The rarely screened silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Canada. This special screening will feature a print, courtesy of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, of the restored original silent version. And what's more, the film will be introduced by series curator Alicia Fletcher and will feature live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this event can be found HERE.
According to the Toronto International Film Festival website, "Weimar-era icon and prototypical Hollywood iconoclast Louise Brooks stars in Prix de beauté as Lucienne, a typist who enters a newspaper beauty contest and wins a chance to compete for the Miss Europe title in Spain. A tale of morbid jealousy and revenge co-scripted by G.W. Pabst and René Clair (the latter was intended to direct before Italian expat Augusto Genina was brought in), Prix de beauté had the unfortunate distinction of being filmed as a late-era silent, only to be hastily re-edited and released as a sound film (with Brooks dubbed by a French actress). The end result was a film out of step with the times in its format, yet one which was distinctly modern in its fashion sense, with Jean Patou of the famed House of Patou outfitting Brooks for her final starring role. The sophisticated originator of women’s sportswear who eradicated the flapper style of the ’20s and ushered in the dropped hemlines and elegance of the ’30s, Patou was the perfect outfitter for the rebellious, singularly fashion-forward actor. And, as the inventor of ladies’ knitted swimwear, he was also the perfect match for the film’s bathing-beauty sequence."
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The
internationalism of Prix de beauté is suggested in this vintage poster, which
names the film’s American star, French actors, and Italian director, and
also shows the flags of the four nations whose languages the film would
be dubbed – Italy, France, England, and Germany.
Despite its delayed, problematic release (having to be converted from a silent to a sound feature), Prix de beauté was a considerable hit at the time of its release. It played continuously for a couple of months -- at a time most films only played a week -- following its May 9, 1930 debut at the Max Linder-Pathe in Paris, France. And soon thereafter, the film was shown all over Europe, in Northern Africa, parts of Asia, and in South America and the Caribbean well into the mid-1930s. In fact, the film remained in circulation for some six years. It was often revived in France. And, it played in present day Algeria, Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Madagascar, Turkey and the former USSR. And speaking of former nation states, the film even played in the one-time city-state of Danzig. Prix de beauté had legs (pun intended).
For example, records show that the film played in Havana, Cuba in March 1932, and then debuted at the Haitiana theatre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti later that year, in December 1932. Ever green, Prix de beauté returned to the Haitiana theatre in October 1933, April 1935, and July 1936 - that's six years after is debut. Truth be told, the film played just about everywhere, except for the United States and Canada.
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| Haitian newspaper ad |
More about Prix de beauté can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website HERE. The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.
Studying the TIFF page for the event, I can't determine 1.) if it is an online or in-person screening or both, 2.) if non-members can attend. I've written TIFF for clarification.
ReplyDeleteSame here. I wrote them and was told it was an in-person event.
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