Resistance (2020)

 

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the most famous mime artist in history.  Marcel Marceau was born in 1923.  At age 5, he saw a Charlie Chaplin and his future career was determined.  But first, he had to weather the Holocaust.  During the occupation of France in WWII, he joined the resistance and helped save Jewish children.  Recently a movie was made about his exploits.

            “Resistance” (which is a terrible title) is a biopic about the famous mime Marcel Marceau. It was written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz.  It’s box office was killed by the pandemic.  Let’s see if that was bad luck or deserved. 

            If you think of Marceau as a man who brought smiles to millions, the movie immediately makes it clear there will be few in this film.  In the first scene, a young Jewish girl named Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey) witnesses the deaths of her parents.  This establishes the movie as a Holocaust film about a mime.  I’m pretty sure it is the only one.  This particular mime has no interest in the plight of the Jews, although he is one of them.  He works in his father’s butchers shop, but he wants to be a performer.  Would you believe his father is against that career?  Marcel gets involved with the Jewish resistance when he reluctantly entertains Jewish children who are being hidden in Strausburg, France.  They later relocate to Lyon in southern France.  When the Nazis occupy Vichy France, the resistance gets a diabolic foe in one Klaus Barbie (Matthias Schweighofer).  We first meet the future “Butcher of Lyon” as he beats to death a homosexual.  Evil established.  Normally, you would bet on the butcher versus the mime, but Marcel is not just an entertainer.  He becomes an underground operative.  Besides the expected cloak and dagger of hiding the children, the movie firmly plants itself in the resistance subgenre with your typical capture, torture, rescue scenes.  This builds to a daring escape to Switzerland with some children.

            The obvious comparison is to “Life is Beautiful”.  Both movies try to inject humor into a very serious subject.  At least in this case, it is a true story.  Or based on one.  I was unable to determine how historically accurate it is.  Marceau was definitely in the resistance and did help with the sheltering of children, but the incidents in the movie certainly have the feel of apocrypha.  He was recruited by his cousin Georges Loinger  (Geza Rohrig) into the French Jewish Resistance.  Loinger was a much more significant figure in the rescuing of Jewish children, but he was not a mime.  As far as Marcel entertaining the kids with miming, it rings true.  He did take up the art as a child who was inspired by Charlie Chaplin.  The two women in his life seem fictional and their scrapes with Barbie are likely historical enhancement.  However, the movie bookends itself with Patton commending Marcel’s actions.  Marcel did end the war as a liaison officer for the Third Army.  I would like to think Patton did not let Marcel perform his miming for the troops.  Hadn’t they suffered enough?

            “Resistance” is another misguided attempt to inject humor into the Holocaust subgenre.  Marceau was a great entertainer and a middling resistance figure.  Choosing him as the focus of a resistance movie was pandering to get viewers.  Mime-lovers are likely to be disappointed.  There are surprisingly few mime routines in the film.  (I wonder if Eisenberg was happy with this, considering he went to a lot of trouble to go to mime camp, so to speak.)  This might explain why Eisenberg’s performance is not great.  His Marceau gives a taste of his future fame, but the movie is mostly about Marceau the resistance agent. To gin up his heroism, the film has the usual unrealistic escapes and coincidences.  For instance, the children practice hiding in trees and then have the opportunity to do so on the way to Switzerland.  Not to worry, no children come to harm in the escapades.  The plot makes use of the evil Nazi hot on the trail trope.  Barbie is a cartoonish figure that reminds of a brutal Snidely Whiplash. 

            There have been many WWII resistance movies made and a few are very good.  The ground has been plowed a lot, so a 21^st century example needs to be different.  “Resistance” attempts to be out of the box, but aside from a central character who later became different, it plows the same ground.  It is even shakier as a Holocaust film as it makes light of the plight of children.  Do we now need a Holocaust film with a happy ending?  If you want that, then watch “Escape from Sobibor”.  If you want a resistance film about an operative who uses her talents, then watch “Black Book”.  

GRADE  =  C-

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  The movie takes some liberties to enhance the entertainment value of the tale, but it is based on some actual history.  Marcel Mangel became interested in mime when he saw a Charlie Chaplin movie at age 5.  He was living a typical childhood in a Jewish family in France when the Germans came.  He changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish identity.  His cousin Georges Loinger was a prominent member of the French Jewish Resistance (the OJC) and was credited with saving 350 Jews from deportation to concentration camps.  He recruited Marcel and his brother.  Their father had been sent to Auschwitz where he died.  Marcel participated in the hiding of Jewish children and the smuggling of them to neutral countries.  At one point, he was part of a group that sheltered many children in an orphanage.  He did use his miming skills to entertain the kids.  He did lead a group to Switzerland, although it was not as dramatic as depicted.  In an incident not shown in the movie, he once disguised 24 kids in a Boy Scout troop and went on a hike to that country.  He eventually joined the French army and then was plucked to Patton’s Third Army as a liaison officer because of his fluency in French, English, and German.  He had his first public performance before 3,000 soldiers in Frankfurt, Germany near the end of the war.