Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

This forum is nearly identical to the previous forum. The difference? Discussions about comedy from the SOUND era.
Uli Ruedel
Capo
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:47 am

Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Uli Ruedel » Fri May 24, 2013 3:45 am

Here's the Bologna festival's just-announced invite to rediscover Robert Benayoun's seminal BONJOUR MR. LEWIS:

"Six fifty-minute segments will be screened over the festival’s week: a practically unknown masterpiece made in 1982 by French filmmaker and historian Robert Benayoun. Sifting through Jerry Lewis’s rich and well-organized personal archives, Benayoun focused on the divining rod of his sensitivities and extracted gems to produce a goldmine of a film, full of routines, rare TV shticks, behind-thescenes footage and interviews: an exuberant journey into the life and career of one of the giants of American cinema, an all-around filmmaker (director, screenwriter, choreographer, producer and superstar), slapstick genius, the undisputed King of Comedy."
http://www.cinetecadibologna.it/cinemaritrovato2013en/ev/foreword_2013

And, a Cannes retrospective along with the MAX ROSE premiere:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-cannes-lewisbre94m0tx-20130523,0,6271989.story
Press Conference:
http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/theDailyArticle/60331.html -
direct download link: http://www.festival-cannes.fr/mp3/CONF_Max_Rose_VA.mp3

"After a fulsome tribute from fellow comic Pierre Étaix, who worked with Lewis on The Day the Clown Cried, the entire press room erupted in applause; and shortly thereafter, as Lewis exited, shouts of "Jerry! Jerry!" resounded around the Palais."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/23/jerry-lewis-cannes-max-rose

Uli

Rob Farr
Godfather
Posts: 489
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 12:00 pm
Location: Our Nation's Capitol

Re: Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Rob Farr » Fri May 24, 2013 12:00 pm

You know, it's great that Jerry is around and healthy enough to enjoy these tributes, but the Guardian's headline, "Jerry Lewis: 'Women Doing Broad Comedy Bothers Me'" really bothers me. Jerry Lewis is a time traveller from another generation and we are really lucky to have him with us in 2013, still starring in movies no less. The fact that he has the attitudes that one might expect from somebody who's comic sensibilities were formed in the 1940s shouldn't come as a shock or surprise.
Rob Farr
"If it's not comedy, I fall asleep" - Harpo Marx

Uli Ruedel
Capo
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:47 am

Re: Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Uli Ruedel » Fri May 24, 2013 2:19 pm

Very well said, Rob. And I'm only waiting that someone digs up the rather tiresome cliché about Jerry Lewis and the French. None other than Jonathan Rosenbaum put that one to rest in quite powerful words just a few years ago:

"The curious process by which unreasoning love for Chaplin in the U.S. was transformed into unreasoning hatred is clearly matched by a comparable metamorphosis in the American psyche regarding Jerry Lewis. For me, the enduring mystery about Lewis isn’t any alleged love of “the French” for his films—a factoid whose former (and always limited) relevance has by now been out of date for decades, ever since Woody Allen became far more revered in France than Lewis—but American denial about its own former Lewis infatuation, which was much larger than any French craze for the man ncould ever have been, and is even what made his French profile possible[…] So Americans’ refusal to deal with Lewis having once been even bigger here than Elvis is the phenomenon that cries out for sociological inquiry, not the understandable respect and affection he continues to receive anywhere else in the world."
(CINEASTE, Spring 2010)

Nice to hear Mr. Lewis and M. Étaix acknowledge each other at the press conference, by the way!

Uli

Gary Johnson
Cugine
Posts: 656
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:15 am
Location: Sonoma, CA
Contact:

Re: Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Gary Johnson » Fri May 24, 2013 7:36 pm

Back when The Disney Channel actually showed programs pertaining to their brand of classic animation, it also indulged in programs of pop culture interests; such as the TV specials of Astaire and Kelly. Among those shows was a Jerry Lewis retrospective that aired in the 90's concentrating alot on his TV work. Along with the familar clips from his Colgate Comedy Hour appearances were long segments from his 1958 show, which I had rarely seen before. The more I saw of his television work the more I was convinced that his brand of manic, ego-ridden, borscht belt slapstick was best presented on the small screen rather than the cinema.

Lewis' flaws as a top-flight comic; his excessive mugging, his unwillingness to edit himself, his need to be the entire show - and my personal pet peeve - his misuse of dialog (he doesn't know when to shut up), were all tempered slightly when he appeared on television. TV by nature is time structured and so even with a strong guiding force on hand there is a greater need for by-partisan creative cooperation. This helped place Lewis in a better light over his feature films since many of the production details were taken out of his hands and he could just concentrate on being funny. For there is no denying that Lewis had a creative mind. The Colgate programs had the same sketch structure pattern that Your Show of Shows and SNL would inevitably fall into. It was hard to keep coming up with original material week after week and so recurring characters and phrases would be used to fall back on. It's interesting watching Lewis try to shake things up each week by playing with the entire format of a sketch comedy show. He would point out the cameras or members of the crews to the audience. He would stop the sketches to read cue cards. He loved fighting with the floor director over hitting his marks and would retaliate by hiding from the cameras. From the clips I remember seeing from the Jerry Lewis Show it looks like he used that format to help develop small bits of business or actual routines which would eventually end up in his features - like the typewriter routine.

I can watch any of his features just for those small moments when he is more entertaining than annoying, but I find it much easier to just watch him cut up on TV without having to wade through his terminal excessiveness which permeate most of his features. His episodic black out comedies he made in the early 60's probably best exemplify the lessons he learned from working on TV. And none of the Hal Wallis produced Martin & Lewis features can hold a candle to any of the closing routines seen in any episodes of their Colgate Comedy shows when the Boys perform their nightclub act in front of the band.

Uli Ruedel
Capo
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:47 am

Re: Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Uli Ruedel » Thu Jul 18, 2013 3:45 pm

From Jonathan Rosenbaum's notes (http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=33954) on the Cinema Ritrovato's DVD Awards: "...the best film or program at this year’s edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato that we would most like to see released on DVD or Blu-Ray [...] is the French TV series Bonjour Mr Lewis (1982) by Robert Benayoun."

Notes from the show's producer, Pierre Kalfon, here: http://www.filmfestivalspro.com/blog/editor/bonjour_mr_lewis_receives_dvd_awards_2013_at_festival_il_cinema_ritrovato_de_bologne_italy

Uli

Jim Roots
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:40 am
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Re: Jerry Lewis in Bologna, Cannes

Postby Jim Roots » Sun Jul 21, 2013 7:04 pm

Still ... "the undisputed King of Comedy"?

Rupert Pupkin isn't the only one who would, indeed, dispute it.


Jim
When you're surrounded by vultures, playing dead is not a good strategy.


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 50 guests