JIFF: From Darkness to Light

From Darkness to Light

“A compelling story of Hollywood hubris that’s by turns moving, shocking and blackly funny.” – Next Best Picture

“The story of the production is endlessly fascinating, touching on desperation, ego and power plays.” – Blu-ray.com

NSW Premiere

In the early 1970s, comedian Jerry Lewis was working on a Holocaust comedy film called The Day the Clown Cried. But for various reasons, Lewis walked off set before finishing the film and it never saw the light of day. Until now.

This gripping investigative documentary attempts to piece together what happened with the project that haunted Lewis until his final days. It features interview footage with the comedian before his death in 2017, plus interviews with Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks and actor Harry Shearer, one of the few to see a rough cut of The Day the Clown Cried in 1979.

The documentary also shows never-before-seen footage from Lewis’s film, which was once thought lost but was rescued by a Swedish film lab assistant, where the film was marked “to be destroyed”.

Was Lewis ahead of his time, or was a Holocaust comedy a misguided idea from the start?

Rating

Unclassified 15+

Duration

108 min

Country

United States, Germany

Language

English

Cast

Jerry Lewis, Mel Brooks, Martin Scorsese

Director

Eric Friedler,Michael Lurie