The sensational 1929 Louise Brooks' film, The Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown at the New York Public Library on Sunday, November 25th at 2:00 pm. This special event is part of a two-part series called "Silent Sirens on Sundays!" More information can be found HERE.
The Flapper (1920), directed by Alan Crosland, tells the story of Ginger King (Olive Thomas), a bored schoolgirl who dreams of romantic adventures. In an attempt to become more sophisticated, she unwittingly gets mixed up with some crooks who entrust her with stolen jewels. When they come after her, she realizes that she must forget her childish dreams and save the day.
Olive Thomas (1894-1920) was a model and Follies girl who was named the most beautiful girl in New York City. She made her screen debut in 1916 in the serial Beatrix Fairfax and would go on to make 22 films before her untimely death at the age of 25. The Flapper, one of her biggest films, marked the first time the term “flapper” was used in an American film.
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), directed by G.W. Pabst, tells the story of Thymian Henning (Louise Brooks), a naïve young girl who after getting pregnant by her father’s assistant, is sent by her family to a repressive reform school from which she eventually escapes. Penniless and homeless, she winds up in a brothel where she lives for the moment with physical abandon.
Louise Brooks (1906-1985), the girl with the black bob, was a dancer and actress who after making a string of films in Hollywood gave it all up to go to Germany and play the lead in G. W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1928). After living in obscurity for years, film historians rediscovered Brooks’ films in the 1950s, and she was proclaimed a film icon.
Diary of a Lost Girl is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in Germany in 1905. Though little known today, it was a literary sensation at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1920s, it had been translated into 14 languages and sold more than 1,200,000 copies - ranking it among the bestselling books of its time.
Was it - as many believed - the real-life diary of a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work - a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication - inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two silent films. The best remembered of these is the G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks.
In 2010, the Louise Brooks Society published a corrected and annotated edition of the original English language translation, bringing this important book back into print in the United States after more than 100 years. It includes an introduction by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society, detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 silent film. This special "Louise Brooks Edition" also includes more than three dozen vintage illustrations and is available through amazon.com
In 2015, Kino Lorber released the best available print of the film on DVD and Blu-ray. This recommended release features an audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz. Like the book, the film is also available through amazon.com
Silent Sirens: Olive Thomas and Louise Brooks
Writer and producer Michele Gouveia will introduce both films.
Presented in the first floor Willa Cather Community Room, NYPL.
All events are free and open to the public.
All events are free and open to the public.
The Flapper, Sunday, November 11 at 2:00 pm
The Flapper (1920), directed by Alan Crosland, tells the story of Ginger King (Olive Thomas), a bored schoolgirl who dreams of romantic adventures. In an attempt to become more sophisticated, she unwittingly gets mixed up with some crooks who entrust her with stolen jewels. When they come after her, she realizes that she must forget her childish dreams and save the day.
Olive Thomas (1894-1920) was a model and Follies girl who was named the most beautiful girl in New York City. She made her screen debut in 1916 in the serial Beatrix Fairfax and would go on to make 22 films before her untimely death at the age of 25. The Flapper, one of her biggest films, marked the first time the term “flapper” was used in an American film.
Diary of a Lost Girl , Sunday, November 25 at 2:00 pm
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), directed by G.W. Pabst, tells the story of Thymian Henning (Louise Brooks), a naïve young girl who after getting pregnant by her father’s assistant, is sent by her family to a repressive reform school from which she eventually escapes. Penniless and homeless, she winds up in a brothel where she lives for the moment with physical abandon.
Louise Brooks (1906-1985), the girl with the black bob, was a dancer and actress who after making a string of films in Hollywood gave it all up to go to Germany and play the lead in G. W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1928). After living in obscurity for years, film historians rediscovered Brooks’ films in the 1950s, and she was proclaimed a film icon.
Diary of a Lost Girl is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in Germany in 1905. Though little known today, it was a literary sensation at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1920s, it had been translated into 14 languages and sold more than 1,200,000 copies - ranking it among the bestselling books of its time.
Was it - as many believed - the real-life diary of a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work - a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication - inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two silent films. The best remembered of these is the G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks.
In 2010, the Louise Brooks Society published a corrected and annotated edition of the original English language translation, bringing this important book back into print in the United States after more than 100 years. It includes an introduction by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society, detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 silent film. This special "Louise Brooks Edition" also includes more than three dozen vintage illustrations and is available through amazon.com
In 2015, Kino Lorber released the best available print of the film on DVD and Blu-ray. This recommended release features an audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz. Like the book, the film is also available through amazon.com
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