Louise Brooks screening and booksigning at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles

The 29th of the month is turning out to be a special day for Pandora's Box and fans of the film's star, Louise Brooks.

Earlier today, on January 29th, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) screened the 1929 film as part of it's month long "Roaring Twenties on Film" celebration of flappers and all things Jazz Age. (Read Jay Carr's essay on the film HERE.)

And .... one month from today, on Leap Day February 29th, the American Cinematheque and Los Angeles Philharmonic have teamed up to show the film at the Egyptian theater in Los Angeles. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by composer and jazz pianist Cathlene Pineda along with trumpeter Stephanie Richards and guitarist Jeff Parker. Information and tickets made be found HERE.

But wait, there's more.... I have just been asked to sign copies of my Louise Brooks books at the Egyptian theater screening. I will have copies of Louise Brooks the Persistent Star on hand, as well as Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film and Now We're in the Air: A Companion to the Once Lost Film. I will also have a few last copies of the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a  Lost Girl, a book which I edited and wrote the introduction to and brought back into print ten years ago. The famed Larry Edmunds bookshop will be handling sales. (This event marks my first book signing in Hollywood in a number of years - I signed books at Cinecon a few years ago. I hope to see everyone there!)

The American Cinematheque is screening a 35mm print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, whose preservation was funded by Hugh M. Hefner. If you live in Los Angeles and have never seen Pandora's Box on the BIG screen, let this be your chance to do so.

About Pandora's Box, the American Cinematheque staes: "As Henri Langlois once thundered, “There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks!” Here she proves it with one of the wildest performances of the silent era, as the dancer-turned-hooker Lulu who attracts men like moths to a candle. Politicians, titans of industry and the aristocracy are all part of the milieu Lulu inhabits as the story begins; her eventual descent to a criminal underworld underlines the fragility of German society between the wars. The combination of Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (“It was sexual hatred that engrossed his whole being with its flaming reality,” she once said) is still astonishing."

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Los Angeles in February

Pandora's Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on February 29, 2020. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by composer and jazz pianist Cathlene Pineda along with trumpeter Stephanie Richards and guitarist Jeff Parker. This special event is being presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the American Cinematheque. More information and tickets made be found HERE. [See the previous post for another screening of Pandora's Box in February, this time in England.]

According to the Philharmonic website: "Weimar cinema classic Pandora's Box stars Louise Brooks as Lulu, a dancer-turned-hooker who attracts men (and the occasional Countess) like moths to a candle. Marlene Dietrich, then on the cusp of stardom, was considered for the role of the amoral young woman until director G.W. Pabst fixed on Brooks after seeing her in A Girl in Every Port. The American actress brought a vivacity and naturalism to the role – as well as a distinctive bob hairstyle – that gives one of the wildest performances of the silent era continuing resonance with audiences.

If Louise Brooks stands out as an unusually modern woman in Pandora's Box, the film itself serves as a fascinating window on an earlier era. Politicians, titans of industry, and the aristocracy are all part of the milieu Lulu inhabits as the story begins; her eventual descent to a criminal underworld underlines the fragility of German society between the wars. Less than a year after Pandora's Box premiered in Berlin, the stock market crashed in America, pulling the financial rug out from under the Weimar Republic and setting the stage for Hitler’s rise. The Roaring Twenties were over.

While Lulu’s end is not a happy one, Pandora's Box is much more than a juicy morality tale. With tight pacing and a touch of humor, filmmaker Pabst proves a good match for his leading lady (he would also collaborate with Brooks on Diary of a Lost Girl later that year), and Günther Krampf’s B&W cinematography brings the film’s varied people and places into sharp relief. Talent on both sides of the camera elevate what could have been mere melodrama to a celebration of passions unleashed. Even if you can’t always get what you want, desire is a universal language, and Pandora's Box still speaks it eloquently."

[Of course, I have my doubts about A Girl in Every Port leading Pabst to Brooks, but be that as it may.]

The L. A. Philharmonic / American Cinematheque screening is part of a month's worth or related concerts, performances, screenings and exhibits centering on Germany's Weimar Republic  (1918-1933). The Philharmonic's website states "In the 1920s, Germany saw a remarkable cultural renaissance prior to the rise of Nazism. Intellectualism and modernism took root in the chaotic social and economic climate between world wars. The arts and sciences burst with imagination, queer identities were brought to the forefront, and the lines between high and low art were erased. Join in a wide-ranging look at this fascinating, turbulent time." More information about this series of events can be found HERE.

^{Max Beckmann, Paris Society, 1931. Oil on canvas, 43 x 69 1/8 inches (109.2 x 175.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.}