It was he who created in 1947 the image of Bip, touching, full of poetry, which made millions of people tremble and cry on all continents, making, as he liked to say, “the invisible visible”. Beep, again according to Marceau, became even more popular after 10 years later, in 1957, a Soviet satellite launched into low Earth orbit suddenly started calling its character “Beep, beep, beep”.
The “great mute” of the stage – he never said a word there in his long career – Marcel Marceau was an excellent and eloquent interlocutor off stage, as I have seen many times. He considered pantomime to be an art form in its own right, like music, ballet, painting. “It must be sincere or not at all,” Marcel Marceau shared with me, “Lying is impossible here, because the spectator does not perceive it through words that can lie, but directly, directly. pantomime is like the smell of flowers. They can be subtle and sharp, but they are always authentic.”
Marceau considered Charlie Chaplin his teacher, however, only once did fate bring him closer to the great comedian. In 1967, the mime said, he flew to Rome from Orly airport in Paris to shoot the film Barbarella directed by Roger Vadim, which also starred Jane Fonda. There he suddenly saw Charlie, who was waiting for a flight to Geneva with his wife and children. Overcoming his embarrassment, Marcel approaches the actor, they start talking, then the mime depicts Charlie’s famous gait, leaning on a cane. To the delight of passengers, Chaplin, then finishing octogenarian, joined Marseille. Each time recalling this episode, Marceau regretted not having allowed nearby reporters to immortalize their “star” duo on film – he didn’t want Chaplin to think he needed them for his self-promotion. In turn, Marcel Marceau himself became a role model for such a youthful idol as Michael Jackson. The scene “Walking against the wind” prompted the American singer to create the famous “moonwalk”.
Tireless, always ready to take off from the spot, Marcel Marceau has traveled the world. He was adored in Japan, in the USA, in Latin America. The mime, whom Vladimir Vysotsky in a famous song called “Marcel Marceau himself”, had a special affection for Russia, came on tour several times, starting in 1961. The last time I was in Moscow, c It was 1985, however, an ulcer burst onstage and the actor had to be rushed to hospital. Already in the hive years, the “great mute” told me about his desire to return to Russia, but it did not work out. Marcel Marceau died in 2007, but until the last days he remained a slender youthful man with perfect plasticity and raising his eyebrows in surprise under a thick cap of curly hair…
