American Cinematheque interview about Louise Brooks

Ahead of its May 20th screening of a pair of Louise Brooks films, Beggars of Life (1928) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)  in Hollywood, the American Cinematheque ran an interview about Brooks on its blog, "Movies on the Big Screen." The interview, conducted by former Los Angeles Times journalist Susan King, features comments from acclaimed film historian Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood and other books, and myself, Thomas Gladysz, author of Beggars of Life, A Companion to the 1928 Film, and editor of the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl.


Check out the interview, "The Eternal Louise Brooks," HERE.

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL / BEGGARS OF LIFE

Screening format: DCP

Join us in the courtyard at 6:15 PM, when The Chapwinds will perform music from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (which premiered in Germany the year before DIARY OF A LOST GIRL) and Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music,” the most prominent American work in the wind quintet canon.

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL

DAS TAGEBUCH EINER VERLORENEN

1929, Kino Lorber, 112 min, Germany, Dir: G.W. Pabst 

Seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant, Louise Brooks descends into a lurid hell of reformatories and whorehouses. For a debauched party scene, Pabst insisted on realism – so Brooks complied by playing “the whole scene stewed on hot, sweet German champagne.” // New 2K Restoration!

BEGGARS OF LIFE

1928, Kino Lorber, 100 min, USA, Dir: William A. Wellman 

Rough-and-tumble writer Jim Tully’s autobiography served as the basis for what many consider Louise Brooks’ best American film. She plays a young woman who kills her abusive stepfather and hits the road (in the company of Richard Arlen) hoping to make it to safety in Canada. Wallace Beery delivers a memorable performance as hobo Oklahoma Red in this beautifully shot silent. // New 2K Restoration!