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Clip description
In his New York high-rise, Max (voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is cutting and saving his toenails, aiming for order and stability. On the footpath below, a mime artist in the guise of Marcel Marceau goes through his silent paces. Max’s air conditioner detaches from the wall and falls, crushing the hapless mime to a pulp. Max invents new ways to keep cool, and on his 48th birthday, finally wins Lotto. The clip is narrated by Barry Humphries.
Curator’s notes
This clip is remarkable for its irony. The animation of the mime artist is sublime – he is wordless, pure, fluid in his movements, even putting up a tiny cocktail umbrella before the air conditioner falls. Max’s efforts at order and quiet are crushed simultaneously with the innocent mime artist below. Accused of manslaughter, Max is let off, as he is deemed ‘mentally deficient’ (and without a motive for killing a mime, unlike many, who see no value in this genre).
After Max wins the lottery (while Handel’s stirring coronation anthem 'Zadok the Priest’ plays on the soundtrack), he is ‘sensible with his sudden wealth’. He fills his apartment with chocolate, buys the complete Noblets collection of figurines and gives the rest of his winnings away to his ancient neighbour, who dies all too soon, leaving the fortune to a Cat Society.
