controversy and praise From 1949 to 1972, Lewis was known primarily for slapstick and sight gag comedy. Although he stated the film was a drama, there was a perception he would make irreverent humor from serious and horrific events. This production, ten years before his dramatic role in The King of Comedy, caused some to believe he was unsuited to the role. However, that did not prevent filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard from saying in an interview with Dick Cavett, "it is a great idea", "a beautiful idea", and that Lewis "should be supported" in his efforts. In the June 2001 Spin article "Always Leave 'Em Laughing", author Bowman Hastie writes of Life Is Beautiful and Jakob the Liar, similar themed Holocaust films released twenty-plus years after Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried, "All three movies shamelessly use the Holocaust — and the impending death of children — as a vehicle for the star's most base, maudlin ideas about his own beneficent selflessness and humanity. But only Lewis has been vilified for it." In the same article, comedian Janeane Garofalo provided a hint to another issue that has dogged Lewis's production: ridicule. An often polarizing figure, Lewis had detractors. Garofalo said, "Lewis's public criticism of younger comics ... only fuels Clown obsessives." Public readings of the script at comedy venues, halted by a cease and desist order (not by Lewis), provided opportunities to mock, as well as four decades of jokes and relentless interrogation of Lewis, shaped a perverse perception of the film. In 2006, writer and editor Lawrence Levi wrote of his interview with Michael Barclay, who in 1991 was planning a new production of Clown, "The Clown screenplay was brilliant ... most of what has been written about the film is incorrect or unfair; he was particularly incensed by the comments of Harry Shearer (quoted in Spy 1992)." On July 18, 2012, French director Xavier Giannoli stated on the France Inter film show Pendant les travaux, le cinéma reste ouvert that he had managed to track down a 75-minute copy of the film and that he had shown it to a number of people, among whom was noted French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon. In 2013, Frodon published a text dedicated to the film titled "Jerry Made his Day" in the anthology The Last Laugh. Strange Humors of Cinema edited by Murray Pomerance. The French version of the same text, titled