MIMES ON FILM!
Bobcat Goldwaith’s cult classic
Shakes the Clown has a mime played by Robin Williams
There’s the little moment in TOOTSIE where Dustin Hoffman goes up to a mime balanced on one foot, and pushes him over.
http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2008/11/eric-s-blog/mimes-in-music-and-film.html
i thought this was interesting. especially the part about lindsay kemp which i’ll repost the video from velvet goldmine….now.
Lindsay Kemp was raised in Yorkshire, an area whose green moors and dales have earned it the nickname “God’s Own Country.” At Bradford Arts College he studied with famous Austrian dancer Hilde Holger and even more famous mime, Marcel Marceau. His take on mime was experimental, nightmarishly creepy, psychedelia and Butoh-informed and part of that whole anarchic, vaugely-sinister, druggy whimsy that seems to be evident in so much late ‘60s/early-’70s British stuff from the final scene of Blow-Up to The Prisoner. He had a small role in the druggily whimsical The Wicker Man as well as Velvet Goldmine and others. His troupe employed David Bowie and Kate Bush.
“Mine is money” – Billy Crystal, This is Spinal Tap
WAIT!
LOVE DISAPPEARS BABY
I’m surprised no one has mentioned The Warriors. There’s a whole gang of them…scary stuff.
@ Sonja That was Eric Stoltz in Singles, yes?
Doesn’t Woody Allen punch Bill Irwin in Scenes From A Mall.
here is one at 2:56 and he keeps reappearing in different parts of the film :O(
How’d we get this far without the brilliant use of mimes in “Blowup”, which “The Conversation” is simply referencing?
Wow, some excellent references in this thread!
Sonja, I’ve read about Lindsay Kemp, since I am a huge Kate Bush fan! Thank you for sharing your information! You also mentioned Butoh, which reminds me of “Horrors of Malformed Men”. I suppose I could also put in “Cherry Blossoms”, with much Butoh dancing and Tadashi Endo. But it’s somewhat getting away from the classic Marcel Marceau mime.
Duncan:
I am totally AMAZED at myself for not remembering “The Warriors” in my initial post! The gang in question is The Hi-Hats and they are AWESOME!
The Baseball Furies are silent and wear make-up, but they are not mimes in the same way as the Hi-Hats, who look like a group of angry arts students gone feral.
Jake:
I’m surprised I didn’t recall the mimes in “Blow Up” for this thread, as it is so obvious! Even better, they play TENNIS! That’s some classic mime stuff right there!
El Topo
Alejandro Jodorowsky as El Topo plays a short mime bit. He formerly worked with Marcel Marceau.
@danny—yeah that’s eric stolz…it’s the funniest part of the whole movie IMO
“oh i get it! you’re a mime! MIME THE DIRECTIONS!”
Joker’s terrifying gang of mimes in Burton’s unsettling BATMAN who indiscriminately open fire on civilians outside the Gotham courthouse. For my money, much scarier than hearing Ledger repeatedly drop references to anarchy.
Ben:
Now that you mention them, I remember the Joker’s gang from Tim Burton’s version of “Batman”. A very good call from your dear self.
Heath Ledger’s Joker is extremely overrated. A very good, performance, but I’ll take either Jack Nicholson or Cesar Romero any day of the week.
I love the way Cesar’s Joker did the mock pity thing (“Aaaaw!”, athough when Cesar did it, it sounded more like “Urrr!”) and those highly camp physical mannerisms fine-tuned to perfection. He is quite easily my favourite Joker.
I just saw “The Conversation” again. That mime at the start of the film is an absolute riot!
MARK IS SUSPENDED IN GAFFA
I’m really big on mimes, particularly those of the Marcel Marceau variety appearing on film. The following is a brief list of films that contain this type of mime.
“The Conversation” (mime in the opening scene—symbolism, would you say?).
“Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (mimes being loaded into a police van—randoms things courtesy of Joe Dante).
“Suburban Commando (mime gets physically assaulted by a well-meaning Hulk Hogan).
“Les Enfants Du Paradis” (mime does the moonwalk—take that, Michael Jackson!).
“Silent Movie” (the aforementioned Marcel Marceau, in full Bip make-up, utters the only word in an otherwise silent film—genius!).
I must also give a mention to the filmclip for Robert Palmer’s “Johnny and Mary”—the singer-songwriter himself wasn’t too pleased with the music video, but I just love those crazy white-faced mimes!
“The Goodies” did an excellent mime parody called “Le Boring”, one of my favourite episodes of the legendary British comedy serial.
I once encountered a lady mime on one of my travels to Tasmania, at the annual Launceston Festivale. I must say, she was a better communicator than most SPEAKING women! Mighty cute, too!
(I saw this and it made me laugh out loud—sorry, ladies, I just couldn’t help myself!)