Tonight, the New Zealand International Film Festival screens the rarely shown silent version of
Prix de beauté, a 1930 French drama starring Louise Brooks. The film, initially shot as a silent, was quickly adapted as a sound film.
The sound
version, with dubbed dialogue and music, was released at the time "talkies" were
beginning to dominate the French film market. The silent version quietly faded
away. This special screening features Marc Taddei
conducting the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in a single performance
of Timothy Brock’s original score. More information on this event
can be found at
http://www.nziff.co.nz/2014/auckland/prix-de-beaute/. Here is what the NZIFF says about the event.
Prix de beauté 1930
"Our
popular annual engagement with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
showcases the last major film to star the dazzling Louise Brooks.
Timothy Brock’s score for this rarely seen jazz-age classic is conducted
by Marc Taddei.
Our popular annual engagement with the Auckland
Philharmonia Orchestra showcases one of the few icons of silent-era
eroticism whose allure can still be felt 90 years later. Marc Taddei
conducts a single performance of Timothy Brock’s original score to
accompany Prix de beauté. This rarely seen jazz age classic was the last major film to star the dazzling Louise Brooks.
Famously contemptuous of what Hollywood had to offer her, Brooks is
best remembered for three films she made when she headed for Europe: Pandora’s Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, and this French film, long unavailable in its original silent-era version. Like the two better known German films, Prix de beauté
puts her at the centre of a trenchant and perversely seductive
depiction of social decadence. Venturing an early critique of celebrity
culture, the rags to riches tale of a vivacious young office worker who
enters a beauty competition packs a surprising punch.
Displaying all the mobility and visual invention of late-20s silent
cinema at its height, the film’s location shooting brings documentary
immediacy to beaches and fun-fairs jostling with holidaymakers, or the
clamorous crowd sizing up Miss Europe of 1928. While these scenes
resound with echoes of long forgotten good times, the energy of the
woman at their centre feels enduringly present. As much as her piercing
beauty and the dramatic bob that forever carries her name, it’s Brooks’
capacity to suggest a dangerous mind that still strikes sparks.
Like many films of the late 20s, Prix de beauté was made
first in both sound and silent versions. To the best of our knowledge
this will be the New Zealand premiere of the original silent version. We
have a recent DCP restoration from an Italian print by the Cinetecas of
Bologna and Milan and the Cinémathèque Française. We will provide
surtitle translation of the original Italian intertitles.
“This is a photographer’s movie, from the fluid location shooting at
the start to the strikingly lit finale… Most beguiling is the camera’s
love affair with the face of Louise Brooks, whose eyes retain their
sparkle no matter how faded the print. Although beset by a possessive
lover, by showbiz exploiters and, in a remarkable funfair scene, by
humanity generally, Brooks is so sheerly, dominatingly vivacious that
oppression hardly seems an issue.” — Time Out Film Guide
Marc Taddei is currently Music Director of Orchestra Wellington. His
several Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Live Cinema engagements have
included The Wind in 2006, Nosferatu in 2011, and the Buster Keaton titles Sherlock Jr in 2010 and The Cameraman in 2013.
Timothy Brock is a leading interpreter and composer of orchestral music
for silent cinema and has been a regular visitor to the Festival, most
recently conducting his restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s score for The Gold Rush in 2009. His original scores have become a regular feature of our Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Live Cinema programme."
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