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Post by denise on May 11, 2024 10:55:08 GMT
In December 1964, or early 1965, two French critics, Jean-Louis Leutrat and Paul Simonci, published a small paperback in France on Jerry. The book is titled simply Jerry Lewis. It's 108 pages long, and it's a very interesting read, more pragmatic than Robert Benayoun's mammoth work. Very interesting are the references to The Catcher in The Rye and to Orson Welles' films. It's not a biography, but an analysis of Jerry's first five self-directed films, so films after The Patsy are not included. The book is often mentioned in bibliographies of other books on Jerry, which was my reason to buy it and attempt to translate it. To start off, below are Robert Benayoun's short comments on this book and the book's Preface, written by the authors. After the Preface, there are 11 chapters in the book, which will appear here over the next weeks. I hope you enjoy it! Please do not re-post these translations elsewhere. Benayoun on Leutrat Simonci.pdf (42.57 KB) Preface.pdf (53.46 KB)  |
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Post by denise on May 15, 2024 14:04:50 GMT
Below is Chapter 1, A Body of Work Constructed According To a Character 1 A body of work.pdf (80.28 KB) |
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Post by denise on May 18, 2024 12:17:27 GMT
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Post by denise on May 23, 2024 8:29:15 GMT
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Post by denise on May 26, 2024 11:50:57 GMT
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Post by denise on May 29, 2024 15:39:57 GMT
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Post by denise on Jun 1, 2024 13:06:02 GMT
After these brief discussions of his first self-directed films ( The Patsy will follow later), we now come to the meat of the book, starting with Chapter 6, The Character. 6 The Character.pdf (83.25 KB) |
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Post by denise on Jun 5, 2024 17:42:59 GMT
In this chapter, the authors commit a big mistake, and believe me, I looked at this sentence several times: they thought that Jerry started out as a singer (!) with Ted Fio Rito and Jimmy Dorsey! They confused him with Patti! It's a shame that foreign authors in general made such mistakes about Jerry's biography; they obviously did not have access to correct information. I have seen similar mistakes before, but this one is a doozy. 7 The Lewisian world.pdf (118.76 KB) |
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Post by denise on Jun 8, 2024 9:18:32 GMT
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Post by denise on Jun 12, 2024 14:23:13 GMT
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Post by denise on Jun 15, 2024 15:04:17 GMT
Chapter 10, Time. Only one more chapter, coming soon! 10 Time.pdf (73.53 KB) |
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Post by denise on Jun 18, 2024 14:38:46 GMT
Last chapter of Leutrat and Simonci's insightful little book. This deals with The Patsy. Coming as it does as the end of the book and not grouped with the discussions of the other films, it would appear to be the summation of everything previously said and more so, and we readers are rewarded for waiting with the best analysis of the entire book. Up to now, The Patsy had been one of my least favorite JL films. But after reading this analysis, I've had to change my mind. The references to Citizen Kane and silent films are remarkable (even though the authors missed the tribute to Chaplin with the sliding doors at the professor's house), but the analogies are not at all far-fetched. I am left scratching my head and wondering if Jerry really intended all the things that Leutrat and Simonci discovered. Sometimes I think Jerry would shake his head and say, no, he didn't intend this or that at all. But in certain cases I think he would sit back, smile that little smirk of his (like at the end of The Patsy) and think: so someone finally saw this. You can say what you want about his comedy, which is not everyone's cup of tea, but as a (comedic) director, the man was a genius, and only the Europeans recognized that and honored him for it. I would like to know what you think of this book! Comments are very welcome! As always, please do not share these translations elsewhere. 11 The Patsy.pdf (102.13 KB) |
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