The Mime of Marcel Marceau

Study guide for the film The Mime of Marcel Marceau

The man behind many masks, the great French mime Marcel Marceau, speaks as a philosopher, an artist, and a teacher through words and movement. Classes conducted by Marceau and the teachers at his school showing the necessary training in body movement, gymnastics, dance, fencing, and mime are intercut with related scenes of Marceau in performance. These performances are sequences from his theatrical repertoire and include "The Mask Maker," "The Painter," and "The Creation". A routine from Marceau's Bip character, called "Bip in The Modern and Future Life" ends the film; it is a visualization of concepts about man and the future that Marceau, the philosopher, has just described in words.