Par Ou T'Es Rentre? On T'A Pas Vue Sortir

France has given the world some of cinema's greatest artists--including Jean Renoir, Abel Gance, and the great New Wave directors--and a staggering list of film masterpieces. Yet for some inexplicable reason they revere Jerry Lewis as a genius from the same mold as Charlie Chaplin. Both Cahiers du Cinema and Positif, the two leading and oft-opposed film journals of France, drop any argument when it comes to singing the praises of "Le Roi du Crazy," as Lewis is affectionately known. Lewis has been enrolled as a Commander of Arts and Letters by France's cultural minister and has been inducted into the Legion D'honneur, an exclusive academy formed by Nap...