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CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MARCEL MARCEAU

FREE SCREENING: THE ART OF SILENCE

by Maurizius Staerkle Drux (Switzerland)

July 12   

60 min / Ages +10 

Marcel Marceau is undoubtedly the world’s most famous mime. Audiences know and love him as «Bip», the tragicomic clown in the striped shirt, his face covered in white make- up,the battered silk hat and the red flower. He mesmerised people around the globe. But the tragic background of his work remained hidden for a long time. His Jewish father was killed in Auschwitz. Marceau joined the French Resistance and smuggled together with his cousin Georges Loigner Jewish children across the border to safety, into Switzerland. With gestures and mimes, he taught the children to communicate in silence in dangerous situations. Silence was their tool for survival, which after the war, Marceau transformed into a unique art form and achieved world fame with it. He toured the world for over 40 years, almost up until the day he died.

THE ART OF SILENCE is the first feature-length documentary about Marcel Marceau and his work, which inspired and accompanied several generations of artists - and lives on to this day. Anne Sicco, Marceau’s wife, directed the mime school, among other things, and continues Marceau’s legacy. Grandson Louis Chevalier is forging his own path as a dancer, inspired by the work of his mother Camille Marceau and her sister Aurélia.

 

Rob Mermin went to Marceau’s school, he became a world- renowned clown. Since his Parkinson’s diagnosis, he has been using mime to communicate perspectives beyond the disease. Christoph Staerkle is the director’s father and has been deaf since birth. He has found his own form of expression through mime.

In his third documentary, Swiss filmmaker Maurizius Staerkle Drux combines exclusive archive material from Marceau’s multi- faceted life with a contemporary look at the art of silence.

JULY 12 AT 6:30PM

This free screening will take place at Theater Wit

 

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