Creating a Character - the Moni Yakim Legacy
Image Alma Har'el
Rauzar Alexander | US, 2020 | English | Documentary | 76m | DCP | IMDB | Distributor/Sales: (NA) First Run Pictures/(Elsewhere) Blake Levin | Trailer
Description: Moni Yakim and his wife Mona have been training actors at Julliard’s Performance Training Center for the last 45 years. Born in Jerusalem to a parents who emigrated from Egypt and Syria, he trained and performed in Paris in the companies of renowned mime artists Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau and where he met his wife. The two eventually moved to New York where they started their own mime school. John Houseman, who became the founding member of the drama division at the Julliard School, hired the two and they have been working there ever since.
This documentary includes extensive sequences of the Yakim training techniques and follows one of thier students, Alex Sharp through his final year at Julliard. Soon after graduating Sharp is hired to perform the lead in a Broadway production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for which he wins a Tony award the next year. Yakim’s time in Israel and France is illustrated with stills and archival footage. There are also many interviews with his students, including Kevin Kline, Laura Linney and Anthony Mackie.
Merits: As the son of immigrants from the Middle East, Yakim felt alienated from the Ashkenazi dominated Israel of his upbringing. Although he speaks of his time there with no apparent bitterness, it is obvious that this motivated his eventual emigration. The extensive workshop sequences and the scenes with Sharp offer a fascinating light on the couple’s technique and their contribution to the professional development of their students.
Rating: Suitable for all audiences.