Kevin Brownlow series at Film Forum

Film Forum in New York City has scheduled a two week series of films honoring Kevin Brownlow, the great silent film historian, filmmaker and archivist. The series will include live musical accompaniment, multiple special introductions, and more -- including a screening of Brownlow's 5 1/2 hour restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927) -- the first in New York City in 40 years! This is an event not to be missed. More about the series, which runs October 24 through November 6, can be found on the Film Forum website HERE.

Kevin Brownlow (far left) with silent film star Baby Peggy, film archivist
David Shepard and film historian Leonard Maltin in 2010.
Photo © by Thomas Gladysz

Without a doubt, Kevin Brownlow is the single most important person in the history of the history of silent film. He is also the only film historian to be given an Honorary Oscar. Martin Scorsese described Brownlow as "A giant among film historians... you might say Mr. Brownlow is film history." It's true. Here is what the Film Forum says about this very special event. 

At 30, filmmaker and editor Kevin Brownlow revolutionized film books with The Parade’s Gone By, a pathbreaking history of silent movies, soon followed by other important works, including the greatest of all cinema documentaries, among them the multi-award-winning television series Hollywood and Cinema Europe, and unsurpassed profiles of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Garbo, et al. A passionate collector and restorer of lost silents—most famously, Abel Gance’s 5½ hour epic NAPOLEON—Brownlow, with partners David Gill and Patrick Stanbury, has presented “Live Cinema” events, featuring new orchestral scores composed and conducted by close collaborator Carl Davis. In 2010, Mr. Brownlow was given a special Academy Award® for his “wise and devoted chronicling of the cinematic parade,” and, in 2018, TCM’s Robert Osborne Award, “for keeping classic films alive and thriving for generations to come.” This series includes Mr. Brownlow’s own films, those he was instrumental in restoring, and some that influenced and inspired him. Selected screenings will be followed by excerpts from his documentaries.

Presented with generous support from The Robert Jolin Osborne Endowed Fund for American Classic Cinema of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s and The Ira M. Resnick Foundation

Among the films to be shown as part of this series is Pandora's Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks. The film will be screened twice, on Wednesday, October 29 and Saturday, November 1. Besides being a unsurpassed champion of silent film, Kevin Brownlow has also been a long time champion of Louise Brooks.  He befriended her in the late 1960’s, they corresponded for many years (reportedly some 200 letters), and she was included (somewhat prominently) in three of Brownlow’s most significant works -- the groundbreaking book The Parade’s Gone By (1968), the seminal 13 part filmed history of the American silent cinema, Hollywood (1979), and the also remarkable 3 part history of European silent film, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996). Be sure to track down whatever books and documentaries you can. Each is a gem.

(left) The Parade's Gone By --- (right) Thomas Gladysz and Kevin Brownlow

As noted, The Parade’s Gone By is widely considered the single most important history of silent film. And thus, it’s a notable that this book contains a note of thanks by Brownlow which reads, “I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book’s publication.”

Kevin Brownlow has, as well, been a longtime friend to the Louise Brooks Society. I have met him a number of times, and been to his London apartment. He has also answered questions and provided notes and information on a number of occasions, and, he wrote the foreword to the 2023 Louise Brooks Society publication, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. He is always generous, always helpful.

But enough about me. Here is the line-up of films for the Kevin Brownlow series at the Film Forum in New York City, courtesy of the Film Forum program.

 

Search this blog (in the upper left hand corner) for more about Louise Brooks and Kevin Brownlow. 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.