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Robert Benayoun

Robert Benayoun

Directing

Biography

Robert Benayoun (12 December 1926 in Kenitra, Morocco – 20 October 1996, Paris) was a French film critic and author, and one-time member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival of 1980. He wrote books on Tex Avery, Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, and Alain Resnais. He wrote screenplays for and directed three films. Benayoun was one of comedian Jerry Lewis's greatest supporters and directed a film about him called Bonjour Mr. Lewis. He also directed the 1975 film Serious as Pleasure. Source: Article "Robert Benayoun" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

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Robert Benayoun’s reverence for the uncrowned king of slapstick and unfettered silliness has maybe something to do with his own affinity to surrealism, which he joined in the forties and encouraged him to deal with the great masters of the absurd comedy like the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton. In six episodes Benayoun, who worked for many years as a film critic in Paris, immerses himself in the various aspects of the personality and comedian. He was allowed to use the inexhaustible supply of unused or private films, since Lewis was known for not throwing away one inch of celluloid and hoarding it in his basement. In addition to the interviews, in which renowned colleagues of Mel Brooks from Scorsese to John Landis and Lewis himself speak, there are especially these rare and sometimes startling images, that give a new sharper view on Lewis as a filmmaker and as a person.

Bonjour Mr Lewis

1983Series