Every year around this time I commemorate the Labor Day institution that is now long gone: The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. It was a crass but compelling display of emotion, sentimentality, and show-biz glitz. Much has been said about the host, Jerry Lewis, but this year in particular there has been much talk, yet again, about his uncompleted The Day The Clown Cried.
In that spirit, I want to share once again the discovery
that I was led to by my friend, superior cineaste Paul Gallagher, who was
giving me copies of films by the late, great Jacques Rozier (whom I've paid
tribute to before here on this blog and on the Funhouse TV show twice). One of
the documentaries he gave me was a TV project Rozier helmed called Vive Le
Cinema (1972). It was a TV pilot that would have different hosts interviewing
performers, filmmakers, and others who worked in the world of moviemaking.
There were three episodes of the series, according to the
IMDB, but the one that draws our attention was Rozier's pilot, hosted by none
other than Jeanne Moreau, who interviewed a number of French filmmakers and
actors, including Philipe De Broca, Barbet Schroeder, and Bulle Ogier.
The two Americans in the line-up immediately drew my attention, though — the second was the giant of cinema, Orson Welles, in full conversational flourish with Jeanne as they ate a dinner and Orson told her anecdotes of his youth and of some of the projects he would like to make with her (including Isak Dinesen's "The Farm," which was eventually made as Out of Africa.)
The first American interviewed was Jerry Lewis, just as he was embarking on The Day The Clown Cried. He discusses it with Moreau, shows her the storyboards and design drawings and discusses the film's cast and storyline with her.
I present this lost snippet of Lewis-iana here with subtitles, which I myself typed into my editing program, since Lewis and Moreau speak in English, but his words are overdubbed by a French translation and the subtitles produced by the AI program that offer subs for movies is wildly off-base at times.
I hope you enjoy this bit of "lost" (read: hidden)
footage. The Orson interview is here. (Note: I subtitled that one myself as
well. As I presented it, I sadly had to cut about five minutes of it, but the
rest of it filled up a whole Media Funhouse episode at 28 minutes).
