Loose Mimes in real life

Thinking of mimes in the wild - and I'm not talking stage performances here, two quite antithetical experiences come to my mind.

Decades ago I've been to  Maastricht with a friend of mine. There is this really beautiful square, the Vrijthof, in front of the cathedral, with a lot of cafes and pubs around. And as we would come to notice it was also the hunting-ground for a mime, who spoofed passers-by. One woman was very unfortunate indeed, as he sat down at her table parodying her every move, poor woman, there was no way she could defend herself.

On the other occasion there was a mime on a pedestal at a crowded promenade, posing like a sculpture, ocasionally waving at passers-by or shaking their hands. This time it was, I regret to say, the poor mime who was hunted or rather haunted by our children. They were very intrigued, standing in front of him taunting him and trying get any reaction, we were not really able to drag them away.

Silent Movie Acting Is No Mime

Imagine a team given just 48 hrs to create a short movie and then you've go the concept of 48 Hour Film Project. This is Far From Home Films' entry to the last year's London competition, and it deservedly won them some of the awards.

Basically it is a silent movie starring a mime and that's about all I'd like to tell about the story. For the thing that really intrigued me as a silent movie aficionado is that Lillian Gish insisted on the fact that silent movie acting was no mime and now here we've got people exactly playing with this idea. The mime really lives in his mime world, in contrast to the "real" world of his girlfriend. Yet the excellent Martin Freeman as the mime manages to subtly work out emotions that run beyond the mime's painted surface. If you come across it at a short film festival in your vicinity, be sure to catch it.

The Girl Is Mime and The Magic Flame

One of my - regretfully presumed lost - favourite silent movies is The Magic Flame, it stars Ronald Colman in a double role as  Tito, a circus clown, and Count Cassati, unscrupulous womanizer and heir apparent to the Illyrian throne. Tito accidentally kills Cassati on a row concerning Bianca, an aerial artist, and is forced to assume Cassati's part unless he would have to face a murder charge. Bianca presuming that Cassati has killed Tito sets out to assassinate "Cassati". Check it out on my site and there is also part of the translation of a French novelization here, drop down the "Novelization of Silents" button to be able to read more.

Regarding the short film The Girl Is Mime, I only now after contacting Tim Bunn realise the stunning parallels. For here there is also a mime/clown and a murder involved. Even down to some stills the resemblance is overwhelming. Yet one more reason for me to be absolutely anxious to watch it. Though I have been informed that  I will have to be patient until late 2012.

OMG Twitter

Sometimes my beloved Christine's reaction "OMG", fits quite brilliantly into my life scheme. So again OMG, now I've joined Twitter and why? Because I'd love to tell the world or whomever that The Girl Is Mime seems to be a quite interesting short. Reasons why: I've always been fond of silent movies and aware of  - I believe it was Lilian Gish's - assertion that silent movie acting was no mime. True, for people in silent movies behave and talk mostly naturally - unless there is slapstick going on - you just cannot hear them. Now I've watched regretfully only the trailer(s) and the making of of a movie that takes a mime as its protagonist, and as a consequence is a silent movie. It should unsettle me but instead it feels like a marvellous idea, because from all the looks of it, mime is presented as mime and yet the central protagonist's emotions are - from the alas to me limited look of it - wonderfully enacted. To me the best actors were always those - mainly trained in silent movies - that could tell you one thing in words and something completely different with their facial expression and body language. I strongly believe that The Girl Is Mime manages to play on exactly this antithesis and this especially with the help of one of the finest British actors. ;)

A follow-up is located here http://das-unmoegliche.blogspot.com/2011/08/girl-is-mime-and-magic-flame.html!