Marcel Marceau in film

Marcel Marceau, 2002
The Times of Israel

Marcel Mangel (1923–2007) was born in Strasbourg, son of kosher but­ch­er Charles Mangel (Karl Markovics). Marcel al­ready dreamed of being a ser­ious comic actor like his hero Charlie Chap­lin, but his dad was not hap­py.    

Recently I saw the 2020 film Resistance which depicted the remarkable prewar and war­time career of mime leg­end Marcel Marceau by actor Jesse Eisenberg. Hel­p­­ing many Jewish children and adults escape Nazi-occupied Fr­ance was a notab­le WW2 event, but there was much uncertainty regarding the film amongst the critics.

In 1938-9, when Resistance was set, Marcel Mangel was just 15, 20 years younger than Eisen­berg. He had not yet ad­op­t­­ed his stage name or career, yet this exciting ch­apter of his life made for a fresh entry point to WW2 history.

The action was to be narrated in flashback by General Geor­ge Pat­ton (Ed Harris) as he addressed US troops who had just liberated France in late 1944. He told them the man’s story, not­ing Marceau was one of France’s most amazing civilian heroes. How amazing that Gen Patton would have publicly celebrated a young French teen?

The Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz opened Resistance with an event that defined that film. It was Kristallnacht in 1938, and an Orthodox German Jew was trying to comfort his scared young dau­gh­t­er. Hitler was blaming Jews for the suffering of the work­ing class the fat­her answered, before the Gestapo burst in to kill him. 

Teaching skills to the orphans and helping them laugh

As noted, Marceau had already been a young Chaplin fan who used his flair for comedy and mime to warm the hearts of the French or­ph­ans. There was plenty of re­s­is­tance action in the film eg a tense meet­ing on a train bet­w­een Marceau and the brutal, icy Gest­apo chief Klaus Barb­ie (Matt­h­ias Schweig­höfer). Marceau posed as a choir­master, teaching his child­ren on the train to sing the Cath­ol­ic prayer, Ave Maria. Barbie was a truly evil man, so he destroyed a lot of France as the sadist­ic Butcher of Lyon.

After Bar­bie realised his soldiers had been defeated by the mime, he rounded up half a dozen clowns full costume, lined them up in a public swim­ming pool and executed them. Whether this event actually happened or not, the darkness Marceau must have grappled with post-war was miserable. Nonetheless the grand finale scene, where Marceau actually return­ed to the spot­­light and used his talents to safeguard the children, was essential. 

Early in the film, Marcel des­cribed himself as not good with ch­ild­ren. Yet he was uniquely suited to entert­aining them, es­p­ecially with his improvisational nature. Marceau’s ability to create real­ities out of thin air was a very useful talent when he was hiding from the Nazis. So Marcel did his best to teach the kids, as they made their way over the country.

Jesse Eisenberg as Marcel Marceau 

How did Marceau get into the Jewish Boy Scouts and worked with the French Resistance? Drawn from research and inter­views with Marceau’s real cousin, Jewish Boy Scouts leader Georges Loinger (Géza Röhrig) told the story. "Organ­ising a scouting camp for Jewish child­ren, Georges & the Save the Child­­ren Found­ation paid a fortune to divert Jewish orphans from the camps to an empty castle on the other side of the border. Georges showed up to tell Marcel about Save the Children Foundation. Marcel went for a day, and found a rapt audience for his spontaneous pant­om­ime. Watching Marcel change the orphans’ lair into a fun­house was the first joy these children saw, since their parents were killed.

Few audiences in 2020 know that Marceau helped many orph­an­ed child­ren es­cape the Nazis before he became a professional mime, but Jak­ub­­­ow­icz only used the fact as the peg for a broad war saga about the Jewish Resistance in France. Marceau emerged as cute and awk­war­d­ish before the Nazis invaded. But since Marceau really was the leg­end­ary performer who helped Jews escape the Nazis, Eisenberg played him very hon­estly. After all Marceau did realise his gifts had a practical app­lic­ation when making kids feel comfortable in a nightmare situation.

Eisenberg’s idea was that Marcel belonged to the resistance move­ment, partly because a fellow resistance fighter, Emma (Clemence Poesy), had cour­age that outstripped his own. Watch­ing Marcel perform a silent routine for Emma, ending by producing a paper flower for her, was memorable.

Some critics thought the film should have travelled more directly to free­dom, rather than tripping up with excess Holo­caust film motifs. But I thought Jakubowicz wanted to explain the events to a wide, modern audience that may have known very little about the Holocaust.

Well re-created in the Czech Republic, the story actually took place in occ­upied France where normal citizens informed on nei­gh­bours in exch­ange for meagre foods, and where Marcel’s older brother Alain (Felix Moati) was active in the French Resistance. Happily the film disp­lay­ed depth with Angelo Milli’s string score.

It was an ambitious project for Jakubowicz. But because the direct­or used Marceau as just one character, he should have foc­used much more on the rare but inspiring case where lives were spared. Of course Eisenberg’s antic performance as French mime Marcel Mar­ceau was the best part of the film, but I would have liked to see more of the young hero. Read the Jim Schembri review. 

Dying in 2007, Marceau was the world’s most fam­ous mime. The film has since increased his fame. 

Conclusion
Uncomfortable to begin with, Eisen­berg closely re­s­embled the famous mime and ded­icat­ed to learning ba­s­ic rou­t­ines. He showed how Marceau spread joy to grieving children.