I remember watching those silent movies more like short films, where one character used only his facial expressions and body movements to enact a scene or a role, without actually saying a word.

A very popular artist that comes to mind is Marcel Marceau, who was responsible for reviving the art of mime.

White-faced clown with a hat and a rose perched on top, Marceau’s performances explored a whole range of human emotions and my research suggests that he captured all those emotions in a few minutes, what some novelists fail to do in volumes.

Let’s see how Marceau, who performed until he was in his 80s, enchanted audiences around the world with his silent art of poetry.
Marceau’s visual and silent art form communicated directly with the audience without any barrier, like it was a universal language. He pumped new life in to the art that dates back to ancient Greece. His inspiration was no one else but Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon.

Marceau’s would be remembered for the creation of his character ‘Bip’, who was a small person in a world of injustice and beauty, rebellion by nature who had a childlike expression when he discovered the world.

Bip would chase butterflies, went to war, ran a matrimonial service, Marceau expressed gamut of emotions only thorough his body.

You can watch Marceau in action in the video below –

“Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?” he once asked. It is so true. A French Jew, Marceau escaped deportation to a Nazi death camp during World War II, that’s how he also lost his father. His art reflected his troubled childhood experiences.

Marceau died last year at the age of 84, and there has been no successor who is as good and skillful as him.

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Tags: Marcel Marceau, Mime Artist