Sunday, April 1, 2007

Lulu in KC today

From today's Kansas City Star newspaper


Who knows what will come out of “Pandora’s Box” when the classic silent film is accompanied by a live score performed by the Gillham Park Orchtet at 2 p.m. today at the Kansas City Central Library, 1410 10th St.

My guess: A mesmerizing experience.

German director G.W. Pabst’s ahead-of-its-time psycho-sexual melodrama from 1928 stars bangs-wearing beauty Louise Brooks (a Kansas native), whose party-girl character Lulu expects a bang out of life — until her luck runs out.

“She looks modern,” wrote film guru Roger Ebert about Brooks as Lulu. “She doesn’t have the dated makeup of many silent stars. … She wants to party, she wants to make love, she wants to drink, she wants to tell men what she wants and she wants to get it.”

Orchtet leader Jeffery Ruckman wrote the all-acoustic score for “Pandora’s Box.” The group’s inventive soundscapes have also been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

Consider this: Brooks’ career faded with the advent of talkies, but her legacy is right up there with Greta Garbo and Marlena Dietrich. Be seduced by it in this free screening.
I would love to hear from anyone who attends this screening, and know their impressions of the soundtrack.

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