Showing posts with label Kim Deitch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kim Deitch. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2013

Prix de Beauté at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival


The house was packed at yesterday's historic screening of Prix de Beauté at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. The Festival screened the rarely shown silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, which was restored in 2012 by the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy. My guess is that at least 1200 people were in the attendance. Acclaimed British musician Stephen Horne accompanied the film on piano (mostly), as well as flute, accordion, and guitar.

The film was very well received. During the beauty pageant in San Sebastian, the audience in the Castro starting clapping along with the audience in the film (to ensure Brooks' victory). Another memoriable moment occurred at the end of the film, when Stephen Horne's live accompaniment gave way to the the recorded song heard in the sound version of Prix de Beauté, before Horne resumed playing the close the film.

Here are a few snapshots from inside the theater during the pre-film slideshow.




After the screening, I had the honor of being part of a three-person signing along with fellow Louise Brooks fans Hugh Munro Neely, the Emmy nominated filmmaker whose documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu is widely acclaimed, and comix artist amd early film enthuisiast Kim Deitch. As a teenager in 1957, Deitch said, he was in the audience along with his father, Gene Deitch, of a screening of Diary of a Lost Girl at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Also in the audience was Louise Brooks! Kim never met her, though his father did. Gene Deitch also had his picture taken with her. Below is a snapshot of myself (right) and Kim Deitch (left).

Monday, July 15, 2013

Louise Brooks booksigning at San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Thomas Gladysz, the director of the Louise Brooks Society, will be signing copies of his "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press) at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco on Thursday, July 18th. Gladysz is one of three taking part in this special Louise Brooks themed book signing, which is set to start around 9:00 pm, following the screening of the recently restored 1930 Louise Brooks' film, Prix de Beaute, the opening film of the 18th annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Admission to this book signing is by Festival ticket.

The Festival will screen the silent version of Prix de Beaute, which was  restored in 2012 by the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy. The film's running time is given as approximately 108 minutes. Accompanying the July 18th screening is British musician Stephen Horne.

Also signing is the celebrated legendary cartoonist and comix artist Kim Deitch, whose new book, The Amazing, Enlightening And Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whale (Fantagraphics) includes a silent film storyline. Little known is the fact that Deitch's father, the Academy Award winning animator Gene Deitch, once met Louise Brooks. Kim himself almost did! Attend this special event to find out the story.


Also signing on this Louise Brooks themed triple bill is the Emmy nominated filmmaker Hugh Munro Neely, whose documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu is widely acclaimed and much loved by silent film fans far and wide. Produced in 1998 for Turner Classic Movies, this documentary is nearly as exceptional as its subject and just as fascinating.The narration for this must see film was scripted by Barry Paris.

Additional information about this upcoming event can be found on the San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate website at http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/337239983-louise-brooks-booksigning-at-silent-film-festival.


Excitement is building, and word has been getting around. Here are listings for this signing on SF Station and SanFrancisco.com, as well as on the Lodi News Sentinel and the Riverside Press Democrat (in Southern California).

UPDATE: Listings have also shown up in the Vacaville Reporter and Sacramento Bee and even in the Akron Beacon-Journal (Ohio) and Charlotte Observer (North Carolina).
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