Going into the documentary “From Darkness to Light,” most reasonably well-informed movie fans would know three things about “The Day the Clown Cried,” the Jerry Lewis Holocaust movie that is the subject of this doc: It was ahead of its time, it was never finished and it probably wasn’t any good.
Coming out of “From Darkness to Light,” which premiered on Sunday at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, you’d likely know the same three things, but at least you’d have more context and more evidence that Lewis’ legendary but unseen film is indeed a bad movie. There aren’t any real revelations in the doc, just the sad and tangled story of a questionable idea being undermined by creative choices, business conflicts and a comic icon’s determination to bury something that embarrassed him.