and I was anxious to keep studying this art form. This was my destiny I think.”

Fifteen years ago, following a major operation, Marceau said he had no fear of death, a position he was happy to reaffirm.

"You mustn't think about death, you must think about life. Of course my chosen field helps me immensely in this. The wonderful thing is that in the theatre I can go back to my youth. But mime is not a fashion, it is an eternal art. I'm a veteran, I know. But I have to go on fighting as if it were for the first time."

About the writer:
Journalist and author Jeremy Josephs has written for British Airways, Saga and the Daily Mail and lives in Montpellier, his website archive features many articles about France .