Sunday, November 9, 2008

"Lulu" in Chicago

Lulu, Alban Berg's seminal modern opera, has opened at The Lyric Opera of Chicago (through Nov 30th). According to an article on the production in the Chicago Sun-Times,  such " . . . works demand our participation in their full theatricality." The article went on to add,

So it is with one of the great if least produced operas of the 20th century -- Alban Berg's "Lulu," which is having a rare revival in a new production at Lyric Opera of Chicago starting Friday. Inspired by two turn-of-the-last-century German stage plays about the ultimate "femme fatale" and composed after the Kansas-born actress Louise Brooks had already immortalized their heroine in G.W. Pabst's 1929 German silent film "Pandora's Box," Berg's opera is a musical and visual phantasmagoria -- a total theatrical experience.

Another article in The Times (from Munster, Indiana) also linked Brooks with the Berg production. Quoting the conductor of the piece, It states, "Davis calls Lulu "the most riveting of all 20th-century opera heroines," who exerts a "fatal attraction" on every man who enters her life." And then goes on to add, "Check out Louise Brooks' mesmerizing portrayal of her in the 1929 silent film "Pandora's Box," based on the original play by Frank Wedekind."
 
Newspaper and magazine articles linking Alban Berg's Lulu (1934) with Louise Brooks and the character she played in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) are increasingly common. And naturally so, as both Berg's opera and Pabst's film were based on Frank Wedekind's play. However, what's interesting is the increasing frequency of such associations. I have collected dozens of examples covering productions going back 30 or more years - and have noticed that beginning with the Brooks' revival in the late 1970's, her name has come to be increasingly associated with the Berg opera.

Why? Not only is it because both Berg's opera and Pabst's film were based on the same Wedekind work, but because Louise Brooks became so clearly identified with the role. With some productions, the singer playing Lulu has been clearly modelled after the silent film star.

For more on this production (I wish I could be there), including video clips and podcasts, check out the Lyric Opera's website athttp://lyricopera.org/    I would love to hear from anyone who attends a performance. Please post your thoughts.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Diary of a Lost Girl screens in Rochester, New York

The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York will be screening the 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Diary of a Lost Girl, on Tuesday, November 25th at 8 pm.  If you live in the area, here is your chance to watch a Brooks' film in the very theater where the actress herself took in movies in the last decades of her life.

The George Eastman House website notes: "Rochester’s own Louise Brooks is as enigmatic as ever in the second of the three films she made with Austrian master Pabst. Brooks stars as a pharmacist’s daughter who is rejected by her bourgeois family, ends up in a brothel, and then goes on to marry a count. Her past catches up with her, however, in this surprisingly explicit masterpiece. Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, this print features seven minutes of previously censored footage never seen in the US. Live piano by Philip C. Carli."

More information about this screening can be found at dryden.eastmanhouse.org/films/diary-of-a-lost-girl/  [Check it out. Brooks' image is included in the nifty slide show at the top of the page.]

Monday, November 3, 2008

A bit about Hélène Regelly

I found this bit of text and youtube link on eBay, and thought it worth passing along.

"Hélène Regelly (1904-2001) had her great breakthrough at the age of 28 when she stood in for Gabrielle Ristori in this performance of the "White Horse Inn". Two years later, she had another big success in Szulc's "Mandrin". Soon after, unfortunately, she ended up in oblivion. It's a shame, as from this record one can tell she was a superb singer. Some sources state that she dubbed Louise Brooks in the singing scenes of Genina's "Prix de Beauté". I'm not entirely sure whether this is true, but it definitely sounds like her. However, she modestly continued to sing in province theatres and on the radio till about 1960."

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Who Are the Remaining Silent Film Stars?


According to an article in last Wednesday's British Guardian, "Who Are the Remaining Silent Film Stars," one of Louise Brooks' fellow actors from Pandora's Box is still alive. "Barbara Kent played the innocent heroine opposite Greta Garbo's vamp in Clarence Brown's Flesh and the Devil (1926) and Daisy D'Ora appeared as Fritz Kortner's bride in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1928)." Wow, I hadn't known. I wonder if anyone has spoken to her recently about her experiences working on that film ?

A long time ago - perhaps around the time I started the Louise Brooks Society back in 1995 - I had the chance to see Francis Lederer at a Cinecon film convention in Hollywood. Lederer played Alwa - Brooks'  love interest, or at least one of them, in Pandora's Box. He was rather elderly then, but spoke after a screening and took questions from the audience. I really didn't have a chance to meet him, but did get his autograph in the convention program! Somewhere, I have a snapshot Lederer and myself.

The Guardian article also notes: "Among the other juvenile survivors are June Havoc, Virginia Davis (who took the lead in Walt Disney's Alice in Cartoonland series), future cinematographer Jack Cardiff and Helen Alice Myres and Diana Serra Cary, who were respectively better known as Baby Marie and Baby Peggy." In the past, I also had the chance to meet two of the stars mentioned, Virginia Davis and Diana Serra Cary (aka Baby Peggy).

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Lulu in Marrakech

Recently, the New York Times ran a couple of reviews of the new Diane Johnson novel, Lulu in Marrakech. I haven't read the book, but it's title caught my attention because of the name of its title character. (Johnson's novel is described as a social comedy about a clueless young American woman named Lulu.) What also caught my attention was the newspaper's suggestion that the novel's main character has some connection to Louise Brooks and the character she once played, also named Lulu.

The first review, by Michiko Kakutani, noted ". . . the tone of the first two-thirds of Lulu in Marrakech (a title that gratuitously recalls Louise Brooks ’s collection of autobiographical writings, Lulu in Hollywood) is more in the vein of the author’s recent comedies of manners, Le DivorceLe Mariage and L’Affaire.

While the second review, by Erica Wagner, begins, "There are some names you can’t ignore. When you find them attached to a particular fictional character, you can’t assume that blind coincidence prompted the writer’s choice. Call your girl-heroine Jane and there may be echoes of Jane Eyre, but the association is not forced on you. And a Cathy does not need to meet a Heathcliff. But the name Lulu? Lulu is a different story. Lulu has a pedigree. Even if the defiant anti­heroine of Frank Wedekind’s books isn’t at the forefront of your mind as you say the name out loud (your lips will purse, as if you’re about to kiss) there’s an innocent-yet-louche ring to it."

It's interesting that both reviews, published a day apart, both point to the name of Lulu and its cultural resonance. Has anyone read Diane Johnson's new novel?

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Now We're in the Air

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Autumn is coming, its getting chilly

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Pittsburgh trunk shows to preview Bill Blass Lulu collection

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ran an article yesterday announcing a trunk show sale featuring designs inspired by Louise Brooks.

Fans of Bill Blass New York separates, knitwear and dresses can slip into the brand's latest fall and holiday designs -- about 300 pieces -- during upcoming trunk shows on the South Side and in Mt. Lebanon.

The late silent-movie actress Louise Brooks inspired the new Bill Blass New York holiday collection, dubbed "Lulu," with her "festive" and "seductive" image.

The autumn wear -- inspired by artists Anselm Kiefer and Zaha Hadid -- wraps women in colors such as "shadow" (grey brown), "coal" (deep black), "carmine" (terra cotta red), "regal" (rich purple) and "petrol" (charcoal/navy).

Monday, October 6, 2008

Anthony Bourdain's fantasy dinner

Celebrity chef and author has a letch for Louise Brooks. He has name-checked the silent film star a few times in interviews and articles. Bourdain mentioned Brooks again to a reporter for the New York Post.

Asked to describe the fantasy party he'd like to attend, the "Kitchen Confidential" chef tells Page Six Magazine in this Sunday's Post: "Chef Marco Pierre White and Keith Richards would be throwing something on the barbie in a back yard in Red Hook. Louise Brooks, the silent film actress, would be there, along with Ava Gardner, Orson Welles, [British spy] Kim Philby and the CIA director of counterintelligence."
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