Marcel Marceau, the most famous mime in modern history, was a hero – but you'd never have heard it from him. Beloved across the world for his devotion to "the art of silence", as he called it, Marceau's influence was so far reaching that he directly inspired the dance of Michael Jackson, one of his biggest fans.
Before his art touched the lives of people worldwide, Marceau was a courageous member of the French Resistance against Nazi occupation during the Second World War, risking his life to shepherd more than 100 orphans to safety in Switzerland, something the artist rarely talked about publicly later in life.
This movie, in a way, provided me with a link to my past and a link to my culture
Resistance, a new film directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz and starring Oscar-nominee Jesse Eisenberg, brings to life Marceau's heroism for the first time. While there is a rich library of films that cover the Holocaust, Resistance is a personal one for Eisenberg for a number of reasons. He tells The National that diving into this subject matter was an emotional marathon during every day of filming, one he couldn't switch off from when he went home of an evening.
“I lost a lot of family in the war in Poland, and my wife lost family in the war. Her family escaped to Russia, so they lost family that stayed behind … You try to have some link to that part of history because it feels like it’s shaped your culture so terribly.
“This movie, in a way, provided me with a link to my past and a link to my culture, and a link to my grandparents and cousins who all died so horribly. There’s no way to feel anything but horrified by it, but little things like doing a movie about it, in a way, gives me a link to it,” Eisenberg says.
The star wasn’t familiar with Marceau’s work before he began working on the project, but his mother was. In fact, she was a birthday party clown throughout his childhood, who modelled her make-up on the mime artist's, going to see him perform live multiple times. To play Marceau, Eisenberg had to work with mime coach Lorin Eric Salm, one of the late mime's students, who based the film’s choreography on Marceau’s actual routines.
“Like most things, it was really frustrating at first, and then really wonderful. I’m not flexible or agile, but over the course of months, it became something that I loved that I would do without thinking. I would unconsciously practice balancing my weight on one side or doing a certain kind of gesture with my hands. It became one of these wonderful things that I now incorporate into the things that I’ve learnt in my life that are only good for a three-month period of shooting a movie, but that you have affection for later. I have a baby and I incorporate it into the many things that I do to distract or entertain him. He likes it!” he says.
Eisenberg doesn’t know for sure why Marceau didn’t like talking about the lives he saved. “It seems to me that he didn’t want to take credit when it should have been shared. At a time like that, there’s so much heroism, there’s so much tragedy, and there’s so much evil. Maybe he felt that he was one of many, rather than singular,” he says.
It's easy to draw parallels to the way people are responding to Covid-19, with so many heroes on the front line who don't want to be treated individually as heroes. Perhaps, too, it was his initial resistance to the call to heroism that Marceau may have felt guilty about, the same way many do now – a human reaction that the mime artist eventually rose above.
“When the war began, he didn’t know how severe it would become, so he was trying to maintain normalcy, the same way that we are at the onset of this virus. He was reluctant to change his schedule, the same way we were reluctant to change our schedule because of a virus we don’t know the future of.”
'Resistance' releases digitally on Saturday, April 11 iTunes, Google Play, beIN On Demand and OSN Store, as well as all local platforms including du, Etisalat E-Vision, Ooredoo, Vodafone and OmanTel
Martin Sabbagh profile
Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East
In the role: Since January 2015
Lives: In the UAE
Background: M&A, investment banking
Studied: Corporate finance
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Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
MATCH INFO
What: Brazil v South Korea
When: Tonight, 5.30pm
Where: Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Timeline
1947
Ferrari’s road-car company is formed and its first badged car, the 125 S, rolls off the assembly line
1962
250 GTO is unveiled
1969
Fiat becomes a Ferrari shareholder, acquiring 50 per cent of the company
1972
The Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s racetrack for development and testing, opens
1976
First automatic Ferrari, the 400 Automatic, is made
1987
F40 launched
1988
Enzo Ferrari dies; Fiat expands its stake in the company to 90 per cent
2002
The Enzo model is announced
2010
Ferrari World opens in Abu Dhabi
2011
First four-wheel drive Ferrari, the FF, is unveiled
2013
LaFerrari, the first Ferrari hybrid, arrives
2014
Fiat Chrysler announces the split of Ferrari from the parent company
2015
Ferrari launches on Wall Street
2017
812 Superfast unveiled; Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Royal Birkdale Golf Course
Location: Southport, Merseyside, England
Established: 1889
Type: Private
Total holes: 18
The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X
Price, as tested: Dh84,000
Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm
Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
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UAE release: January 31
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
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