During the Holocaust, a man in a concentration camp attempts to distract a child from the horrors surrounding them through humor.
You probably clocked this logline as the plot of 1997’s “Life is Beautiful.” Directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, “Life is Beautiful” was one of the most lauded films of that awards season, winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and taking home three Academy Awards. However, this description also applies to a different film – one made roughly 20 years prior that is still the subject of mockery and mystique to this day: Jerry Lewis’ “The Day the Clown Cried.”
The Lewis film, which remains unfinished and unreleased, also takes place in a concentration camp and follows a German circus clown (played by Lewis), who is tasked with making Jewish children laugh before they’re marched into a gas chamber and killed. The film is one of Hollywood’s most storied, mythical failures, and is now the subject of a documentary called “From Darkness to Light,” playing at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
