Pandora's Box - An American history of Lulu

Today, Pandora's Box will be shown in Atlanta, Georgia (at 6pm at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center). To mark the occasion, here is a brief history of its reception in the United States.

Pandora's Box made its world premiere in February of 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. German reviews of the time were mixed.

When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of that same year, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent, even hostile. Despite poor reviews, the film did well at its American debut. The New York Sun reported that Pandora’s Box “ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office records. It will therefore be held for another week.”

It has long been believed that Pandora’ s Box fell into obscurity and was not shown again in the United States until June 1958, when James Card screened the film at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York. However, documents uncovered in the last few years (by the Louise Brooks Society) reveal the film was exhibited on at least one occasion prior to 1958. The Little theater in Newark, New Jersey showed the Pabst film in 1931. Advertisements and newspaper clippings from the time note the film was shown at the Little – today’s equivalent of an art house, with English titles and synchronized sound effects. (The origin of these titles, and the nature of the sound effects, is unknown.) It was also advertised for "adult only."

And a year later, Moviegraphs – the exchange that handled distribution of Pandora’ s Box in New York state – applied for a new exhibition license with the intention of screening the film again. Records of later screenings, however, have yet to be found – and the fuller early history of Pandora’s Box in America remains obscure. It is known, however, that in 1943, Iris Barry, the pioneering curator who started the Museum of Modern Art film department, rejected Pandora’s Box for its collection – stating that the film had no lasting value.

Things changed since then. The film has been screened numerous times since the early 1980's. In 2006, when a new 35mm print of the film was shown at Film Forum in New York, Pandora’s Box was reported to be the week's second highest grossing independent film in the United States.

 Here are some excerpts from early American reviews of Pandora's Box.

“At that the picture is above the average of the usual foreign-made production shown in this type of theatre. It has a fast tempo which in itself is unusual. Undoubtedly Louise Brooks, who is starred, is largely responsible for this. -- Motion Picture News

“Louise Brooks is ideally suited to the role of Lulu.” -- Irene Thirer, New York Daily News

“Louise Brooks, especially imported for the title role, did not pan out, due to no fault of hers. She is quite unsuited to the vamp type which was called for by the play from which the picture was made.” -- Variety

“The management, in a program note, says that the picture, based on Wedekind’s dramas, Erdgeist and The Box of Pandora, has been prevented by the board of review of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York from being shown here in its entirety, ‘and for the rather saccharine ending that has been added we crave pardon’. . . . Louise Brooks acts vivaciously but with a seeming blindness as to what it is all about.” -- Marguerite Tazelaar, New York Herald Tribune

“But not even the censors may be blamed for all the film’s deficiencies – the acting, for instance, and the rather absurd melodramatic story. . . . Unlike Anna May Wong, and other Hollywood actresses who have blossomed into skilled players under European influence, Miss Brooks doesn’t seem to have improved since her departure. She is comely as ever, but her pantomimic abilities are sadly limited. . . . The picture is one of the less deserving efforts and was received with apathy by the audience.” -- Regina Crewe, New York American

“It was the privilege of a few reviewers to see Pandora’s Box shortly after it was received by its American exhibitors and before the New York censors got at it. In the beginning it appeared to this one to be a rather harmlessly lewd little exhibition with misery and murder and a touch of abnormalcy along other lines, but at that time, at least, it told a sort of story. Now, it is recommended principally, if at all, for its striking photographs of Miss Louise Brooks, the American actress. At least, the persons who have charge of our film morals have seen fit to leave Miss Brooks’s back, legs, and haircut as they pictured at the outset. Miss Brooks, therefore, retains all of her original charms. . . . Miss Brooks is being pursued by a very determined young woman who wears mannish clothes. I am of the opinion that the young woman in mannish clothes is not selling magazine subscriptions to pay her way through college. It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.” -- Quinn Martin, New York World 

“Louise Brooks, the American actress, has the part of an exotic girl who attracts men and women alike. It is too sophisticated for any but art theater audiences.” -- Harrower, Film Daily

“This feature spent several weeks in the censor’s board’s cutting room: and the result of its stay is a badly contorted drama that from beginning to end reeks with sex and vice that have been so crudely handled as not even to be spicily entertaining. Louise Brooks and Fritz Kortner are starred, with Miss Brooks supposed to be a vampire who causes the ruin of everyone she meets. How anyone could fall for la belle Brooks with the clothes she wears in this vehicle is beyond imagination. . . .  This is a silent production that has no business playing anything but guild theaters.” -- J. F. L., Billboard

“The little theaters continue to lead their own lives. There are nice eighteenth-century sets in Figaro, at the Little Carnegie, and a subdued Kraft-Ebing overtone in Pandora’s Box, at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse, for the benefit of the Wedekind group.” -- J. C. M., New Yorker

Louise Brooks is Lulu in Pandora's Box

These days, Frank Wedekind is best known as the author of Spring Awakening. His 1891 play about teenage sexuality was turned into a smash-hit by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. Their long running Broadway musical won eight Tony awards and has been performed all over the world.

Before Spring Awakening, Wedekind (1864 –1918) was best known for his Lulu plays. 

Those two "Lulu" plays, Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box (1904), were originally conceived of as a single work. Called a "monster tragedy," the Lulu plays tell the story of an alluring, somewhat petulant show-girl who rises in society through her relationships with wealthy, lustful men - like "moths around a flame." Eventually, after a series of unfortunate events, she falls into poverty and prostitution. The play's frank depiction of sexuality and violence, including lesbianism, murder, and an encounter with Jack the Ripper, pushed the boundaries of what was then considered acceptable literature.

Despite their provocative subject matter, the Lulu plays are among the most performed and adapted early 20th century dramas. There were two silent films, and as many as a dozen later movies and TV films based on Pandora's Box alone. Alban Berg's acclaimed opera, Lulu (1937), was based on Wedekind's work. As were the works of numerous other writers, poets, performance artists, comic artists, and rock musicians who found inspiration in the German playwright's words. Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010) and the Lou Reed - Metallica collaboration, Lulu (2011), are two recent examples.

On Sunday, March 25th the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia along with the Atlanta Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society will screen the second film version of Pandora's Box, which stars Louise Brooks as Lulu. Ron Carter, silent film accompanist and Callanwolde House Organist, will accompany the film on Callanwolde's 60 rank Aeolian organ using the instrument as a symphony orchestra.

Pandora's Box is a film which can still shock and enthrall, even 80 plus years after its release. It is also a film whose reputation has ridden a roller-coaster of scorn and acclaim.

Pandora's Box made its world premiere in February of 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin; German reviews of the time were mixed. When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of that same year, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent, even hostile.

Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time, noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor. It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.”

Mordaunt Hall, critic for the New York Times, famously wrote “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe, anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, echoed Hall’s remarks when he stated “It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”

Variety put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”

Lulu has been described as a vamp or femme fatale, but in fact, she is a kind of naive, almost innocent character. As Brooks biographer Barry Paris put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men.... Lulu’s sexual magnetism knows few bounds, and this once controversial film features what may be the screen’s first lesbian character.

At times, this G.W. Pabst directed film - heavily censored in its day and still incomplete - can come off a little heavy handed, almost like melodrama. In Pandora’s Box, Brooks nevertheless reveals her considerable gifts as an actress through an individualized interpretation of her otherwise archetypical character. And largely because of Brooks’ sensational performance, this more than 80 year old film now enjoys a large reputation. Today, Pandora’s Box is widely considered not only Brooks’ best work, but one of the great masterpieces of the silent film era.

What is it that continues to attract contemporary viewers to Pandora’s Box, and to its singular star? Perhaps, the answer lies in our ability to see beyond the film’s melodramatic trappings, and to appreciate qualities found beneath its celluloid skin.

Lottie Eisner, the great German film critic, once described Brooks as “An astonishing actress endowed with an intelligence beyond compare.” While Kevin Brownlow, the Academy Award winning British film historian, described the actress as “One of the most remarkable personalities to be associated with films.” Louise Brooks is certainly both of these, and more.

Those who catch the film this Sunday night will be able to judge for themselves. Pandora's Box will be shown at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, March 25 at 6:00p.m.

Read on at Examiner.com Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks screens in Atlanta - National Louise Brooks | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-in-national/pandora-s-box-with-louise-brooks-screens-atlanta#ixzz1q3bBPcqx

Best 2011 releases for the Louise Brooks fan

It’s that time of the year when bloggers issue their "Best of" lists - the year’s recommended new releases in books, film, music and more. Last year saw the release of a handful of important new releases related to or in homage to Louise Brooks. This year is no different. Though the number of new works related to or inspired by the actress is smaller, it is nevertheless distinguished. Prominent among them in 2011 is Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, in which Brooks is pictured in a book and included in a brief clip from her 1929 film Pandora's Box. Otherwise, fans of the legendary silent film star will want to check out each of these recent releases.

Ebook: My Afternoon With Louise Brooks, by Tom Graves (Rhythm Oil Publications)

-- In 1982, writer and journalist Tom Graves hoped to write a biography of one of the most reclusive stars in the history of cinema. My Afternoon With Louise Brooks is the author's brief account of his now long ago meeting and subsequent dealings with the actress, much of which centered on his never realized biography. Or, as the ebook description puts it, "After 30 years Graves finally tells his tale as the last journalist to ever be admitted into the bedroom of this cult legend." Following its release earlier this year, Graves expanded his ebook to include additional material, making it a more satisfying read. My Afternoon With Louise Brooks is available as an ebook on Amazon.com

Music: Lulu, by Lou Reed and Metallica (Warner Bros.)

-- Like the 1929 Brooks' film Pandora's Box, this musical collaboration between rock greats Lou Reed and Metallica was inspired by Frank Wedekind's two Lulu plays, which together tells the story of a young dancer's life and loves. At times noisy, repetitive, harsh, aggressive, droning, abrasive, and droll - this is 21st century expressionist music which stems not from any rock tradition, but rather an art-music background. Lulu won't be everyone's cup of tea. In fact, it has been poorly received among fans of Reed and Metallica. Nevertheless, it's a strong brew.

Book: Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler by Paul Bauer and Mark Dawidziak (Kent State University Press)

-- Many saw the dark side of the American dream, but few wrote about it like Jim Tully (1886 - 1947). This first ever biography of the writer describes the hardscrabble life of the Irish American storyteller - from his immigrant roots, rural upbringing, and life as a hobo riding the rails to his success and eventual fame as a journalist and novelist in 1920s and 1930s Hollywood. Tully also authored Beggars of Life, a novelistic memoir made into a 1928 film starring Brooks. The two met then, and did not hit it off. Three years earlier, Brooks - in the company of Charlie Chaplin - attended the stage adaption of the book on Broadway.

Book: Making the Detective Story American: Biggers, Van Dine and Hammett and the Turning Point of the Genre, 1925-1930, by J.K. Van Dover (McFarland)

-- In 1929, Louise Brooks and William Powell co-starred in The Canary Murder Case; the film was based on bestselling book of the same name by the pseudonymous S.S. Van Dine, a once-popular and critically esteemed author of detective fiction. Though little read today, Van Dine is considered an important early figure in the development of the modern detective story. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, many of his books were bestsellers, and many were turned into popular films and radio programs. Van Dine is one of three writers featured in a this new book - a critical study.

Book: Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood, by Emily W. Leider (University of California Press)

-- One might not associate Louise Brooks with Myrna Loy. Both were from Western cities, and both were teens when discovered. One was a silent film actress whose career largely faded with the coming of sound, the other a star of the sound era best known for her role in the Thin Man series of the 1930's. (The co-star of that series was William Powell.) Their careers intersected early on when Loy played one of the many international female sirens in A Girl in Every Port (1928), which starred Brooks. Later in life, in 1982, both were chosen as recipients of the George Eastman House for lifetime contribution to the movies. Emily W. Leider has penned a first ever biography of a wry and sophisticated actress whose extraordinary career spanned six decades. [Speaking of A Girl in Every Port, it is one of the films covered in The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography, by Aubrey Solomon (McFarland). A couple of passages about the film can be found in this other new book.]

Book: The Chaperone, by Laura Moriarty (Riverhead)

-- Looking ahead, the big Louise Brooks-related release in 2012 promises to be Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone (Riverhead). Set for publication in June of next year, this captivating new novel tells the story of the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 (on her way to becoming a Denishawn dancer), and the summer that would change them both. Moriarty, who hails from Kansas, is a processed fan of the silent film star. Her earlier novels include While I'm Falling (2010) and The Center of Everything (2004).

Lulu character featured in new play

The latest adaption of Frank Wedekind's Lulu’s is Mlle. God, a new play loosely adapted by Nicholas Kazan from the original Wedekind texts. Naturally, many of the reviews have mentioned Louise Brooks, who played Lulu in G.W. Pabst's 1929 film adaption.

Kazan is an Oscar-nominated writer and director and the son of acclaimed director Elia Kazan, as well as the father of Zoe Kazan (who played the role of Lulu in a production at Yale University.) The Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA premiere of Mlle. God runs through March 6. Read more at http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-in-national/lulu-character-featured-new-play-mlle-god#ixzz1DEKc9VYd

In Mlle. God, Kazan has re-invented Wedekind’s Lulu, creating a muscular and outrageous dark comedy that is a paean to sex, art, and living in the millisecond. “I was inspired by Wedekind, by Pabst, and most of all by Louise Brooks’ luminous comic performance,” says Kazan. “Sex is, in a way, so simple...the means by which we reproduce. But the experience itself can be so powerful that it overwhelms us...as Lulu does.  This is why the character, with her playful joy, still feels so dangerous and shocking: she refuses to assign a moral weight to what is, after all, a biological necessity."

New stage adaption of Lulu in Paris

The La Colline - théâtre national in Paris is putting on a new stage adaption of Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. After this productions plays Paris, it will then tour around France next year. Here are the details via the La Colline website. (The production runs through December 23 - more images and video at the theater website.)

Photo © Élisabeth Carecchio 

overview

In a world where eroticism seems to have become a common law, no man can resist Lulu, even if death is the consequence of pleasure. Wedekind started writing this sensational drama in 1892, and went over it for twenty years, as if the period itself was giving birth to this mythical heroine. In Lulu’s story, the enchanting eros, promise of happiness, ends up turning to trash. The grotesque accents Wedekind valued so much echo till the very last tragic burst of the plot. It is this vim and the combative strength of this writing Stéphane Braunschweig will nourish his staging of the “monstrous tragedy” with.

english subtitled performances
Saturday 4 December at 7.30 p.m
& Tuesday 14 December at 7.30 p.m

cast and creative

director and stage designer Stéphane Braunschweig
artistic collaboration Anne-Françoise Benhamou
costumes Thibault Vancraenenbroeck
lighting Marion Hewlett
sound designer Xavier Jacquot
stage designer collaborator Alexandre De Dardel
director assistant Caroline Guiela
make-up and hair Karine Guillem
with Jean-Baptiste Anoumon, John Arnold, Elsa Bouchain, Thomas Condemine, Claude Duparfait, Philippe Faure, Philippe Girard, Christophe Maltot, Thierry Paret, Claire Rappin, Chloé Réjon, Grégoire Tachnakian, Anne-Laure Tondu

publication
The entire work of Wedekind is published by the edition Théâtrales/Maison Antoine Vitez. The theatrical version of Stephane Braunschweig relies on the first primitive version of the play (1894), translated from german by Jean-Louis Besson and Henri Christophe, to which were integrated a few elements of the 1913 version, translated by Ruth Orthmann, Eloi Recoing and Philippe Ivernel.

tour
Grenoble MC2 - 7 to 13 January 2011
Nantes Le Grand T - 19 to 22 January 2011
Toulouse TNT - 27 to 30 January 2011

Lulu / F.Wedekind / bande annonce
Uploaded by www-colline-fr. - Watch original web videos.

Lulu in London in June

Frank Wedekind's Lulu, the stage plays which was the basis for the 1929 G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, will be performed in west London at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill Gate. The play will enjoy a month-long run, from June 10 to July 10, 2010. More info here.

This version of Wedekind's masterpiece is adapted and directed by Anna Ledwich. The play is designed by Helen Goddard, with lighting by Emma Chapman. Sinead Matthews stars as Lulu.

 

According to the Gate Theater, "Wedekind drew inspiration from circus and variety to create a play that would entertain, thrill and shock. This provocative new production revels in the danger of fatal, decadent desires, harnessing the raw power and precariousness of sexuality to unmask the LULU enigma."

Lulu, by Frank Wedekind (as comix)

Just today, I came across a new version of Frank Wedekind's Lulu as told in comix form. 

This retelling is by John Linton Roberson, an artist based in Seattle, Washington. As Roberson readily admits, his Lulu is not quite drawn from the character played by Louise Brooks in the 1929 film, Pandora's Box. Though she did inspire him. Lulu, both the play and the character, remain an endlessly adaptable archetype. Check out this new Lulu here.

Lulu in the Philippines

The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran an insightful, and somewhat lengthy article about a recent production of Lulu (the Frank Wedekind play) on their website. And of course, Louise Brooks plays a significant role in the article's analysis of the play and the Philippine production. Check it out here.

The article by Gibbs Cadiz, "Femme too fatale in Dulaang UP’s Lulu," notes "The Lulu plays, with their fervid glorification of a woman's sexual rapaciousness and the devastation it wreaks on the world around her, has served as an Ur-text in the evolution of the iconic femme fatale in popular culture -- from Marlene Dietrich's Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel to Barbara Stanwyck's Double Indemnity (notice the hommage in names?), from Hitchcock's gallery of deadly blondes to the Botticelli-tressed Glenn Close as the terrifying Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction."

Cadiz adds, "They all owe a debt to Lulu more specifically to her now-celebrated cinematic embodiment, the Lulu of American actress Louise Brooks in German director G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box."

Cadiz continues, and remains focused on Brooks: "While seemingly unmoored from motivational underpinnings, Lulu's anarchic, iconoclastic nature did have a purpose: It was the shattering blast of modernity Wedekind had lobbed at fin-de-siècle Germany, with its smothering rubric of social, economic and psychosexual conventions -- the real aim of his subversive dramaturgy."

"Pabst reportedly auditioned numerous women, including Dietrich, before settling on Brooks for his Lulu. The smoldering Dietrich (25 at that time to Brooks’ 21) was rejected because, as Pabst explained, her overripe sexuality, her all-too-seductive look threatened to turn Pandora’s Box into a 'burlesque.'"

"Pabst wanted an actress who combined allure and innocence, sensuality and grace. When he found Brooks, he photographed her exactly as Wedekind had conjured Lulu: an ethereal presence, seemingly separate from the common humanity around her, her stunning face -- that otherworldly gaze -- and lithe figure always more luminous, the light more alive in her presence."

While I don't think the author gets it completely right, there are some interesting points made in the article. Check out the Philippine perspective.

Lulu von Frank Wedekind

Here is the cover of a recent German edition of Frank Wedekind's Lulu. It was published by Königshausen & Neumann in 2006. It's an edition I haven't seen before. I like the fact that Lulu is so bored.

Speaking of Chicago

Speaking of Chicago, there is another review of the Chicago production of Alban Berg's Lulu. "Lyric Opera's Lulu a Lavish, Sensual Epic" appeared in yesterday's Chicago Examiner. The article references Louise Brooks.

John Boesche’s haunting black and white video projections – often ingeniously incorporated into the very sets – are little less than astounding. In one segment, a flickering melodrama unspools in silvery black and white as Lulu is arrested for murder, tried, convicted, imprisoned, stricken with some sort of near-fatal disease, hospitalized and caught up in an elaborate plot involving mistaken identities, daring escapes and Joan of Arc-worthy martyrdom. It’s a gorgeous silent film-in-an-opera, backed by Sir Davis’ impeccable orchestra and evocative of “Pandora’s Box,” the 1930 Louise Brooks classic that inspired Berg.

The article also contains some nifty images from the Lyric Opera production, including one of the Lulu character sporting a Brooks-ish bob. Check out the article and images here.

"Lulu" in Chicago

Lulu, Alban Berg's seminal modern opera, has opened at The Lyric Opera of Chicago (through Nov 30th). According to an article on the production in the Chicago Sun-Times,  such " . . . works demand our participation in their full theatricality." The article went on to add,

So it is with one of the great if least produced operas of the 20th century -- Alban Berg's "Lulu," which is having a rare revival in a new production at Lyric Opera of Chicago starting Friday. Inspired by two turn-of-the-last-century German stage plays about the ultimate "femme fatale" and composed after the Kansas-born actress Louise Brooks had already immortalized their heroine in G.W. Pabst's 1929 German silent film "Pandora's Box," Berg's opera is a musical and visual phantasmagoria -- a total theatrical experience.

Another article in The Times (from Munster, Indiana) also linked Brooks with the Berg production. Quoting the conductor of the piece, It states, "Davis calls Lulu "the most riveting of all 20th-century opera heroines," who exerts a "fatal attraction" on every man who enters her life." And then goes on to add, "Check out Louise Brooks' mesmerizing portrayal of her in the 1929 silent film "Pandora's Box," based on the original play by Frank Wedekind."
 

Newspaper and magazine articles linking Alban Berg's Lulu (1934) with Louise Brooks and the character she played in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) are increasingly common. And naturally so, as both Berg's opera and Pabst's film were based on Frank Wedekind's play. However, what's interesting is the increasing frequency of such associations. I have collected dozens of examples covering productions going back 30 or more years - and have noticed that beginning with the Brooks' revival in the late 1970's, her name has come to be increasingly associated with the Berg opera.

Why? Not only is it because both Berg's opera and Pabst's film were based on the same Wedekind work, but because Louise Brooks became so clearly identified with the role. With some productions, the singer playing Lulu has been clearly modelled after the silent film star.

For more on this production (I wish I could be there), including video clips and podcasts, check out the Lyric Opera's website athttp://lyricopera.org/    I would love to hear from anyone who attends a performance. Please post your thoughts.

Lulu in Marrakech

Recently, the New York Times ran a couple of reviews of the new Diane Johnson novel, Lulu in Marrakech. I haven't read the book, but it's title caught my attention because of the name of its title character. (Johnson's novel is described as a social comedy about a clueless young American woman named Lulu.) What also caught my attention was the newspaper's suggestion that the novel's main character has some connection to Louise Brooks and the character she once played, also named Lulu.

The first review, by Michiko Kakutani, noted ". . . the tone of the first two-thirds of Lulu in Marrakech (a title that gratuitously recalls Louise Brooks ’s collection of autobiographical writings, Lulu in Hollywood) is more in the vein of the author’s recent comedies of manners, Le Divorce, Le Mariage and L’Affaire.

While the second review, by Erica Wagner, begins, "There are some names you can’t ignore. When you find them attached to a particular fictional character, you can’t assume that blind coincidence prompted the writer’s choice. Call your girl-heroine Jane and there may be echoes of Jane Eyre, but the association is not forced on you. And a Cathy does not need to meet a Heathcliff. But the name Lulu? Lulu is a different story. Lulu has a pedigree. Even if the defiant anti­heroine of Frank Wedekind’s books isn’t at the forefront of your mind as you say the name out loud (your lips will purse, as if you’re about to kiss) there’s an innocent-yet-louche ring to it."

It's interesting that both reviews, published a day apart, both point to the name of Lulu and its cultural resonance. Has anyone read Diane Johnson's new novel?

Lulu in New York, Louise Brooks in New York Times

Today, the New York Times ran a piece on a new stage production of Lulu, which is playing at BAM as part of the Next Wave Festival. (An earlier, and equally informative article about this new production, "The Nymphet Is a Lethal Weapon," appeared in the 11-25-07 New York Times. The article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/theater/25kalb.html).

Today's article by Caryn James, "A Woman of Thoughtless Erotic Force Has Her Day, and Many Men," reads in part:

Wedekind wrote “Pandora’s Box” and “The Earth Spirit,” which together became “Lulu,” soon after “Spring Awakening,” the 1891 play that is the basis for the current (when the stagehands aren’t on strike) Broadway musical. Although his sexual frankness shattered the mores of his society, we can see now that his plays were not so much ahead of their time as timeless. Just as the musical “Spring Awakening” speaks to the eternal theme of adolescent sexual discovery, this “Lulu” distills the story of a woman and the many men with whom she has lethal affairs to its primal elements: desire, willfulness, blind obsession.

That approach shatters the Lulu stereotype. From Louise Brooks in the 1929 silent film “Pandora’s Box,” staring out from the screen with her dark-rimmed eyes and trademark black bob, to her descendant, Lola Lola, the Marlene Dietrich character in “The Blue Angel,” the typical Germanic femme fatale has swept through men’s lives with the destructive force of a tornado. Mr. Thalheimer offers a nonjudgmental “Lulu,” with a heroine who is more careless than seductive, and men and women who are neither good nor bad, strong nor weak. Until it is undermined by a melodramatic ending, his version has an elemental sexuality that transcends the taboos of any moment.

According to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) website, this performance is sold out for the duration of its short run. I know I have asked this question before, but might there be a Wedekind revival in the works?

Who is Lulu?

"Who is Lulu?" asks an article in today's Hartford Courant. The article by Frank Rizzo, "Yale Rep's Searing Study In Eroticism Isn't For The Timid," begins:

The poster in front of the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven stops the passerby dead in his tracks, but it isn't the one that features feminine flesh and fruit - the image that caused a stir last week when newspapers refused to run ads featuring that photo.

This image simply asks in large, in-your-face typography: "Who Is Lulu?"

Who indeed?

Not that most people, save a German theater major or a silent movie buff, would have any idea.

"Lulu" is the central character created by turn-of-the-last-century German playwright Frank Wedekind, who is having a banner year after a century of neglect. The hip, rock Broadway musical "Spring Awakening," another of his plays, has its own provocative subject of adolescent sexual angst.

But "Lulu" makes ""Spring Awakening" seem like child's play.

"Lulu" is the collective title of the merging of two of Wedekind's plays, "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box," written over 10 years. The works center on a charismatic female character, the object of all men's affections - not to mention lust, perversion, sadism and savagery.

His expressionistic plays - and "Lulu" is a prime example - expose bourgeois morality for all its absurdity and hypocrisy. "Lulu" focuses on the 18-year-old who destroys a series of males "through her uninhibited but essentially innocent enjoyment of sex," according to theater scholar Trevor R. Griffiths.

There have been many artists who sought to tame Wedekind's wild "Lulu." The play was banned (it was only produced once in Wedekind's lifetime, at a private showing in 1905), emerging in 1928, when it became a now-celebrated German silent film, "Pandora's Box," directed by G.W. Pabst. The film starred American actress Louise Brooks, who gave an extraordinarily fresh and vivid performance. (A new Criterion Collection DVD with extras is out.)

An Alban Berg opera version was produced in the '30s. Other rare stage productions include one presented by Lee Brauer at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., in 1980; another in 1999 with an adaptation by English playwright Peter Barnes; and another in London in 2001, starring Anna Friel.

I wish I could be there. If you live in the Hartford area, GO SEE THIS PLAY! And if you do, please post a report.

To learn more about "Lulu" and to see pictures from the Yale Rep production, go to www.yalerep.org. "Lulu" runs Friday through April 21 at the Yale Repertory Theater, York and Chapel streets, New Haven. Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. There is an 8 p.m. performance this Sunday. Matinees at 2 will be held on April 7, 11, 14 and 21. Tickets are $35 to $55. Tickets and information 203-432-1234 orwww.yalerep.org.

Newspapers reject Lulu ad

According to a report in today's Hartford Courant, two newspapers have rejected a newspaper advertisement for an upcoming production of "Lulu." The Courant article stated "An advertisement promoting the upcoming play "Lulu" at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven was rejected last week by The New York Times and the New Haven Register as not meeting advertising standards." This LiveJournal had blogged about the production a few days ago. Here is a copy of the offending advertisement.



The article went on to note, "Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' plays were banned when they published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries," says Jacques Lemarre, associate marketing director for Yale Rep. "As a result, we knew that the image created for our upcoming production needed to be provocative. Director Mark Lamos has said that his production will contain nudity and sexual situations, and Yale Rep's advertisements reflect that content. While we are disappointed that some newspapers are rejecting our ads, we believe they are tasteful, yet indicative of the mature content of the Yale Rep production. . . ."

The Courant article also added, "Lulu" centers on a charismatic yet innocent temptress who seduces men, causing their doom. Wedekind's two plays -- titled "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" -- collectively make up "Lulu" and were made into a celebrated German silent film calledPandora's Box starring Louise Brooks. It was also the basis of an Alban Berg opera of the same name."

I think the ad is tasteful. And I wish I lived nearby and could attend the production. I hope all Lulu / Louise Brooks fans in the New Haven area turn out to show their support. More about the production can be found at  www.yalerep.org/lulu.html

Viewpoint: Modern Drama

A rather interesting article on the work of Frank Wedekind is in the March, 2007 issue of Opera News. F. Paul Driscoll 's piece begins

The characters and situations created by German-born playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918) have lost none of their power to shock and disturb audiences. The feral, heartless temptress at the heart of Wedekind's Lulu plays is familiar to opera aficionados as the femme fatale of Alban Berg's Lulu; for film buffs, the personification of Wedekind's cunning mantrap is Louise Brooks, in G. W. Pabst's classic silent film Pandora's Box. Brooks's keen intelligence and highly individual "look" — sharp, shining eyes, immaculately trim legs and a glossy helmet of bobbed black hair — conspired to create one of cinema's enduring erotic icons. But what makes Pandora's Box, first released in 1929, still feel freshly-minted is the character of Lulu, the amoral, unapologetic adventuress that Wedekind put on paper more than a decade before Brooks was born. Alban Berg'sLulu is still thought of as a "modern" opera, although the composer has been dead for more than seventy years; it will always seem so, because its leading character refuses to age. Lulu's fascination lies in her ability to simulate freshness; she attracts men because her possibilities seem endless. Her life, for as long as it lasts, is lived in the future tense. 

The First Lulu

Speaking of rare book acquisitions, and speaking of Wedekind's play (the subjects of my last two entries) - I recently acquired a copy of the first American publication of Pandora's Box. It's pictured below. This softcover book dates from 1914. The translation is by Samuel A. Eliot. Four years later, the play would be published in hardback. And five years after that, it was published in a collection of Wedekind's plays titled Tragedies of Sex. I have copies of each.

I guess you could say I am a completeist. Or a detailist . . . . Interestingly, its a little known fact that Pandora's Box was staged in New York City in 1925 while Louise Brooks was living there. That production had only a short run, and there is no indication that Brooks saw it or was aware of it. (The play was considered both somewhat "modern" and somewhat "artsy.")

Another Lulu book

I just came across this edition of Frank Wedekind's Lulu play, which now features Louise Brooks on the cover. (The earlier edition did not.)



Book Description: Lulu is a walking, talking object of sexual desire. Each of the first four acts of the play sees her married to a different man, each of whom dies at the end. In the fifth act, Lulu has become a prostitute in late-Victorian London where she encounters Jack the Ripper, who she deliberately leads on. This is Nicholas Wright's new version of Wedekind's early 20th century erotic drama. 

About the Author: As the International Dictionary of Theatre has it, German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864-1918) "owes his reputation to the fact he wrote plays about sex." His other famous play, Spring's Awakening (1891) was way ahead of its time in its depiction of repressed adolescent sexual urges.

A new Lulu

A new production of Alban Berg's Lulu will take the stage in England in April and May, 2005. The role of Lulu will be performed by soprano Lisa Saffer. The production is being put on by the English National Opera.