Sunday, July 2, 2006

Pandora's Box screens in San Francisco

The 11th annual San Francisco Silent Film festival will take place July 14-16, 2006 at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco. They have a great line-up of films and special guests (see www.silentfilm.org for more info). Among the films they will be showing is Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. Bruce Conner, the celebrated film maker and artist, will introduce the film. Conner grew up in Wichita, Kansas - and has a story to tell about almost taking dancing lessons from the actress. (Any fans of Bruce Conner's work out there?) I will also be introducing the film, and will try to say something intelligent. (Pandora's Box will show on Saturday night.)

Louise Brooks’ fans will want to attend this event for a number of reasons. The festival will be screening a brand new 35mm print of Pandora's Box. If you've never seen it on the big screen, this is a great opportunity to do so. And, as well, there will be a special selection of Brooks-related music played in the theater prior to the screening. I will be programming the music, and can promise some rarities including the theme songs from Beggars of Life and Prix de Beaute. I believe there will also be some sort of informational slide show about Brooks prior to the screening. And that’s not all…. There will also be a very cool Festival t-shirt for sale featuring Louise Brooks. I can’t wait to get one. (For those keeping track, the glossy fliers for the event open up into a mini-poster featuring the actress.) The program for the festival should have some neat stuff inside as well.

If you want to say “hey” (please do), I will generally be positioned at the book table in the lobby throughout the festival. I am sure the table will have some LB stuff for sale – books, buttons, postcards, etc…. I have also heard from Hugh Neely, who directed the excellent documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. He will be at the festival. The table will have a few of his DVD’s for sale at reasonable prices. (I understand the Louise Brooks documentary sells for big bucks online.) Neely also directed the Clara Bow, Marion Davies and Mary Pickford films – all of which aired on TCM. The Festival is also showing Davies and Pickford films.

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