Louise Brooks & Her Films as Seen in the Brazilian Magazines & Newspapers

The Louise Brooks Society blog is participating in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. This blogathon celebrates the contributions of Portuguese-speaking peoples and their descendants to world cinema. This post is the third of three related posts. More information on the Luso World Cinema Blogathon, including a list of other participants and topics, may be found HERE. I would encourage everyone to check it out!

Before I post something about the bits and pieces I've found searching the internet, I want to mention that I recently came across a six part podcast all about today's topic - Louise Brooks and Brazil. This podcast, by Pedro Dantas, is titled "Louise Brooks, Garota Perdida" and dates to November 2021. Here is the series description in Portuguese: "Programa em homenagem ao legado artístico e cinematográfico de Louise Brooks (1906-1985), estrela do cinema mudo, ícone dos anos 1920 e mulher à frente de seu tempo (e do nosso tempo). Em 2021 se completam 115 anos de seu nascimento." And here it is in English translation: "Program in honor of the artistic and cinematographic legacy of Louise Brooks (1906-1985), silent film star, icon of the 1920s and woman ahead of her time (and our time). 2021 marks 115 years since her birth."

"Louise Brooks, Garota Perdida"

I don't speak Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, so I cannot listen and understand. But if anyone does give it a listen, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts. BTW, the above mentioned series isn't the only Brazilian podcast I've come across about Brooks. Another, from ClickCiência, dates to january 2021 and is titled "Recepção da obra de Louise Brooks no Brasil é tema de pesquisa na UFSCar." In it, Tamara Carla dos Santos, a student in the Postgraduate Program in Image and Sound at the Federal University of São Carlos, talks about her research on the reception of the films of Louise Brooks in Brazil. Again, if anyone gives it a listen, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts. 

I am fortunate to have been able to dig into a few different Brazilian database archives and have acquired dozens and  dozens of newspaper and magazine clippings and advertisements about Louise Brooks and her films. My greatest find, a couplemof pieces about Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box in a 1930 Chaplin Club newsletter, were covered in my previous post. 

I have too many to post here, so instead I will post some highlights. Before I begin, I would like to point readers of this blog to a page on the Louise Brooks Society website devoted to the actress' South American Magazine Covers. The actress appeared on at least four covers from Brazil, three from Cinearte, and once on A Scena Muda.Reader's can seen them there in beautiful color.

A Scena Muda was one of Brazil's most popular film magazines. They often ran two page spreads on news films, including most all of Brooks' paramount productions. Here is a typical two page spread on Beggars of Life, which in Brazil was titled Os Mendigos na Vida.

Cinearte was another popular fan magazine.  Like A Scena Muda, it too ran one and two page spreads on newly released films. Here is the feature they ran on The Canary Murder Case, which in Brazil was titled O Drama De Uma Noite.

When we think of Brooks' three European films, we usually think of them in a European context. We don't necessarily think that they played in Latin American -- at least not around the time of their release. However, at least two of them did. Pandora's Box played in Brazil in 1929 (months before it played in the United States), and Prix de beaute played in Brazil in 1930 (decades before it played in the United States). The earliest screening of Diary of a Lost Girl in Brazil which I have been able to document dates to August 1954. The film was shown three times at the Filmoteca do Museu de Arte Moderna. That puts it on par with the Louise Brooks' revival just beginning to percolate in France and Italy! And, that predates its first shown in the United States by more than two decades.

Here is a single page piece on Pandora's Box from a magazine called Frou-Frou. in Brazil, the film was called Caixa de Pandora.

Of the three, I might guess that Prix de beaute made the biggest splash. I have come across magazine features about the French production, was well as a good deal of newspaper coverage. In fact, one newspaper, Diario Carioca, from Rio De Janeiro, ran significant articles about the film six days in a row! Here is one example of those pieces, shown within the context of the entire newspaper page.

In my previous post, I displayed a newspaper advertisement for Prix de beaute. I'll close this blog post with another. Uniquely so, it notes that Louise Brooks would be wearing, or modeling, clothes designed by Patou. I don't think I have ever come across an ad for this film -- even French ads -- which mentioned Patou.

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