Showing posts with label screening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label screening. Show all posts

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Houston, Texas on March 24th

Lulu continues to get around.... The newly released digital restoration of the sensational 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks as Lulu, will be shown on Sunday, March 24th at 5:00 pm in the Brown Auditorium Theater at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. This screening of the digital restoration includes a musical soundtrack by the late composer Peer Raben. More information about this event can be found HERE.


And here is what the event venue says:

Early German cinema master G. W. Pabst cast Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legend was defined by this stylish and controversial melodrama. One of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality, Pandora’s Box follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she meets. Digital restoration includes a musical soundtrack by the late composer Peer Raben (2046; Querelle).

Digital restoration from best surviving 35mm material (1952, 1964, and 1970 duplicate elements) by Haghefilm Conservation, with archival sponsorship and FIAF coordination by the George Eastman House and the collaboration of the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca del comune di Bologna, Národní filmový archiv, and Gosfilmofond of Russia. Restoration conceived and supervised by Martin Koerber and funded by Hugh M. Hefner.


Want to lean more? A big, newly updated page about Pandora's Box can be found on the newly improved Louise Brooks Society website. Click on the film title to access the LBS filmography page devoted to the movie.

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens at UW Cinematheque FREE

The Janus Films restoration of Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque today - February 24 at 7 pm. This screening of the restored 141 minute 2K DCP will take place at 4070 Vilas Hall in Madison, Wisconsin and will be accompanied on live piano by David Drazin. And what's more, it is FREE. More information can be found HERE.

The UW Cinematheque event description reads, "Brooks plays Lulu, heroine of Frank Wedekind’s beloved German plays. An innocently immoral sexual predator, Lulu discards and destroys men as she tries to get ahead…until she meets Jack the Ripper. After a series of nondescript flapper films, the American Brooks abandoned Hollywood in favor of artistically richer projects in Europe. She emerged a screen icon through her work on Pandora’s Box, Pabst’s masterpiece of silent cinema."

I think that is the first time I have ever seen Wedekind's plays described as "beloved." Perhaps a better word would be "classic" or "highly regarded." Also, this venue and all the others screening the film are describing the film's restoration as "new." It is not. Unless I am mistaken, the restoration dates to 2009. A better word or phrase would be "newly released."


Want to lean more? A big, newly updated page about Pandora's Box can be found on the new and improved Louise Brooks Society website. Click on the film title to access the LBS filmography page devoted to the movie.

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Monday, January 29, 2024

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, at Film Forum in NYC Feb 14 - Feb 20

In a previous Louise Brooks Society blog post, I noted that the 2009 restoration of Pandora's Box will receive a theatrical release through Janus Films. This release is meant for exhibitors like the Toronto Silent Film Festival - who will be screening the 2009 restoration on April 12 in Canada. See the prior LBS blog for details.

As it turns out, the Janus theatrical release will debut at Film Forum in New York City on February 14. And what's more, the film is set to run an entire week, through February 20. More about this historic event can be found HERE.

Here is some additional information about this week long screening from the Film Forum website.

Germany, 1929
Directed by G.W. Pabst
Starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer
Music by Peer Raben
Approx. 141 min. DCP Restoration.


Sex in the City — Weimar Berlin: in the wake of Louise Brooks’ patent leather-bobbed Lulu, men set up sleek Deco love nests, ruin themselves gambling, and commit both murder and suicide, as she moves from kept woman, showgirl, Lesbian love interest, widow, convicted criminal, fugitive, and possible sex slave; amid a bustling backdrop of life in post-war, pre-Hitler Germany. Pabst’s adaptation of the Wedekind plays plucked Brooks from a waning career as Hollywood flapper to European art film goddess. One of the last masterpieces of the cinema’s most exciting era — with Brooks’ Lulu taking her place as one of the screen’s most enduring creations. Orchestral musical score composed by Peer Raben.

Restored from the best surviving 35mm elements at Haghefilm Conservation under the supervision of the Deutsche Kinemathek, with the cooperation of George Eastman Museum, and the collaboration of the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca di Bologna, Czech Film Archive, and Gosfilmofond

With support from the R.G. Rifkind Foundation Endowment for Queer Cinema


The Film Forum page also quotes the esteemed film critic David Thomas. It's a rather delicious quote.

“ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE, ECSTATIC, IMPETUOUS AND RECKLESS PERFORMANCES ANYONE HAD EVER GIVEN ON SCREEN! [Brooks] makes Marlene Dietrich in THE BLUE ANGEL seem coy and calculated… Brooks is a flame fluttering in the wind of her own breath. She is danger as it had not been seen or felt before.”
– David Thomson, Moments That Made the Movies
 
Want to lean more? A big, juicy page about Pandora's Box can be found on the new and improved Louise Brooks Society website. Click on the film title to access the LBS filmography page devoted to the movie. 
 
I would say more, but I need to get back to work on my next book, Lulu in America: the Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box. This book, which I hope to have completed later this year, explores the film's rich, textured and improbably undocumented history in the United States, including New York City. The basis for my book is an article, “'Sin Lust Evil' in America: Louise Brooks and the Exhibition History of Pandora’s Box (1929)," which I wrote for Film International last April. Stay tuned to this channel for updates.


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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Sunday Silents Presents Pandora’s Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks, in Rosendale, NY

One week from today, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Rosendale theater in Rosendale, New York. This screening, part of the theater's Sunday Silent series, will feature live musical accompaniment by Marta Waterman. More information about this February 4th event can be found HERE.

There was an article about this screening in the local Shawangunk Journal, which can be found HERE. According to the Rosendale theater website: "In this acclaimed German silent film, Lulu (played to perfection by the luminous American actress Louise Brooks) is a young woman so beautiful and alluring that few can resist her siren charms. The men drawn into her web include respectable newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön, his musical producer son Alwa , circus performer Rodrigo Quast and Lulu’s seedy old friend, Schigolch. When Lulu’s charms inevitably lead to tragedy, the downward spiral encompasses them all. Marked by GW Pabst’s innovative, atmospheric direction and a surprisingly modern storyline, Pandora’s Box ultimately owes its power to Louise Brooks’ monumental, iconic performance.

Sunday Silents is made possible by the generous support of Jim Demaio, State Farm Insurance Agent, New Paltz. $6 | NR | With live accompaniment by Marta Waterman | 1 Hour 49 Minutes."


The historic Rosendale Theatre is a three-story, 260-seat movie theater and performance venue in Rosendale Village, a hamlet and former village in the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York. The building was opened as a casino in 1905, and began showing films in the 1920s. I did a quick search to try and find any record of this charming old venue having shown any of Louise Brooks' American silent films in the 1920s, but was unable to track down any listings. However, back in 2017, the theater screened the other 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. More about that 2017 event can be found HERE.

Want to lean more? A big, juicy page about Pandora's Box can be found on the new and improved Louise Brooks Society website. Click on the film title to access the LBS filmography page devoted to the movie. Below is the promo video associated with this screening.


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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Diary of a Lost Girl with Louise Brooks and a harpist in the UK

The Diary of a Lost Girl, the once controversial and still sensational silent film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown on Sunday, October 29th as part of the Stroud Art Festival in the UK. This special screening will be accompanied, uniquely so, by a harpist, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry. More information about this event can be fond HERE.

According to its website, the "unabashedly eclectic" Stroud Festival "weaves music, movement, song and film" in a journey across a the arts. Here is what they say about this event:

Stroud Arts Festival Presents

Silent Film: Diary of a Lost Girl

With live accompaniment from harpist Elizabeth-Jane Baldry


venue - Lansdown hall


Silent film with live music – why is it such a good night out? 


Ask last year’s Stroud audience – it’s the sheer, extraordinary talent of Elizabeth-Jane Baldry!


This year we welcome her back to the Lansdown Hall with another iconic black and white silent film, powerfully enhanced by her specially composed score which she plays live throughout the screening.
A late masterpiece of the silent era, and a tragic story of corruption and middle class hypocrisy in pre-Nazi Germany, this film and its star, Louise Brooks, has gained cult status with film-lovers through the ages. 

Notice: not suited to under 12s 

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. 

Friday, August 11, 2023

A Girl in Every Port Screens in Australia

A Girl in Every Port, the 1928 Howard Hawks silent starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Australia on Saturday, August 12th. The film will be shown at the The Majestic Theatre, 3 Factory Street Pomona, QLD, 4568. More information about the event can be found HERE


I wonder what print they are using? The event description states:

"Spike (McLaglen) travels the world as the mate of a schooner He has a little address book full of sweethearts, but everywhere he goes, he finds that someone has been there before him, leaving behind with each girl a heart-shaped charm with an anchor inscribed on it. In Central America, he takes a dislike to another sailor, Salami (Armstrong), but before they can settle their differences, they brawl with the police and are thrown in jail.

Stars Victor McLagen, Louise Brooks & Robert Armstrong

Doors & Bar open 11am. Coffee tea drinks & snacks available. $15 adults & kids 13 and under free. No need to book. Get your tickets at the door."


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. 

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Two pieces on Pandora's Box on Eat Drink Films

The excellent multi-topic blog Eat Drink Films has a couple of new pieces on Louise Brooks star turn in Pandora's Box. Both pieces are by Nancy Friedman. The first, "Pandora’s Box – A Stunning Film on the Big Screen at the Spectacular Paramount," looks at the acclaimed G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks. It even quotes me, Thomas Gladysz!. (I will add it to the LBS In the News page.) The excellent second piece, "Club Foot Orchestra Plays Pandora’s Box," is a profile of the musical group which will accompany the film on May 6th in Oakland, CA. (See the poster depicted below.) 

Rumor has it, Eat Drink Films will be running a couple of more pieces on Pandora's Box next week, as the San Francisco Bay Area gears up once again for Lulumania. (As I have noted, Pandora’s Box has screened more often in the San Francisco Bay Area than anywhere else in the United States, more than 60 times since 1972.)

A reminder.  Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Paramount theater in Oakland, California on Saturday, May 6. More about that special screening, which will feature live musical accompaniment by the Clubfoot Orchestra and members of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, can be found HERE. If you live in the Bay Area, don't miss this special event. 

Pictured below is yours truly wearing a vintage Clubfoot Orchestra / Pandora's Box t-shirt obtained from the musical groups a long time ago. I also have a massive 3' x 5' poster depicting the same image.

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. 

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Pandoras's Box, will be shown at the Old Woollen in Farsley

The 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Pandoras's Box, will be shown at the Old Woollen in Farsley in the United Kingdom. More information can be found HERE.


And here is a bit more information regarding this screening from the venue website.

£13 + Booking Fee. Doors 7pm. Show 8pm. (Unreserved Seated)

G.W. Pabst’s 1929 silent movie masterpiece Pandora’s Box stars Louise Brooks in the role which ensured her a place in the Pantheon of immortal goddesses of the silver screen. This controversial, and in its day heavily censored, movie is still listed in the UK Guardian Newspaper’s top 100 films. It is a two-hour emotional rollercoaster ride through the loves – male and female – of Lulu, a high class courtesan and dancer, and the trail of devastation she blazes through 1920s Berlin society, to exile in a Parisian gambling den, and abject poverty and violent death in a fogbound London.

This special screening features an original live score.

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.
 

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Pandora's Box, with Louise Brooks as Lulu, to screen in Pudsey

Pandora's Box, the 1929 silent screen classic starring Louise Brooks as Lulu, will be shown in Pudsey, a town located in northern England (between Bradford and Leeds). This special screening, sponsored by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival with live musical accompaniment by the Frame Ensemble, will take place on April 20, 2023. More information on this event can be found HERE.


 Here is a bit more information on the event from the event webpage.

G.W. Pabst’s 1929 silent movie masterpiece Pandora’s Box stars Louise Brooks in the role which ensured her a place in the Pantheon of immortal goddesses of the silver screen. This controversial, and in its day heavily censored, movie is still listed in the UK Guardian Newspaper’s top 100 films. It is a two-hour emotional roller coaster ride through the loves – male and female – of Lulu, a high class courtesan and dancer, and the trail of devastation she blazes through 1920s Berlin society, to exile in a Parisian gambling den, and abject poverty and violent death in a fogbound London.

The Music

Frame Ensemble, a quartet of Northern musicians specialising in improvised silent film accompaniments, will improvise a live score. Frame Ensemble is Irine Røsnes (violin), Liz Hanks (cello), Trevor Bartlett (percussion), and Jonny Best (piano).

 

To learn more about Pandora's Box, please visit the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page

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.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Pandora's Box screens at Paramount theater in Oakland, CA on May 6

Breaking news.... The celebrated German silent film, Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Paramount theater in Oakland, California on Saturday, May 6. And what's more, this live cinema event will feature live musical accompaniment by the Club Foot Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. More information about the event can be found HERE.


 

From the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website: On May 6, 2023, the Club Foot Orchestra will join forces with San Francisco Conservatory of Music to accompany G.W. Pabst’s 1929 masterpiece Pandora’s Box at Oakland’s magnificent Paramount Theatre. The film stars the radiant Louise Brooks whose mesmerizing performance as the sexually adventurous Lulu catapulted her to worldwide fame. Here is praise for Brooks through the years:

An actress who needed no directing, but could move across the screen causing the work of art to be born by her mere presence.—Lotte H. Eisner

Those who have seen her can never forget her. She is the modern actress par excellence. . . . Her art is so pure that it becomes invisible.—Henri Langlois

Her youthful admirers see in her an actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality, and a beauty unparalleled in film history.—Kevin Brownlow

One of the most mysterious and potent figures in the history of the cinema . . . she was one of the first performers to penetrate to the heart of screen acting.—David Thomson

SFSFF will screen the restoration by Angela Holm and David Ferguson in a DCP from the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Tickets are now on sale for SFSFF's May 6 event. All tickets ($35 general admission) are being sold through the Paramount's official ticketing partner Ticketmaster and there is a $3 per-ticket fee. Those who would like to avoid Ticketmaster fees can visit the Paramount's Box Office in Oakland between 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm on Fridays to buy tickets in person. SFSFF members receive a $5 discount per ticket. 

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.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Reminder: 1926 Louise Brooks film, The Show Off, screens in Chicago area on Jan 10

The little seen Louise Brooks film, The Show Off (1926), will be screened in St. Charles, Illinois one week from today, on January 10, 2023. This screening, presented by the Silent Film Society of Chicago, will include a live theatre organ score performed by Jay Warren. More information about this event can be found below.

The Show-Off is gem. The film is a satiric comedy about an insufferable braggart who disrupts the life of a middle-class family. While remembered today as a Louise Brooks film, The Show-Off is really a vehicle for Ford Sterling, a comedian best remembered for his starring work as a member of the Keystone Kops. As a broad comedian, he is the perfect choice for the role of the titular blowhard Aubrey Piper. Brooks plays a supporting role as the love interest of the boy who lives next door. Based on a popular stage play by an acclaimed playwright, The Show-Off was considered a prestige project — and thus drew a significant amount of critical attention along with inevitable comparison to its Broadway namesake. 


A bit of trivia: 

 — The Show-Off (1924) was authored by Philadelphia-born George Kelly (1887–1974), an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. Besides being the uncle of the Oscar winning actress Grace Kelly (the future Princess Grace of Monaco), George Kelly was considered by some (Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and others) as one of the finest  dramatists of the 1920s — alongside the likes of Sherwood Anderson and Elmer Rice. Besides The Show-Off, Kelly was best known for Craig’s Wife (1925), which won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a motion picture on three occasions. His first play, The Torch Bearers, was also highly regarded.

The Show-Off was the hit of the 1924 Broadway season, where it ran 571 performances. Famed critic Heywood Broun called it “the best comedy which has yet been written by an American.” The play’s success drew the attention of the motion picture stuudios, and in October, 1925 Paramount had a synopsis of the play written by F. M. Macconnell and others.

— Widely acclaimed, The Show-Off was in the running to receive the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for drama, but last minute dealings denied Kelly the award. According to various books, the Pulitzer drama committee recommended Kelly’s work for the prize, but the higher ranking Pulitzer Advisory board overruled their selection for reasons which were never made clear. One book, Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decisions and Documents, notes “In the following year, 1924, the recommendation of the jurors was brief and concise…  ‘The Committee have decided that the Pulitzer Prize for the best current American play should go to The Show-Off by George Kelly. We think this is an extremely good and original American play.’ But before the Advisory Board could discuss the suggestion of the jury, a docent of Columbia University [the institution which awarded the prize], although neither a member of the jury nor member of the Advisory Board, intervened and spoke out against it’s verdict. He ‘wrote privately to (Columbia University) President Butler … to protest the Drama Jury’s selection of George Kelly’s satirical comedy… Instead… (he) called for a prize for Hell-Bent for Heaven, a hillbilly drama set in the Kentucky mountains, by a fellow member of the Columbia faculty, Hatcher Hughes.” Kelly was vindicated two years later when Craig’s Wife won the award.

The Show-Off  enjoyed New York revivals in 1932, 1950, 1967, and 1992, with regional theatrical runs in 1930, 1941, 1975 and 1978. The play was the basis for motion pictures of the same name made in 1926, 1934 (with Spencer Tracy), and 1946 (with Red Skelton), as well as the 1930 film Men Are Like That (directed by Frank Tuttle). There was also a radio adaption in 1953.

— As happened in at least a few instances, a theatrical production of The Show-Off was being staged in major cities at the same time as Paramount’s film version was shown. In San Francisco, California a stage production starring Louis John Bartels as Aubrey Piper proved especially popular, with the cast of the play invited to view the film when in opened locally. Bartels (who originated the role on Broadway) later went on to act in films, including The Canary Murder Case (1929).

— C.W. Goodrich, who plays Pop Fisher in the film, originated the role on Broadway when it opened at the Playhouse Theater in February of 1924.

The Show-Off is one of two films that co-starred the popular Broadway actor Gregory Kelly (no relation), who died shortly after The Show-Off finished production. Gregory Kelly was the first husband of actress Ruth Gordon.

Louise Brooks and Gregory Kelly

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.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Love 'Em And Leave 'Em to be shown at the George Eastman Museum on November 15th

The 1926 Louise Brooks film, Love 'Em And Leave 'Em, will be shown at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York on November 15th (the day after LB's birthday). If you haven't scene this film, here is your chance to see it on the big screen in a theater where Louise herself watched films. And what's more, the film will be accompanied by Philip C. Carli, who will provide a live musical accompaniment. More information HERE.

 
(Frank Tuttle, US 1926, 76 min., 16mm)
 
The George Eastman Museum says of this film, "This early comedy features Louise Brooks and Evelyn Brent as the dueling Walsh sisters: Brent’s Mame is bookish and considerate, while Brooks’s Janie is a heartbreaking flapper whose morals extend so low as to snag her sister’s betrothed. Their relationship comes under even further trial as Janie finds herself in a financial hole from which only Mame’s sibling devotion can rescue her. Far ahead of its time in sexual politics, Love ’Em and Leave ’Em also exhibits one of Brooks’ rare onscreen dance routines."
 
Love Em and Leave Em was popular in its day. The Chicago Tribune even named the film one of the six best movies of the month. Its critic, Mae Tinee, proclaimed, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em is one of the snappiest little comedy dramas of the season. Full of human interest. Splendidly directed. Acted beautifully.” Dorothy Herzog, film critic for the New York Daily Mirror (and Evelyn Brent’s later romantic partner) penned similarly, “A featherweight comedy drama that should register with the public because of the fine work done by the principals and its amusing gags. . . . Louise Brooks gives the best performance of her flicker career as the selfish, snappily dressed, alive number — Janie. Miss Brooks sizzles through this celluloider, a flapper lurer with a Ziegfeld figure and come-on eyes.”

Critics across the country thought Brooks stole the show. The Los Angeles Record wrote, “Evelyn Brent is nominally starred in Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, but the work of Louise Brooks, suave enticing newcomer to the Lasky fold, stands out most. The flippant, self-centered little shop girl is given sly and knowing interpretation by Miss Brooks, who is, if memory serves aright, a graduate of that great American institute of learning, the Follies.” The Kansas City Times went further, “Louise Brooks does another of her flapper parts and is a good deal more realistic than the widely heralded Clara Bow. Miss Brooks uses the dumb bell rather than the spit-fire method. But she always gets what she wants.”

And once again, New York critics singled out the actress, lavishing praise on Brooks with the film almost an after-thought. The New York Herald Tribune critic opined, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em . . . did manage to accomplish one thing. It has silenced, for the time being at least, the charge that Louise Brooks cannot act. Her portrayal of the predatory shop girl of the Abbott-Weaver tale was one of the bright spots of recent film histrionism.”

John S. Cohen Jr. of the New York Sun added, “The real surprise of the film is Louise Brooks. With practically all connoisseurs of beauty in the throes of adulation over her generally effectiveness, Miss Brooks has not heretofore impressed anyone as a roomful (as Lorelei says) of Duses. But in Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, unless I too have simply fallen under her spell, she gives an uncannily effective impersonation of a bad little notion counter vampire. Even her excellent acting, however, cannot approach in effectiveness the scenes where, in ‘Scandals’ attire, she does what we may call a mean Charleston.”

More about this entertaining film 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.
 

Friday, October 21, 2022

Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks screens Sunday in Washington DC

The sensational 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown this Sunday, October 23, at the Atlas Performing Center in Washington D.C. More information about this event, which will feature live musical accompaniment by pianist Andrew Earle Simpson, can be found HERE

As well, this and other silent film screenings the Atlas Performing Center featuring Simpson will include a pre-show intro and a post-show discussion with Andrew Earle Simpson.

As the webpage for the event puts it, quoting your's truly, who then quotes Kevin Brownlow, "The second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora’s Box), Diary of a Lost Girl is a provocative adaptation of Margarethe Böhme’s notorious novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle-class pharmacist is seduced by her father’s assistant, only to be disowned and sent to a repressive home for wayward girls. She escapes, searches for her child, and ends up in a high-class brothel, only to turn the tables on the society which had abused her. It’s another tour-de-force performance by Brooks, whom silent film historian Kevin Brownlow calls an “actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history.” – Thomas Gladysz

This event also received a short write-up in the Washington City Paper, in which Pat Padua insightfully commented, "Her second film with German director G. W. Pabst, the 1929 silent drama Diary of Lost Girl features one of her most vivid performances—those 1920s eyes seeming to cast knowing looks at the following century.... While her character endures all manner of tragedy... Brooks remains a model of strength and compassion in a world where, as one character tells her, 'all are lost'."

Tickets to this afternoon screening are $25.00, and are available through the above mentioned link. The Atlas Performing Arts Center is located at 1333 H St NE Washington, DC 20002.


Incidentally, the event description which quotes me comes from the liner notes to the must-have Kino Lorber DVD, for which I provided the audio commentary. My commnentary was in turn based on my 2010 Louise Brooks edition of Margarete Bohme's book, The Diary of a Lost Girl, which I edited and wrote the introduction to. Bohme's book is something of a forgotten classic of German literature, highly controversial, and one of the bestselling books of its time. Every Louise Brooks fan will want to own the DVD and read the book. 


Both the Kino Classics DVD / Blu-ray and my book are available through Amazon.com around the world. 

Diary of a Lost Girl DVD / Blu-ray BUY HERE

The Diary of a Lost Girl book (Louise Brooks edition) BUY HERE

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

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Louise Brooks as Lulu in Pandora's Box screens 3 times in July

What's better than one screening of Louise Brooks as Lulu in Pandora's Box? How about two screenings? And what's better than two screenings? How about three screenings! In July, the British Film Institute in London, England will screen the classic 1929 film three times during the month, on Saturday July 2, Saturday July 16, and Saturday July 31. More information about these showings can be found HERE. (Tickets go on sale today, June 9.)

According to the BFI: "Louise Brooks dazzles as the dangerously appealing seductress in GW Pabst’s classic adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays."

Saturday 02 July 2022 15:10   NFT3
Saturday 16 July 2022 12:20 NFT1
Sunday 31 July 2022 15:20 NFT1
 
With Peer Raben score (2 and 16 July) or live piano accompaniment (31 July)

"GW Pabst’s celebrated adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s two plays about the unintentionally destructive actions of the effortlessly seductive Lulu centres on a rightly acclaimed performance by Brooks, who oozes careless vivacity and irresistible charm as Lulu captivates the Berlin bourgeoisie. But the direction is also brilliantly meticulous, making memorable use of Günther Krampf’s fluid camera and expressive lighting."
 
Of course, Pandora's Box was not always considered a classic in the UK. What follows are a few early clippings from around the time the film was first shown; it was variously censored ("chaotic form") and derided as "liberalistic" and "marxist".

London Observer 8-24-30




Daily Telegraph, 8-14-34
 
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

Monday, May 30, 2022

Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life screens in UK June 8

The 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, will be shown at the Studio, Hull Truck Theatre in Hull, England on June 8. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Jonny Best, who will improvise his score. More information about this event can be found HERE.


According to the venue website: "Louise Brooks is best known today for her starring roles in GW Pabst’s 1929 classics, Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, but before that pair of masterpieces, she teamed up with one of early Hollywood’s greatest action directors, William Wellman, a former WW1 flyer with a reputation for hard drinking, punch-ups, and dangerous stunts. The Beggars of Life shoot was notorious for all of these and the speeding train stunts still startle today - Brooks herself was nearly thrown beneath the wheels during one shot.

Based on an autobiographical novel by Jim Tully, Louise Brooks plays Nancy, who goes on the run disguised as a boy and falls in with a handsome young hobo, Jim, played by Richard Arlen. Amidst all the action thrills, Beggars of Life is a tender, touching story of unlikely love and in it we see the first inkling of the Louise Brooks who would go on, two years later, to become not just an international star but an imperishable icon.

As usual, the film will be brought to life by Jonny Best’s live, improvised score."

Dir William A. Wellman | 1928 | United States | U | 100 mins | Silent

Want to learn more this riveting film? My 2017 book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), Beggars of Life is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (played by Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). Beggars of Life showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.” This first ever study of Beggars of Life includes more than 50 little seen images, a mention of the Dodge Brothers, and a foreword by actor and author William Wellman, Jr. (the director's son). 



 

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Louise Brooks film It's the Old Army Game to screen in Denver, Colorado

Louise Brooks is happy to return to Denver, where she first appeared in person in 1922
as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company


After a two-year hiatus, the Denver Silent Film Festival is set to return with a series of screenings at the Sturm Family Auditorium inside the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, Colorado. This year's festival theme, "We Need to Laugh," features 11 short and feature-length comedies from the silent film era including the must see Louise Brooks / W.C. Fields film, It's the Old Army Game (1926).

The Denver Silent Film Festival was established in September, 2010. Its mission is to present a broad spectrum of silent films by programming "a lively and thought-provoking mix of educational and entertaining films" including American and foreign classics, as well as lesser-known rare and restored films. However, like much of the world, things have been on hold during the Covid pandemic. More information about this year's event can be found HERE.

Here is the line-up of films, each of which features live musical accompaniment:

May 20 - The Cameraman (1928) with Musical Accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

May 21 - Comedy Shorts Package with Musical Accompaniment by The Dollhouse Thieves

May 21 - The Strong Man (1926) with Musical Accompaniment by Hank Troy

May 21 - Max the Circus King (1924) with Musical Accompaniment by the CAM Student Orchestra with Donald Sosin & Joanna Seaton

May 21 - It's the Old Army Game (1926) with Musical Accompaniment by Hank Troy, and an introduction by DSFF’s David Shepard Honoree Richard Koszarski

May 22 - Two Timid Souls  / Les Deux Timides (1928) with Musical Accompaniment by Rodney Sauer

May 22 - So This Is Paris (1926) with Musical Accompaniment by Hank Troy

May 22 - The Kid Brother (1927) with Musical Accompaniment by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton 

It’s the Old Army Game is a comedy about a small town druggist (played by W.C. Fields) who gets involved with a real estate scam. Louise Brooks plays the druggist’s assistant. The film was Brooks’ fourth, and it reunited her with Fields, the film’s star. The two had worked together in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

It’s the Old Army Game received mostly positive reviews, though some critics noted its somewhat thin plot. Algonquin Round Table playwright Robert E. Sherwood (who would go on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and an Academy Award) was then writing reviews for Life magazine. His pithy critique read, “Mr. Fields has to carry the entire production on his shoulders, with some slight assistance from the sparkling Louise Brooks.” Ella H. McCormick of the Detroit Free Press echoed Sherwood with Fields scored a splendid triumph in this picture. A great part of the success of the offering, however, is due to Louise Brooks, who takes the lead feminine part.”

When It's the Old Army Game first played in Denver, Colorado in June of 1926, Betty Craig previewed the film in the Denver Post. She singled out Brooks, noting “In the meantime the young fellow from the big town has fallen in love with the lovely creature that serves as the store’s only clerk, who is none other than the captivating Louise Brooks.” The following day, Craig penned her review, stating “W. C. Fields is very amusing, and Louise Brooks, featured with Mr. Fields, gives a dandy performance.”

The film, especially its interiors, were shot at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island (located at 3412 36th Street in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens), and in Manhattan. Location shooting, including exteriors, was done in Ocala and Palm Beach, Florida in late February and March, 1926. (Ocala is an inland farming community near Gainesville, Florida.) 

For this special Denver Silent Film Festival screening, the film will be introduced by Richard Kosarski, the leading authority on film production at Paramount's Astoria studio. Koszarski not only interviewed Louise Brooks about her East Coast film work, but has authored two related, must read books, Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff and The Astoria Studio and Its Fabulous Films: A Picture History with 227 Stills and Photographs. At the recent San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I had the chance to meet Richard Koszarski and his wife Diane, and talk with them about their work (and Louise Brooks). It was an honor.


 


I would enjoy hearing from anyone who attends the festival and the It's the Old Army Game screening.


Sunday, May 1, 2022

Diary of a Lost Girl with Louise Brooks shows in the UK three times in May

The sensational 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown three times this month in the United Kingdom. And what's more, each of these screenings will feature live musical accompaniment by the musical group, Wurlitza. (Thanks Meredith.)

The three screenings are set to take place on 

Friday 6th May 2022 at the The Burrell Theatre, Truro in Cornwall. More info HERE.

Friday 13th May 2022 at the Plymouth University Arts Institute, Plymouth in Devon. More info HERE.

Saturday 14th May 2022 at the Noss Mayo Village Hallin Devon. More info HERE.


Wurlitz posted this statement: "We're delighted to be returning to Truro, this time to The Burrell Theatre. The performance starts at 7.30 and we very much hope to see some of you for what may be our last performance in Cornwall of Diary of a Lost Girl for some considerable time.

If you haven't seen it, Diary of a Lost Girl is a wonderful silent film; action packed and full of drama that shocks and surprises. The cinematography is just stunning, with beautiful Louise Brooks at her most mesmerising. It's a story of love in unusual places, as well as capturing some of the most extraordinary scenes ever seen in silent cinema. Heavily censored at the time, we are lucky to be able to see the film as Pabst intended it to be seen, with all its black humour and vibrant storytelling.

Our soundtrack includes music by Leonard Cohen, Chopin, The Magic Numbers, Passenger, Eric Satie, The Wire, Portishead and XTC. The album of Diary of A Lost Girl is on Spotify - either follow the link, or search for Wurlitza

We are also performing Diary of a Lost Girl at Plymouth University Arts Institute on the 13th May, and on the 14th May at Noss Mayo Village Hall.

After this we will be working on Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, which will be debuted at Little Big Festival in Ashburton in August."


Thursday, March 24, 2022

Newly restored Louise Brooks film to screen in May !!!

BIG NEWS FOR FANS OF LOUISE BROOKS. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has announced it will screen its newly restored print of The Street of Forgotten Men, the film which marks the actress' first appearance in a movie. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is scheduled to take place May 5 through 11 at the historic Castro theater in San Francisco. The Street of Forgotten Men will be shown on Tuesday, May 10 with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin. More info HERE.

Though a popular and critical success at the time of its release in 1925, The Street of Forgotten Men has been little seen today. Its undeserved obscurity is largely explained by the fact that the 7 reel film survives incomplete, and the film has long been out of circulation; the second reel of the film was lost to nitrate deterioration decades ago, though fortunately, Brooks' brief unaccredited appearance as a gangster's moll comes in the sixth reel, in a pivotal scene near the end of the film. 


Robert Byrne of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, along with the participation for the Library of Congress, led the team which restored the surviving footage and reconstructed the missing second reel. (I was small part of the team, and can state that the restored version looks great and Byrne has done a very fine job in bridging the missing material.) Byrne was assisted by Jennifer Miko, who did work on image restoration. Funding was provided by the noted film poster collector Ira Resnick. Notably, Byrne's earlier restoration efforts includes the "once lost" Louise Brooks film, Now We're in the Air (1927).

Though her role was small and she was not named in the credits, Brooks received her very first review for her work in The Street of Forgotten Men. In August of 1925, an anonymous critic for the Los Angeles Times wrote, “And there was a little rowdy, obviously attached to the ‘blind’ man, who did some vital work during her few short scenes. She was not listed.”  

For more on The Street of Forgotten Men, check out its filmography page on the Louise Brooks Society website. I am currently rushing to complete a new book on the film. Due out this Spring, though likely not in time for the SF Silent Film Festival, is The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen.

Also worth noting is that the fragmentary footage floating around YouTube which is called a "trailer" is NOT the trailer for the film, just a fragment lifted from other sources and inaccurately labeled.

Friday, March 18, 2022

Louise Brooks film, Pandora's Box, to screen in Mexico on March 19


The 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Pandora's Box, will be shown at Cine Inminente in Tehuacán, Puebla in Mexico on Saturday, March 19. The screening is part of the film society's PIONEERS cycle - CINEMA AND SILENCES. More information can be found on the group's Facebook page. This event is co-sponsored by the Goethe Institute.

Tomorrow Saturday March 19th #NosVemosEnLaSala for the beginning of the second part of our cycle PIONERAS -CINE AND SILENCE-, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Mexiko :
 
🎬 The Pandora Box (La Caja de Pandora) (1929) 🇩🇪
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
133 minutes | A
 
#NosVemosEnLaSala 🎥 of Classical Cinema XX Century of El Carmen Complex | 5:00pm | Free Entry | 50% Aforo | Mandatory use of mouth covers.
 

The Cine Inminente Facebook page notes: 

"Louise Brooks had never heard of Lulu, but as soon as he read the script he knew that as Pabst thought Lulu was her." A hedonist woman who pleases with pleasure in a world over by conventions, a woman who radiates a strange effect that causes misfortune in those around her. 

Pandora's Box contained sex; lesbianism, for the first time, and to incest, which served him an extra censorship in all the countries in which it premiered, something added to the arrival of the sound made it the best film anyone has ever I was seen. It had to take three decades for it to be recognized as the work of cult that it is."

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