Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Loulou (aka Pandora's Box) airs on French television tonight

Loulou (aka Pandora's Box) will be shown on French television tonight at 8:50 pm on the Ciné+ Classic station. An article in L'Obs describes the film as "One of the most legendary films in the history of cinema." The article goes on to state (in translation) "Louise Brooks, who plays the main role, has become the very symbol of evil beauty, devastating sexuality and, thanks to her (unusual) physique, the most toxic passion." The L'Obs article, « Loulou », naissance d’une femme fatale, can be found HERE

Curiously, the article describes Brooks hairstyle as a "pixie haircut," and also claims that the Nazi's "burned" the film. I think they might mean censored. Here is an old French advert for the film.


If you don't live in France or can't catch the film on television, take note that the film will released on Blu-ray in the UK at the end of the month. This forthcoming release is part of the Masters of Cinema series from Eureka. More information can be found HERE.


THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.


Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Rare Louise Brooks film to screen in Toronto, Canada

The rarely screened silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Canada. This special screening will feature a print, courtesy of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, of the restored original silent version. And what's more, the film will be introduced by series curator Alicia Fletcher and will feature live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this event can be found HERE.


According to the Toronto International Film Festival website, "Weimar-era icon and prototypical Hollywood iconoclast Louise Brooks stars in Prix de beauté as Lucienne, a typist who enters a newspaper beauty contest and wins a chance to compete for the Miss Europe title in Spain. A tale of morbid jealousy and revenge co-scripted by G.W. Pabst and René Clair (the latter was intended to direct before Italian expat Augusto Genina was brought in), Prix de beauté had the unfortunate distinction of being filmed as a late-era silent, only to be hastily re-edited and released as a sound film (with Brooks dubbed by a French actress). The end result was a film out of step with the times in its format, yet one which was distinctly modern in its fashion sense, with Jean Patou of the famed House of Patou outfitting Brooks for her final starring role. The sophisticated originator of women’s sportswear who eradicated the flapper style of the ’20s and ushered in the dropped hemlines and elegance of the ’30s, Patou was the perfect outfitter for the rebellious, singularly fashion-forward actor. And, as the inventor of ladies’ knitted swimwear, he was also the perfect match for the film’s bathing-beauty sequence."

 

The internationalism of Prix de beauté is suggested in this vintage poster, which names the film’s American star, French actors, and Italian director, and also shows the flags of the four nations whose languages the film would be dubbed – Italy, France, England, and Germany.

Despite its delayed, problematic release (having to be converted from a silent to a sound feature), Prix de beauté was a considerable hit at the time of its release. It played continuously for a couple of months -- at a time most films only played a week -- following its May 9, 1930 debut at the Max Linder-Pathe in Paris, France. And soon thereafter, the film was shown all over Europe, in Northern Africa, parts of Asia, and in South America and the Caribbean well into the mid-1930s. In fact, the film remained in circulation for some six years. It was often revived in France. And, it played in present day Algeria, Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Madagascar, Turkey and the former USSR. And speaking of former nation states, the film even played in the one-time city-state of Danzig. Prix de beauté had legs (pun intended).

For example, records show that the film played in Havana, Cuba in March 1932, and then debuted at the Haitiana theatre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti later that year, in December 1932. Ever green, Prix de beauté returned to the Haitiana theatre in October 1933, April 1935, and July 1936 - that's six years after is debut. Truth be told, the film played just about everywhere, except for the United States and Canada.

Haitian newspaper ad

More about Prix de beauté can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website HERE. The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Monday, October 31, 2022

A Halloween post - an almost scary Louise Brooks

As most everyone agrees, Louise Brooks was a beautiful women. She was lovely, and it is hard to imagine a depiction of the actress which might depict her so poorly as to make her almost unrecognizable, even a bit "scary." And yet, there exists just such a depiction. As best I can tell, this poster dates from 1930, and comes from France. It is a poster for Loulou, the French title of Pandora's Box. The artist is Marcel Gaillard. (I couldn't find much else about him.)

The scene shown on the poster above comes from Pandora's Box, at the moment when Alwa places his head in the lap of Lulu. If one has seen the film, then one knows this scene. Yet, the poster artist has so clumsily rendered Brooks' face as to make her unappealing, almost "ugly - I am not sure what other word to use. This is, in my opinion, one of the worst depictions of Brooks, at least, one of the worst I have ever seen.

Another clumsy depiction of Brooks also comes from France. This one is by F. Gaboit, and it adorned a 1980 poster for Loulou issued by Connaissance duCinema (as shown below). Based on the famous Eugene R. Richee photographic portrait of Brooks, this illustration also falls short, especially in the way the artist has elongated the fingers which hold the strand of pearls. There is also something about the way Gaboit has rendered Brooks' face that doesn't appeal to me. I can't say what exactly, but that is the way I feel. Maybe it is because Richee's portrait is so perfect, and that this drawn illustration is so imperfect. I have seen another adaption of this poster art, and it is similarly lacking.

Gaboit was not a bad artist, it is just that I think the Loulou poster falls short. On the other hand, Gaboit's poster for Le Journal d'une fille perdue (the French title for Diary of a Lost Girl) is appealing and I think successful in capturing the lovely allure of Brooks.

 
The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

A follow-up to Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In my last post, I wrote about two little documented periods in the life of Louise Brooks. One of them was the couple three weeks Brooks spent in Paris, France in the Fall of 1924. She had gone there with Barbara Bennett, and not long after their arrival, Bennett decided to return to the United States. Suddenly on her own, and with little money, the 18 year old Brooks was at loose ends.

According to Brooks, she was sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Edouard VII (39 Av. de l'Opéra) in Paris when Archie Selwyn encountered her. The well connected American producer persuaded her to go with him to London, where he got her a job dancing at the Cafe de Paris in London. According to the International Herald Tribune, Selwyn was reported to be in Paris as of October 14; he was in Paris with his wife and staying at the Hotel Claridge (37 Rue François), working to secure a contract with the Spanish singing star Raquel Meller, who is performing in Paris to great acclaim at the Palace.

So, now we know how Brooks got to London (where she lived at 49A Pall Mall) and how she got a job at the Cafe de Paris (3-4 Coventry St.), at which she began dancing on October 20. On October 21, 1924, Variety reports that Brooks was "cordially received upon opening last night at the Cafe de Paris cabaret," and that Layton & Johnstone have returned to the establishment for an extended engagement.

From January 1925, the first depiction of Louise Brooks in a European publication. As this early portrait doesn't show up in American publications, I am going to assume it was taken in London.

News sometimes travels slow, especially in small-town Kansas. On November 6th, the Burden Times from Burden, Kansas reported that the Cherryvale Republican reports that the Wichita press reports that Brooks was in Paris, France. The Burden paper notes, "Her departure from France was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris." Unfortunately, the Cherryvale Republican is not available for 1924, and I am not sure it is even extant. Thus, I cannot trace the lineage of the reportage mentioned in the article pictured here.


Thursday, July 1, 2021

A Couple Three Nifty New Finds From Around the World with Louise Brooks

While continuing to write and research my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, I continue to come across remarkable stuff. Last night, for example, while researching the 1930 French film Prix de beaute, I came across some articles which specifically identified which actresses dubbed Louise Brooks' speaking and singing voices in the various incarnations of the film. If you recall, Prix de beaute was released in four different languages (French, Italian, English and German) as both a silent and sound film. If these plans were realized, that means there are eight different variants of Prix de beaute! That is kind of remarkable, and French newspapers at the time thought so and claimed it had never been done. Articles of the time also claimed that the rights to the film had been sold all over the world, including the United States. Who knew, since it often said that the film was something of a failure and little seen. In fact, it was shown all over Europe (including Iceland and the Ukraine) as well as in French Algeria, Madagascar, Japan, Turkey, and the U.S.S.R. However, despite the fact that Prix was also shown in the 1930s in Western Hemisphere (Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Uruguay, and Venezuela), I don't believe it was shown in the United States or Canada until the late 1950s or early 1960s. Perhaps the timing was wrong for a dubbed foreign film in the USA.


Speaking of lovely portraits, I just recently came across a eye-catching image of the French film actress actress Arlette Marchel taken by one of the most gifted photographers of his time, M.I. Boris. I was going to describe Boris as everyone's favorite Louise Brooks photographer (since he took some outstanding photo's of the actress at the beginning of her career), but I might guess that everyone's favorite Brooks photographer is Eugene Robert Richee, the Paramount staff photographer. Well anyways, here is the portrait of Marchal, embellished a little more than usual in Boris' customary manner of etching the photographic print. (Marchel appeared in Wings and a couple other Clara Bow and Adolphe Menjou films.) I think Vincent might like this one; it was published in a rare Brazilian film mag.

Despite the eye appeal of the above two images, the one I was most pleased to find is this "pattern poem" or "picture poem," which was also published in a rare Brazilian film magazine. It is a prose-poem (how else to describe it?) formatted into the shape of a goblet, a symbol of both femininity (right Dan Brown) and rarity, or preciousness. It mentions a number of beautiful actresses (Norma Talmadge, Greta Nissen, Lya De Putti, Pola Negri, Colleen Moore, Clara Bow, Billie Dove, etc...), as well as Louise Brooks "with the dark night of its provocative sensualism." I think George Herbert would like this one.

My next post, in a couple of days, will feature another remarkable image regarding the presence of Paramount films around the world.

Sunday, June 20, 2021

G. W. Pabst gripes about censorship of his two Louise Brooks films

While looking through Parisian newspapers while working on Around the World with Louise Brooks (my forthcoming two volume transnational look at Brooks' career), I came across a couple of noteworthy interviews with director G. W. Pabst. In one of them (the second piece, shown below), he complained about French censorship of his films, including the two films he made with Louise Brooks. 

The occasion for Pabst's complaint was his visit to Paris in January 1931, which prompted a few Parisian newspapers to profile and interview the Austrian-born director.  The article pictured to the right was published in Comœdia on January 30, 1931.

Why were French journalists interested in Pabst? At this point in his career, there were few directors as esteemed by French critics than Pabst. His silent and early sound films were highly regarded, especially Joyless Street (1925), The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), Loulou / Pandora's Box (1929), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), and Westfront 1918 (1930). Despite the high regard in which they were held, French censors still excised so much of Pabst's two Brooks' films that it annoyed both the director and French critics, who complained time and again about the sorry state of each film. (I have run across a number of articles about the two Brooks' films in which newspaper and magazine writers said they were aware each film had been cut.)

In France, Pandora's Box went under the titles Le Boite de Pandore, or Loulou, while The Diary of a Lost Girl went under the title Le Journal d'une Fille perdue and Trois pages d’un journal. The latter was a huge success, showing continuously for more than a month after debuting in Paris. (This was at a time when most films showed for only a week.)

I won't translate the entire article pictured left; it appeared in Le Quotidien on February 6, 1931 and takes the form of a profile, within which are interspersed Pabst's answers to various questions asked by "L.D.", the author of the piece.

The article begins by stating that everyone was pleased that the acclaimed director was in Paris, where he was considering taking on the direction of a French film.

The second to last paragraph is of special interest. In translation, it reads: "I have never been lucky in France with my films. None escaped the censor's chisel. Two of my films: The Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box (Loulou) have been altered in their fundamental meaning. Even in Germany I was not immune from such severity; thus The Diary of a Lost Girl was cut by nearly three hundred meters, all in small pieces. But at least the meaning of the film remained the same."

The article concludes, "There is no bitterness in Pabst's voice. He is no longer fixed on the past. He stretches his strength and his heart towards the next work which will be a great humane film. Ten minutes later he jumps on the train which brings him back to Berlin."

To me, Pabst's comments are revealing. It had been well more than a year that both of his Brooks's had shown in Paris, and even longer since their German debut. Yet, they were still on his mind, or on the mind of French journalists.

Does anyone know if French censorship records still exist, or or accessible?

 

 

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Three Louise Brooks films among best of all time, according to 1932 French magazine

Today, lists of the best films are commonplace. There are lists of the all-time best movies (usually headed by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane), the best comedies, the best dramas, best film noir, best pre-code, and also best silent films. Louise Brooks' films rarely figure on any of these lists, except for Pandora's Box, which occasionally makes the top ten or twenty best films of the silent era. 

Back in 1932, just a couple-three years after the end of the silent era, the popular French film magazine Pour Vous attempted to establish a listing of the best films up until that time. It was a kind of curated "reader's poll" which seemingly calls for the preservation of "repertory films," or what were even then seen as classic films from the past. The results are surprising, especially for fans of Louise Brooks, as three of her films, A Girl in Every Port, Beggars of Life, and Diary of a Lost Girl, all made the list. Each were very popular in France, with the first mentioned film, Howard Hawks' buddy bromance, spending nearly a year in various Parisian theaters. Left off the list was Pandora's Box, today Brooks' most celebrated film. (The list of films ends with those released in 1929, and thus it doesn't include Prix de beaute, which was released in 1930 and was as celebrated in France as the four previously mentioned films.)


This article, with illustration from a handful of the many films mentioned, is titled "Sauvons les films de repetoire," and subtitled "Pour Vous "Établit une liste ideale en s'inspirant des suggestions de ses lecteurs" (which translates as "Pour Vous establishes an ideal list based on the suggestions of its readers"). The introductory paragraphs by Lucienne Escoube (a critic and author) translate thus: 

"The question of a film directory remains on the agenda; our colleagues have, in their turn, taken up the cause of this undertaking of an importance and a seriousness that true cinephiles have not failed to underline. But, before we meet and consult together on the essential decisions to be taken, it would be important to know how this cinematographic repertoire should be put together.

First of all, let's not forget two important points: the repertoire must be put together for the public, of course, but also for specialists, for all those 'in the house'; what we think should be included on the list are not only works which have been proven successes on the screen (provided that they are beautiful and significant), but also works which have not had the reputation they deserve but which, by their intrinsic value, their technique, their tendencies, brought to the screen new directives, a particular style, an atmosphere not yet put forth. This repertoire, a true museum, must be of high quality, let us not forget. It must retrace, in a way, the entire history of cinema, its ages, styles, eras and various trends: early cinema, cinema theater, pre-war cinema (French, Russian, Italian, German), American cinema, war cinema, Swedish era, German era, American era, French post-war cinema, everything that was significant on the screen must find its place in a well-understood repertoire.

Also in this choice of films, the main works of the great directors, of those who brought to the screen the novelty of their genius, works of those who were innovators, must find a place; (Gance, Stiller. Griffith, and how many others! Finally, the works of artists who, by their personality, have created a genre, a character who. animated by them, has become a living entity: including William Hart, Hayakawa. Nazimova, so many names that I cannot name here!

And all the work of the perfect genius: Chaplin.

The list that we publish here. and which we have established from our personal recollections, the documentation offered to us by old journals, and on the basis of suggestions from our readers who responded to our referendum, is only a first attempt at selection that we propose to develop and complete as our research progresses."

Following the lists of films, there is a brief concluding paragraph which states: "Finally, let us mention a few other films suggested by our readers: Senorita, The Image Hunters, The Lily of Life, Towards Happiness (Stiller), The Earth, The Arsenal (Dovjenko), and by almost unanimous request Monsieur Beaucaire (Rudolph Valentino)."

There are, of course, a handful of films by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rene Clair, Mauritz Stiller, Ernst Lubitsch, and Fritz Lang. Other films are credited to Nazimova, Garbo, and Gloria Swanson. There are a number of French films, along with German, Swedish and Russian productions. G.W. Pabst's Joyless Street makes the list, as does Erich von Stroheim's Wedding March and King Vidor's The Big Parade. And so does Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu the Vampire. Some of the surprise entries (in that they are little remembered today) include The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, and a William Wyler directed film here titled Far-West. Off-hand, I am not sure which film the latter that might be. 

The three Brooks' films include Les Mendiants de la vie (Beggars of Life, released in the United States in 1928, the film is mistakenly listed under 1927, though it played in France in 1929 and 1930); A Girl in Every Port (which kept it's English-language title in France, though is mistakenly credited here to Josef von Sternberg); and under 1929 Trois pages d'un journal (Diary of a Lost Girl). Curiously, Loulou is left off the list!

Here is a close-up of the film lists, for those who might to look for their favorite, and to see who was included, and who was left off.




Thursday, August 8, 2019

Louise Brooks died on this day in 1985

Louise Brooks died on this day in 1985. Her passing made news around the United States and the world. The most extensive coverage came from the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, where Brooks had lived since the late 1950s. There, her death was front page news. LBS friend Jack Garner contributed many articles.

 
Wire service articles appeared in just about every newspaper in the United States, Canada, Australia  and elsewhere the following day. Here are two examples of note.



Obituaries and articles also appeared in Europe, where Brooks' passing was major news. There were even front page articles in newspapers in France, where the actress was a beloved figure. A half-page of articles devoted to Brooks and her film career were printed in the Italian newspaper shown below. As in France, Brooks was also a beloved figure in Italy.


The end.
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