Showing posts with label Jacques Arnaut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacques Arnaut. Show all posts

Monday, February 8, 2010

Follow up: Jacques Arnaut

I have finally finished "visually skimming" all 607 pages of Jacques Arnaut, a 1933 French novel by Leon Bopp. (See this blog as well as this earlier blog for the story so far.) I failed to find the brief reference to Louise Brooks which I know exists in this book. As I don't read French, visually skimming is the best I could manage.

My inter-library loan copy of this rare book is coming due. Thus, my search to contextualize the reference will have to wait. Perhaps, one day, should I ever obtain a keyword searchable copy of the text, I may yet uncover the passage which refers to the actress. (If anyone could help with this matter, it would certainly be appreciated.)

On to other things . . . . Speaking of early 20th century French literature, did you know that the acclaimed French writer Paul Claudel saw the 1927 Brooks' film, Evening Clothes?

Claudel, a poet, dramatist, and diplomat as well as the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel (who was muse to Rodin) attended a special screening of Evening Clothes in Los Angeles on March 7, 1927. The event was held at the Metropolitan Theatre, the largest movie theater in Los Angeles at the time.

The film's story concerned a French gentleman farmer who goes to Paris to win back the affections of his bride. The premiere, and the presence of the French writer, generated a considerable amount of press as Claudel was, at the time, the French ambassador to the United States. A few weeks later, on March 21st, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

As a celebrated writer and as an ambassador, Claudel was something of a celebrity. Newspaper coverage of the event noted his attendance as well as that of the film's star, Adolphe Menjou. Each were introduced from the stage. If there are any Paul Claudel scholars out there who are aware of the author having written about this event - I would love to hear from you. There was no mention of Brooks herself being in attendance, though its possible, as she was living in Southern California at the time. 

[A couple of days earlier, Evening Clothes had its world premiere at the Metropolitan. Menjou was in attendance at that event as well, and according to newspaper articles at the time, he made his way through the crowds unnoticed wearing a beard.]

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Let me tell you about my day, again

I returned to the San Francisco Public Library this morning to look at the three inter-library loan requests which had arrived. All together, there were nine rolls of microfilm from the State Library in Sacramento. They were each rolls I wanted to look at during my last visit, but just didn't have the time to go over.

There was microfilm of the San Jose Mercury Herald, Lodi Sentinel, and Delta News (Sacramento County). I spent a little more than two hours going through it all, and found four more screenings (and supporting advertisements) to add to my project, Lulu by the Bay. (My wife says I have creeping project syndrome.)

Nevertheless, I had fun, and love researching. Truly. I found two more listings for Lodi (a small, not-so-far-away Central California town located between the state capital of Sacramento and the city of Stockton -  made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival), as well as one listing for the South Bay city of Santa Clara (found in the San Jose newspaper), and one first ever listing for the small hamlet of Rio Vista (found in the Delta News).

Pictured here is a rather typical example of the kind of stuff I have uncovered in my research. It is an advertisement for the 1927 Louise Brooks film, Rolled Stockings. Incidentally, that film largely shot in and around Berkeley, California.

According to the Cinema Treasures website, the T&D Theatre opened in 1912. "It was a long, narrow theater with a tall, brick stage house. For many years it was operated by T&D Theatres" and was eventually renamed The State Theatre. Interestingly, there was a T&D Theater located in Oakland, California - I have a handful of listings for Brooks' films having screened there as well. The Lodi theatre was advertised as a "T&D Jr.," so perhaps it was part of a chain of theaters in Northern California.

According to Cinema Treasures, the Lodi theater is now closed but the building still stands. Today, it serves as a banquet hall.


I take a streetcar to get to the library, and always bring along something along to read. And as noted in my previous blog, of late I have been visually skimming Jacques Arnaut by Leon Bopp. It is a French novel from 1933. Visually skimming is the best I can do, as I don't read French. However, I am hoping to spot a reference to Louise Brooks which I know exists in this book. I am 300 pages into the Bopp's book, and so far have not come across Brooks' name. 

However, I did come across a rather interesting looking passage, or chapter, called "Haine." It begins on page 183. And, it is filled with American references - to Chicago and New York, to Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis, to Babe Ruth, Lake Michigan, Chrysler, the Morning Pictorial, and American dollars. Lots of American dollar$.

I wish I could read French and could understand what appears to be a rather interesting novel. In my previous post I suggested this book was comparable to James Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. Now, I'm thinking John Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer or USA Trilogy.

In order to learn something about this intriguing novelist, I put in an ILL request for A study of Léon Bopp: the novelist and the philosopher, a 1955 English-language book. Perhaps it will provide some info on Bopp and his work. I will let my few readers know if I find that still elusive reference.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Let me tell you about my day

Yesterday, I received an email that my inter-library loan request for a book which I didn't think would come actually arrived! I was excited, and headed down to the San Francisco Public Library later in the day. Little did I know that this email would set off a chain of events . . . .

The book in question was Jacques Arnaut (or Jacques Arnaut et la Somme Romanesque as it is sometimes listed) by Leon Bopp, a French novelist, literary critic, and philosopher born in 1897. I had come across the book while searching through Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. My search of the keywords "Louise Brooks" revealed that the actress was mentioned in this French-language work published by Gallimard in 1933.

I had blogged about this book and my discovery of its Brooks' connection back on January 22. And subsequently, I put in an inter-library loan request in hope of borrowing the title. According to a search of WorldCat, there were a few copies (7 to be exact) in the United States. There are barely twice that number listed in libraries around the world. Though I don't read French, I wanted to try and find the reference to Brooks, and perhaps determine the context of what is a rather early literary reference to the actress.

Well, the book arrived - or rather, a facsimile of the book arrived. I guess it really is rare. Wow.

What I took home with me was a bound hardback copy of a photocopy of Bopp's 1933 book. The item I received came from the library of a major American university; and I wonder what happened to the original. I am not complaining about receiving a facsimile. And I am really, really, really glad to be able to borrow books via ILL and to examine the text of this elusive title. Here is a peak inside this curious sub-species of printed publication.



Bopp's Jacques Arnaut is more than 600 pages long. Originally, I thought it was a short story collection. But that turns out not to be true. Rather, it is a long work of fiction composed of many short and shorter passages. There don't see to be any chapters. From what I have been able to gleam from the internet, the book was considered an experimental novel at the time and it's story was concerned with the life of an artist. Who knows? Perhaps it is some early kind-of metafictional mash-up of James Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man with Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. Proto Jorge Luis Borges anyone?

I don't read French, so it is going to be at least a few days before I am able to visually skim the entire book and spot the reference to the actress - which reads in part, "comme ceux de Louise Brooks." That snippet is all that I got from the Gallica database. On first glance, I did notice a character named Lola. That's all I can say at this time.

But let me tell you about my day . . . libraries are wonderful places. Especially the San Francisco Public Library. It is one of my favorite places in The City. There is still so much to be discovered in libraries - so much beautiful information. So many unexpected connections.

For example, one of the women working at the information counter where I picked-up my facsimile book was none other than Penelope Houston. No, not Penelope Houston the well known film writer and editor of Sight & Sound (who as such had her own connections to Louise Brooks), but Penelope Houston the singer / songwriter for The Avengers, the seminal 1970's San Francisco punk band. How cool. I like her recordings. 

Libraries are indeed wonderful places filled with unexpected connections . . . . However, the best was still to come. 

Browsing the CD and DVD room, I found a few things to borrow including Julian Schnabel's filmed performance of Lou Reed's Berlin, a video of the Theater Music of Brecht & Weill with Lotte Lenya and Gisela May, and Rufus Wainwright's tribute to Judy Garland - which I am enjoying as I write this; Wainwright's interpretation of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as performed here with his late mother, Kate McGarrigle, is lovely. Afterwords, I headed on over to the library bookstore / gift shop.

I was browsing their selection of donated, mostly second-hand books when I noticed someone enter and begin to look over the cart of new arrivals. It was none other than the San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman.

I had been meaning to get in touch with this acclaimed writer because, as I explained after approaching him, I had recently come across his name in a 1962 newspaper article about a screening of Pandora's Box in Monterey, California. According to my research, this was the first time the film had been shown anywhere in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, or Northern California.

I wasn't sure what Hirschman, a poet and translator (I cherish his 1965 Artaud Anthology from City Lights Books) would have been doing at a screening for what was then a somewhat obscure foreign silent film at a small college south of San Francisco. Hirschman was described in one article I found about the event as a "film authority" who would be joining the film critic Pauline Kael and the film curator James Card (who brought the print of Pandora's Box from George Eastman House) in a series of formal and informal discussions. Perhaps there was another Jack Hirschman in the world?

When I asked Hirschman if he had attended this 1962 screening in Monterey, he immediately interjected in his tender singular raspy voice, "ah, Louise Brooks."

"Yes, I was there," Hirschman explained, "along with Pauline Kael." The poet remembered seeing Pandora's Box nearly 50 years ago, and said that the film and Brooks were a favorite of those in attendance.

We chatted a bit more - about the actress, poetry readings (I had put on an event with him a few years back - and took the snapshot of the poet pictured here), the actress and model and muse Tina Modoti, and  the filmmaker Bruce Conner (who not only aspired as a child to take dance lessons with Louise Brooks but also years later took photographs of Penelope Houston during her punk days). And, we spoke briefly about Wichita, Kansas and Detroit, Michigan. Hirschman described himself as a fan of the Detroit Tigers, and I grew in Motor City suburbia. . . .ah, unexpected connections.

An email alert just popped up. I got a message from the San Francisco Public Library.  Some microfilm I requested just came in. There are bunch of rolls of microfilm of the San Jose Mercury Herald, Lodi Sentinel, and Delta News (from Sacramento County) awaiting me. I will head to the library tomorrow to look at what arrived. Hopefully, more beautiful information will be found.
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