The celebrated German silent film, Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Paramount theater in Oakland, California on Saturday, May 6. And what's more, this live cinema event will feature live musical accompaniment by the Club Foot Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. More information about the event can be found HERE.
As the SFSFF notes, "G.W. Pabst created a furor when he cast twenty-three-year-old Louise Brooks—a little-known actress from Cherryvale, Kansas—as Lulu in his 1929 Die Büchse der Pandora. The character created by German playwright Frank Wedekind was to be played by an American ingenue who spoke not a word of German! Marlene Dietrich wondered, "Why should Pabst choose her when he could have me?" But Pabst's instinct was right. PANDORA'S BOX is a work of genius and Louise Brooks can take much of the credit."
More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website HERE.
In the years since its rediscovery in the late 1950s, Pandora’s Box has been screened a number of times around the United States, though perhaps nowhere more often than in the San Francisco Bay Area (the almost birthplace of writer Frank Wedekind). Notably, however, this special screening marks the film's first ever Oakland showing! Here is the scoop on this major event.
From
the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website: On May 6, 2023, the
Club Foot Orchestra will join forces with San Francisco Conservatory of
Music to accompany G.W. Pabst’s 1929 masterpiece Pandora’s Box
at Oakland’s magnificent Paramount Theatre. The film stars the radiant
Louise Brooks whose mesmerizing performance as the sexually adventurous
Lulu catapulted her to worldwide fame. Here is praise for Brooks through
the years:
An actress who needed no directing, but could move
across the screen causing the work of art to be born by her mere
presence.—Lotte H. Eisner
Those who have seen her can never
forget her. She is the modern actress par excellence. . . . Her art is
so pure that it becomes invisible.—Henri Langlois
Her youthful
admirers see in her an actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality,
and a beauty unparalleled in film history.—Kevin Brownlow
One of
the most mysterious and potent figures in the history of the
cinema . . . she was one of the first performers to penetrate to the
heart of screen acting.—David Thomson
SFSFF will screen the restoration by Angela Holm and David Ferguson in a DCP from the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Tickets
are now on sale for SFSFF's May 6 event. All tickets ($35 general
admission) are being sold through the Paramount's official ticketing
partner Ticketmaster and there is a $3 per-ticket fee. Those who would
like to avoid Ticketmaster fees can visit the Paramount's Box Office in
Oakland between 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm on Fridays to buy tickets in
person. SFSFF members receive a $5 discount per ticket.
The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.
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