80s foreign movie about a clown or mime wandering in city

November 20, 2012 5:36 PM

Looking for a movie I saw on TV in the 80s that was about a sad clown/mime who left his circus and was wandering around the city - a foreign city, probably Europe. It is NOT Children of Paradise, but maybe some remake inspired by it. I believe it was a foreign film and was probably shown on Nickelodeon - it was a color film. Very atmospheric and followed the clown wandering in the city. Any ideas?
posted by cmp4Meta to media & arts (5 answers total)

Long shot: Wings of Desire? It's about fallen angels wandering the streets of Berlin but involves a character in the circus.
posted by jabes at 6:12 PM on November 20, 2012

Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire sounds like a good fit, except for the part about it being shown on Nickelodeon.
posted by vkxmai at 6:15 PM on November 20, 2012

Please dear god don't let this be The Day The Clown Cried.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:20 PM on November 20, 2012

The Clown (adaptation of Heinrich Boll's Ansichten eines Clowns) (1976) ?
posted by Abinadab at 9:12 PM on November 20, 2012

they were certainly not showing Wim Wenders on Nickelodeon - and those are angels, not clowns - so let's ring the gong on that one and take it off the stage. it was not jerry lewis (it is a foreign film) and not heinrich boll (remember we are talking kids' programming here). any less highbrow readers out there maybe have an idea?
posted by cmp4Meta at 9:06 AM on November 21, 2012