Roger Ebert articles on-line

The Chicago Sun-Times has put thousands of Roger Ebert's film reviews and articles on-line. They can all be found in a searchable database at the Sun Timeswebsite. Ebert really loves "the movies," and he is an advocate for the greats of the silent film era, i.e., Charlie Chaplin, Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish, and Louise Brooks, among others. (See "Star Ranking Really Rankles.")

Included among the Ebert archive is a long article from 1998 on Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box (which quietly alludes to the LBS - "she is the most popular dead actress on the Web.") Another interesting item is a question and answer exchange from "Movie Answer Man."

"Q. I've been attending a series of silent films by the German director G.W. Pabst. While watching Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), I recognized a camera shot that is most often attributed to Conrad Hall (that of a face next to a window during rain, making it appear as if the raindrops are tears). Hall's use of that shot in In Cold Blood is certainly amazing, but it seems that the origin of that shot should be credited to the cinematographers Sepp Allgeier and Fritz Arno Wagner. I was amazed to find such a shot in a German film from the '20s.  --- Charles Modica Jr., Los Angeles

A. There are more amazing shots in German films from the 1920s than in most new releases. That film and Pandora's Box made Louise Brooks a movie immortal. Thanks for the insight; Bertolucci's new The Dreamers quotes the shot, and I credited Hall."

Louise Brooks of Kansas

Just out from the University of Nebraska Press is The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, edited by David J. Wishart.

"With 1,316 entries contributed by more than one thousand scholars, this groundbreaking reference work captures what is vital and interesting about the Great Plains - from its temperamental climate to its images and icons, its historical character, its folklore, and its politics. Thoroughly illustrated, annotated, and indexed, this remarkable compendium of information and analysis will prove the definitive and indispensable resource on the Great Plains for many years to come."

This nearly 1000-page reference work also contains a short entry (by yours truely) on Louise Brooks, who was born and raised in Kansas.

I haven't seen a copy, but am curious to hear from anyone who does if the editors chose to include the picture of Louise Brooks I submitted with my entry.

Louise Brooks and Lemony Snicket . . .

Came across these interesting references to Louise Brooks in the works of the popular writer known as "Lemony Snicket." 

In the "A Night at the Theatre" section of Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, the author refers to the "Brooks-Gish Award for Best Actress."

And in The Carnivorous Carnival, which is part of the author's A Series of Unfortunate Events series and which contains other cinematic and literary references, there is a mention of Lulu.

What does it all mean? Is Lemony Snicket a fan of Louise Brooks? Someday I will have to ask Daniel Handler . . . .

Louise Brooks mention on NPR

I was listening to National Public Radio while driving home from a research trip to the University of California, Berkeley. On the radio was a program called "Artists At Work." The artists featured were French song composer Dominique Cravic and artist Robert Crumb, members of the musical group Les Primitifs du Futur. While highlighting the group's music and past cd's, the program host mentioned their song for Louise Brooks, "Chanson pour Louise Brooks," and then played an excerpt.

Silent film analyzes battle of the sexes

A review of Diary of a Lost Girl appeared in yesterday's Grand Rapids Press. The article, by John Douglas, was entitled "Silent film analyzes battle of the sexes." The article concludes " . . . The print of "Diary of a Young Girl" on this DVD has been restored, and much of the footage deleted by the early censors has been restored. So it is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with this film starring a true talent few people remember."

Lulu play

This brief article, by Wally Rubin, appeared in the September 10 issue of Variety.

"Presented by Fearless Productions as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St., NYC, Aug. 24-28.

Lulu is a new musical by two graduates of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, based on two plays by German Expressionist playwright Frank Wedekind. The plays were also the basis for an opera by Alban Berg and a 1929 silent movie starring Louise Brooks, famed for her bobbed hairstyle. It is the story of Lulu, a young, amoral man killer, and of the unbidden effects of love, how passion and lust can overrule rational impulses.

Composer-lyricist Adam Gwon and Courtney Phelps, who wrote the book with Gwon and directed, have set this Lulu against the backdrop of the roiling 1920s, when jazz, booze, and silent movies were all the rage. Think La Ronde meets The Wild Party, which, not so incidentally, are both works that have been musicalized by Michael John LaChiusa, who is clearly on influence on Gwen. The style (if not the effect) of the writing is similar, with the same penchant for a restless sound that distrusts melody, and an arch tone that is equal parts bitter and wistful. Gwon shows potential, but he needs to find his own voice and allow his characters greater specificity, giving us reasons to care more about them. At the moment, they seem like ideas culled from other sources.

Broadway veteran Brooke Sunny Moriber was Lulu. She has the perfect 1920s face, with a small mouth and pale porcelain skin, and is gifted with both a distinctive belt and soprano. Jessica Morris, Selby Brown, Daniel C. Levine, and Maggie Letsche all have strong voices, and it was a treat to hear them unmiked. Kevin Kern as a young screenwriter with sunken cheeks and curly blond hair had a melancholic manner that appropriately set him apart. Trevor McGinness' costumes were impressively all of a piece."

Calgary Herald

Another newspaper achive I've come across is that for the Calgary Herald, which is part of the early Alberta newspaper collection. Unlike other newspaper archives, this collection is not searchable by keyword. Instead, the archive contains rather large images of individual pages from the newspapers in its archives. I went through months and months of the Calgary Herald, and managed to find a bunch of articles, reviews and advertisements from the 1920's. (Citations have been added to the appropriate bibliographies on the LBS website.) Does anyone know of any other Canadian publications with searchable on-line archives?

Harvard Crimson

While crawling around the world wide web, I ran across the website for the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard University. That publication has put its archive, dating back to 1873, on the internet. My search under keywords "Louise Brooks" only turned up a few minor mentions, including this brief review of A Girl in Every Port.

Does anyone know of any other student publications with searchable on-line archives?

Rare Louise Brooks soundtrack

Yesterday, I won an eBay auction for a contemporary soundtrack recording for Le Journal dUne Fille Perdue, or The Diary of a Lost Girl. Brooks is pictured on the front and back of the record sleeve. This rare French LP (PSI / Musimage 20716) was released in 1981, and contains original music for String Quartet by Robert Viger and Solo Piano by Alain Bernaud. I assume this soundtrack recording accompanied the film at some time during its then recent rerelease by Connaissance du Cinema.