The arrival of the new crown epidemic has made us not have a good contact with the outside world for a long time. It was also at such a difficult time that we realized that we needed art to light up our lives.
0 years ago in France, an artist who later became world-renowned artist healed the hearts of countless orphans who killed their parents in generations.
2017 film director Jonathan Jakubowicz is writing scripts for the new movie, he is full of interest in the world's greatest silent actor, playwright Marcel Marceau.
His artistic achievements have affected all aspects of today's popular culture. Pop King Michael Jackson's space walk originated from his signature moves; David Copperfield learns his performance methods.
Marcel Marceau and MJ
popping in street dance evolved from his performance; the prototype of Shado in the comic "The King of Japanese Bread" is his stage image.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Marcel in the movie
Marcel is known as the master of the performing arts. He can express deep emotions with only the simplest gestures. all fascinated the director. He wanted to know what it was, which allowed Marcel to gain such superb artistic attainment.
When he was digging out Marcel's life, he was surprised to find that when he received extremely high praise from the world and gained countless disciples and fans, Marcel's true glory is not . He is a hero who saved hundreds of children from the World War II massacre. And his weapon is performance.
Marcel Marceau was born in Strasbourg, France. Both his father and grandfather were butchers. He had been helping in the butcher shop since he was a child, but he had something he loved more in his heart.
When he was five years old, his mother took him to watch the movie " Chaplin ". He was attracted by the funny body language in the silent film and since then he was inspired to become a silent drama actor. As a teenager, he was already working part-time as a comedian in several taverns.
Marcel will use a toothbrush as a mustache, imitate Chaplin, and laugh at Hitler at some fun. The young and arrogant Marcel was determined to plunge himself into the performance, so he ignored the gunshots outside the window. The Nazis are approaching France.
Marcel
November 9, 1938, the beginning of the Jewish massacre. Screams came from the streets and alleys of Germany, the sound of glass breaking and gunshots. The fire was burning, and tens of thousands of women and men were pulled on the street and beaten, and then drove them to the concentration camp.
Almost all synagogues in Germany were burned down and more than 7,000 Jewish shops were smashed. The glass fell at night, and the faint light reflected by the torches was like crystals.
This day, the Germans became "Kristallnacht", which is the crystal night. Behind the broken window frame, there are many children hiding when they watch their parents be captured with their own eyes. No one told them what happened, hundreds of Jewish children became orphans.
In Strasbourg across the river from Germany, Marcel was called to help by his cousin. At that time, there were already many civil resistance organizations in France that were preparing to confront the Nazis, and his cousin was one of the leaders of the Jewish resistance. A wealthy patron of the organization
"buy" 123 orphans whose parents were sent to concentration camps at a high price from the Nazis. hope someone in France can help hide these children in all of their own Strasbourg castles.
My cousin wants Marcel, who is addicted to silent dramas, to give the children a little comfort to their hurt hearts.
Marcel is not a natural saint. At first, he thought that letting himself play with his child was because his cousin looked down on his acting career and regarded himself as a clown who performed on the street. But when I first saw the children full of panic and smuggled to France by airtight trucks, Marcel was still stinged by the scene in front of me.
Some children have dirty faces, only five or six years old, several boys have traditional Judaism's temples, and a girl holds a bear doll. A few days ago, they were almost the same as themselves, and were birds with strange dreams under the protection of their parents.
They had nothing overnight, half of the children in the car were crying, and some were either dull or panic, standing in front of Marcel, peeking at every young man who resisted the organization with his injured eyes.
A group of Jewish children received by France
Marcel was ultimately not a cruel person. He agreed to the request to perform for the children and joined the resistance organization. When he contacted the children, he found many problems.
These poor children were frightened. Their home was gone. No one knew where this strange castle was. There is barely enough contact with women in the organization, but like Marcel, children will bow their heads and ignore them, and even one child is trembling with fear.
100 children are mostly Germans, and some Austrians, who speak German, do not understand the staff's French at all.
Marcel tried to speak Yiddish (the language used by Jews) or German with some children, but the children who had just arrived at the new place still recognized their children, and only a few of them communicated with him.
Due to the dual difficulties of language disorder and psychological disorder, Marcel decided not to try to communicate in language anymore, and he performed on his own in the dining room. Marcel made a sad expression at a child staring at him, and then flicked one hand from bottom to top, turning into a smiling face.
This action later became a classic action in Marcel and the silent drama performance, but at that time, his greatest achievement was to make the child laugh.
After a small success, several children also boldly came over to see it, and Marcel began to perform more things. He used bread as a boat match and signaled the children to blow out the matches on it.
The child breathed weakly, but Marcel seemed to perform as if he was blown by a strong wind, retreating repeatedly. He gestured to let the other children blow air at him together. He was suddenly tilted and performed in the wind, sliding and moving forward. (This is the origin of the space walk)
Other people's laughter attracted other children who were still nervous about the new environment. Curious little heads squeezed forward, and then everyone bent over in front of Marcel's funny look.
Marcel also felt for the first time in his life that an excellent actor should not be a work of art that can only be appreciated by a few people. When the children smiled at his small show, and some even came to talk to him on their own initiative, Marcel felt the meaning of the performance for the first time.
makes people laugh and live stronger.
Kids quickly get familiar with Marcel. Marcel gave them performances and taught them to perform. When playing with Marcel, you can temporarily forget the pain of losing your parents, and more and more children open their hearts.
But things are still getting worse. When Marcel was 17 years old, Hitler invaded France, and Strasbourg on the border was in danger. And expand the persecution of Jews, and as part of the "optimization" of the Aryans, children will also be locked in concentration camps and killed.
As early as in Berlin, Gestapo had heard of the hiding of Jewish children in Strasbourg. In order to compete for the honor of "123 Heads", several SS officers have set their sights on the castle where Marcel and the children are located.
The members of the Jewish Resistance Organization who were targeted must transfer all 123 children to other cities as quickly as possible. But before that they had to follow the instructions of Marcel and others and learn how to hide from the Nazis.
For more than a week, Marcel and the children conducted emergency drills. He would put on a mustache, pretend to be Hitler, and speak some funny German. Tell your child not to be afraid, let’s play a game.
He also teaches children to imitate animals and pretend to be dead, and use silent drama performances to calm the anxious children. When the signal of "Nazis are coming", everyone should learn to learn not to speak and play with hidden cats.
movie "Beautiful Life" , the plot of teaching children to hide from the Nazis is really staged in Marcel's world.
beautiful life
Germans are constantly approaching Strasbourg and must leave now. Marcel and his friends disguised more than 100 children as French Scouts, cut off the boys' Jewish hairstyles, changed their eating habits in public and could no longer worship.
A week before the Rosh Hakka, Marcel and his friends from the Jewish Resistance led 123 children to migrate to the south in batches. During the march, they walked in the unpopular France, singing the hymns for the last time.
The children were successfully sent to Lyon at the junction of Farries. Soon after, Strasbourg was occupied by the German army, and in June, Paris fell. There is no more land in France that is safe for the Jews. Hitler said, "The birthplace of freedom and democracy is already in my hands."
is the case for these children who escaped from Germany and Austria, and for the Jews Marcel and their friends who live in France. In the midst of crisis, Marcel is no longer just a performer who makes children laugh, but the last glimmer of hope for life. He will use everything to get the children out of France.
He changed his Jewish surname Mangel to French surname Marceau. Marcel and his cousin forged passports for Jewish children. If they could change their names, they would change their names, because Jewish children would be thrown into German factories, and child labor from other races was illegal.
If the name is not easy to change, change the age. The Nazis who are too young cannot send them to labor camps.
Jewish modified passport
But Marcel faced greater trouble. In 1942, Klaus Barbie was appointed leader of the Gestapo in Lyon, nicknamed "The Butcher of Lyon". Rejoice in torture and murder of Jews, children and members of the resistance movement.
Marcel's friends were shot several times, and some members of the resistance group planned to assassinate the Gestapo. But Marcel realized that this was a war that could not be won by civil forces alone. If this villain dies, there will be another one.
Since everyone will die at any time, it is better to save more people on the road to death. Marcel believes that the most important thing is to send children to a safe country at the fastest speed.
But the neighboring allies were either occupied or were too busy to take care of themselves and no longer accept refugees. Marcel proposed to send the children to Swiss . As a neutral country, they do not accept adults but will help all children who seek help.
Take the train to go there and you will definitely be stopped at the border. They could only take a bus to the closest place to the border, and then take their children to hike over the Alps to Switzerland on the other side of the mountain.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Marcel
in the movie. The process between this is full of thrilling. Every time he plays the role of the Boy Scout instructor, telling the inspectors that they are just going to the forest for Boy Scout training. He has strong psychological qualities and adaptability and has never been exposed.
When he encountered a Nazi raid, he asked the children to sing the "Full Maria" he taught before. Even if the Nazis were killed, they would never have thought that the Jews would sing Christian hymns.
He also found that the Nazis never checked the mayonnaise sandwiches in the picnic box because they felt that they would stain gloves and uniforms. So Marcel put many children's unforged ID cards in the middle of the bread.
Marcel leads 30 children to Switzerland each time and hikes the Alps in heavy snow several times. During this period, he was also chased by the Nazis who were catching up. At that time, he let his children play the "hidden cat game" and avoided the Nazi search team.
He grew up on the French-German border. Sometimes he encountered German soldiers. Marcel would pretend to be a German and chat with them and let them go.
After a dozen kilometers of distance, when the children can't hold on, he will comfort them in pantomime or as a clown. Then they were sent into Switzerland while it was dark, waiting for the rescuers there to pick up the children.
Marcel saved more than 100 Jewish children in his life, from France to Switzerland. During World War II, the Nazis massacred one and a half million children, while his cousin and the French Jewish Resistance Group protected more than 10,000 young lives.
What he didn't know was that his father was captured by the Gestapo near his home. He asked someone to search for it before he found out the name of the destination - Auschwitz. It was 1944 and no one knew what was going on there.
Every week, Marcel will sit at the train station and wait for the train from Poland, looking forward to welcoming his father and going home. Many years later, he learned that his father died in the gas chamber.
Marcel joined the free French army of de Gaulle and continued to fight against Germany.
In the army, in the resistance organization, and in the orphanage, he is still performing his unique skills for people, trying to make people smile. The difference is that Marcel is no longer the arrogant and selfish young man, and his performance has the power to live.
Marcel was buried in the famous Lachez Cemetery in Paris
After the war, Marcel returned to the stage of silent drama. Except for being awarded the Warrenburg Medal for humanitarian work in 2001, he never mentioned the past of World War II until his death in 2007.
2001 Warrenburg Medal Award Ceremony
But past experiences have long been integrated into his blood and flowed into his performance. People think of comedy as "pain + time + joke", as is Marcel's silent drama.
People finally understand that Marcel's success is not only due to talent and talent. is more because what he performs is his own life.
Marcel created the famous image "Bip", a clown with a melancholy complexion, wearing a prison uniform and a gentle flower in her top hat, took him all over the world.
Bip Everything goes wrong on the stage and you will be in trouble if you do anything. But when the people in the audience burst into laughter, Marcel seemed to be relieved.
"I won't talk about the past. I cry for my father, I cry for millions of dead people... Destiny allows me to live. That's why I want to bring hope to the people who are struggling in the world."
No matter what darkness we are going to face, at least at this moment, we are still smiling.
