A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
As I mentioned recently, I have recently been refurbishing the Louise Brooks Society's YouTube channel (as well as its Vimeo channel). In doing so, I have come across a bunch of interesting videos. In fact, I have come across some many worth bookmarking that I have organized a bunch of thematic playlists on YouTube which I would like everyone to browse. And please don't forget to like and subscribe. Two playlists I think everyone will like are "Louise Brooks - Documentaries and related material" as well as "Silent Film Era." There are 16 others to explore.
Here are a few other individual videos that I want to call to everyone's attention. I likes 'em.
"Buster and Louise" is a student film from 2009 by Jessica Polaniecki, who now works in the animation field. She once created and animated the Krampus puppet for a Christmas episode of Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations. I wonder if she knew Bourdain was a fan of Louise Brooks? BTW, Jessica has done a lot of cool work. Check out her webpage HERE. ["Buster and Louise" can be found in the "Odds n Ends" playlist, along with 11 other videos of related interest.]
In this video short from FilmStruck, Alicia Malone discusses G.W. Pabst's storied career across his multitude of silent & talkie masterpieces - including the two films he made with Louise Brooks. ["Director G. W. Pabst" can be found in the "Director G. W. Pabst" playlist, along with 10 other videos of related interest.]
Including this little gem, "Pabst Plays Pabst" from Filmarchiv Austria in which the grandson of G.W. Pabst, Daniel Pabst, is seen accompanying various films by his illustrious grandfather. ["Pabst Plays Pabst" can be found in the "Louise Brooks - Musical Accompaniment to Films" playlist, along with 19 other videos of related interest.]
"Lulu - The Song" is one of the earlier musical tributes to Louise Brooks. Jen Anderson is an Australian composer, and this lovely song, which is part of a Pandora's Box soundtrack, dates from 1993. In 2006, I had the pleasure to meet Jen Anderson when she performed her soundtrack to the 1919 Australian silent film, The Sentimental Bloke, at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California. ["Lulu - The Song" can be found in the "Louise Brooks - Homage to Lulu (musical)" playlist, along with 26 other videos of related interest.]
Frank Wedekind is famous as the author of the Lulu plays, as well as Spring Awakening. But did you know he had a sister who sang opera and made a handful of recordings? Her name was Erika; according to her Wikipedia page, she was one of the "first female coloratura sopranos in Germany and
an outstanding representative of her field. She gave more than a
thousand performances in Germany, Prague, Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Budapest, Stockholm, Paris and London before becoming an internationally
sought-after singing teacher between 1914 and 1930. From 1930 she lived
in seclusion in Switzerland, where she died in Zurich in 1944 at the
age of 75. Because she was so successful, she was able to help support Frank Wedekind, who often struggled in his career. ["Erika Wedekind sings Mignon Styrienne 1908" can be found in the "Frank Wedekind / Lulu" playlist, along with 25 other videos of related interest.]
Another video on that same playlist is the Silent Theater adaption of Lulu: a black and white silent play, starring Kyla Webb as Lulu. I am so glad to have found this video, as I was fortunate to see this very performance at the Victoria Theater in San Francisco in 2006. And, I had the chance to meet Kyla. Lulu: a black and white silent play is well worth checking out - but remember, this unusual adaption is a stage play without dialogue, like silent film.
When you can, check out the Louise Brooks Society's YouTube channel. And don't forget to like and subscribe.
Here are a couple of rather good music videos which feature Louise Brooks and which you may or may not have seen before.
First up, The Green Pajamas performing "Any Way the Wind Blows" in this tribute to the film, Pandora's Box and it's star, Louise Brooks. The video dates from around 2008.
And next is the song "Berlin" by Gosta Berling, inspired by the life of Louise
Brooks. "It focuses specifically on the period when she left Hollywood in
1928, burning many bridges, to travel to Germany for her greatest
starring role, as Lulu in Pandora's Box. Her story and iconic image have
inspired many tributes - songs, books, plays and movies. The
fascinating and frustrating saga of her life is captured in the
biography Louise Brooks by Barry Paris - which I devoured while
writing the words to this song. The images for this video were all
scanned from the book Lulu Forever by Peter Cowie. This song is on Gosta Berling's
first EP, Everybody's Sweetheart (2007).
Here they are, a couple of rather odd Louise Brooks related videos which I recently came across on YouTube, including a singing shirt, seen below, and a quirky song, which follows. I like the song by the Tombstone Teeth well enough, but don't know what to think of the shirt short.
And there is this music video, which is odd in a different way.
Here is something cool I found on YouTube, the song "Dance With Me" by Nouvelle Vague put to video clips of GW Pabst's Tagebuch einer Verlorenen or Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) and Jean-Luc Godard's Bande à part or Band of Outsiders (1964).
And for fun, here is an another video remix of the Nouvelle Vague song and actress Anna Karina in Godard's film. As Brooks' devotees know, Karina has long been associated with Brooks. There are other video remixes of the Nouvelle Vague song out there as well. These two caught my attention.
Can you help identify the musical artist/band seen in the Louise Brooks' film Prix de beaute (1930). They are shown in this brief film clip, with the small musical group entering the scene around the 50 second mark.
This is the fifth in a series of odd, unusual, and entertaining Louise
Brooks related videos from Vimeo. Here is "Hopeless," the song is by Evangelista and the video is by Stuart Pound. I like it!
According to its page, "The starting point for "Hopeless" is a song of the same title, recorded
by the group "Evangelista". The song is about an impossible love for
Louise Brooks, impossible because she died in 1984. I liked its
energy and humour. I downloaded a section from G.W.Pabst's film
Pandora's Box (1929), together with a number of publicity shots of the
star, and re-worked them to accompany the song."
This is the fourth in a series of odd, unusual, and entertaining Louise
Brooks related videos from Vimeo. Here is "Nitrate Dreams," from Colette Saint Yves.
This is the third in a series of odd, unusual, and entertaining Louise
Brooks related videos from Vimeo. Here is "Images of Louise Brooks - Sonchai Körner." According to the Vimeo page, "Sonchai Körner explores the demons of her past which serve as a source
of inspiration for her work with Sven Mundt, telling of the self-doubt
which comes from feeling that her talents are not recognized and the
self-hate triggered by her inability to believe herself good enough."
This is the second in a series of odd, unusual, and entertaining Louise
Brooks related videos from Vimeo. Here is "Kingfishers Catch Fire - Pandora." According to its page, this video for "Pandora" by the London-based band Kingfishers Catch Fire is taken from their "Ballerina EP".
FREE DOWNLOAD here: bit.ly/MW2vjF
How did it come to pass? Your honesty ruined us.
You only told me of that boy 'cause you know I am easily hurt.
So how can I go on pretending you're just someone I know?
And you've surely realised
That with every boy you fuck, to me the more beautiful you are.
Boy, this sucks. I should've known from the start.
This was only meant to be casual, we agreed.
You say you went home with that boy because you're in love with me.
So how can I go on pretending you're just someone I know?
And you've surely realised
That with every boy you fuck, to me the more beautiful you are.
Boy, this sucks - our having not seen it from the start.
Take my hand, a second take from the top.
We made our plans before we realised what this was.
And you've surely realised
That with every boy you fuck, to me the more beautiful you are.
Boy, this sucks - our having not seen it from the start.
Take my hand, a second take from the top.
We made our plans before we realised what this was,
That we're in love, Pandora.
Video: Excerpts from Pandora's Box by G.W.Pabst (1929). More info at:
On Friday, May 6, getTV is proud to present the network premiere of the
newly-restored 1937 Columbia Pictures musical WHEN YOU’RE IN LOVE! It
stars beloved leading man Cary Grant and Golden Age songstress Grace
Moore.
The film is helmed by Oscar-winning Frank Capra
collaborator Robert Riskin in his directorial debut. It also boasts
breezy song-and-dance numbers highlighted by standards written by
legendary composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Dorothy Fields.
Read all about it on the Huffington Post. getTV provided this special trailer for tomorrow's broadcast.
This is the first in a series of odd, unusual, and entertaining Louise Brooks related videos from Vimeo. Here is "I’m a part of this movie, but it doesn’t move me" from Roxane Billamboz.
Here is another musical video tribute to Louise Brooks, titled "Louise Brooks: Beauty in the Breakdown." I am not sure who the artist is.
The description read:Uploaded on Apr 11, 2009
Louise
Brooks. Brooksie. Lulu. A tribute to the actress, icon, writer,
timeless beauty, free spirit, dancer, ahead of her time, and all around
fabulous Louise, with clips from Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl and
the documentary Looking for Lulu.
They have voices then too. Here silent film stars speak in this YouTube compilation, which includes Louise Brooks, Lon Chaney, Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi, Buster Keaton, Theda Bara, and Clara Bow.
As the other video I had planned to blog about was just recently removed, I am instead posting this one instead, as a follow-up to the previous LBS blog. Thanks to Tor Lier for pointing it out.
Six Jumping Jacks (Harry Reser's Band) voc. Tom Stacks - - Masculine
Women! Feminine Men! (Edgar Leslie - James V. Monaco) Brunswick 1926
And here's another faux Louise Brooks interview found on YouTube. (A veritable sub-genre!) It is titled "Late Night Talk Show ft. Louise Brooks" and was published online last December by Elena Serafimovski.
This is cool: a 2013 video tribute to Louise Brooks by two teenagers. it's called "Late Night Show with Lois: with guest star Louise Brooks." I believe woman playing Brooks is named Mayuri Bharathan, and this YouTube video is from her channel.
Welcome to Music Video Tribute Week on the Louise Brooks Society blog. Here is the seventh and final installment, "LOUISE SEMPRE LOUISE (dedicado a Louise Brooks)" by Rádio Educativa Mensagem (REM).