Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Henri Langlois gravesite

Yesterday, I received a fascinating email about the gravesite of Henri Langlois, the famous French film archivist and co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française.As most any fan of Louise Brooks knows, Langlois was an admirer of the actress. He uttered the now famous declaration, "There is no Garbo, there is no Dietrich, there is only Louise Brooks."



Brooks' fan Steve Robinson emailed me a couple of images he took in the cemetery in Montparnasse where Langlois is buried. He wanted me to share them with everyone. The first image is of the gravesite, and the second is of a collage on the gravestone which includes an image of Louise Brooks from Pandora's Box. Thank you Steve.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome totale! Well executed, Steve. Now who deserves credit for the memorial? ... Brooks would want it noted that Langlois lived 1914-1977. ... I'd like to know just which image of Brooks was paired with Falconetti's in '55.

There was a "France Today" article that said one of the Cinémathèque's holdings is "Louise Brooks's spangled silver flapper dress"--! True, Steve? What would the provenance of that be?!

Vivian Thomas's fine report is at: www.francetoday.com/articles/2009/06/16/the-cinematheque-francaise

The original LBS: Langlois, Brooks, & Sturges convened on the Elysée Matignon.

P.S. A five-day Polish Film Festival begins at Rochester's Little Theatre on November 14th, with white-bobbed veteran Danuta Szaflarska (b. 1914) starring in the afternoon feature (Pora Umierać / Too Soon to Die, 2007). In the all-star evening feature (Jeszcze nie wieczór / Before Twilight, 2008), residents of an Actors' Home get charged up to stage Goethe's "Faust".

P.P.S. Since Brooks admired John Travolta's dancing as Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever", I'll mention that the Dryden Theatre will show SNF on Saturday ... setting up for the 14th, "Tony Manero", a 2008 film from Chile about a cutthroat dance contest under Pinochet in 1978. (SNF played in Rochester in February, 1978.)

MUSIC: Lucienne Boyer, "Parlez-Moi d'Amour"

Anonymous said...

CORRECTION: Danuta Szaflarska, b. 1915.

Marthe Coiffier, "Je N'ai Qu'un Amour C'est Toi"

Nasim said...

Wow... Really you received an E-mail!! Awesome. I am a very big fan of Henri Langlois.
Thanks for your very helpful blog post
Have a nice time
bye
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