Don't miss Pamela Hutchinson's online presentation about Britain's Early Female Film Critics

I want to encourage everyone to be sure and check out Pamela Hutchinson's online talk, "C. A. Lejeune and and Britain’s Lady Film Critics." This San Francisco Film Preserve presentation is set to take place over Zoom on Friday, August 15 at 12 noon (Pacific time) or 7:00 pm UTC + 0. And what's more, it's free and open to the public. Interested individuals can register HERE.

For anyone interested in film history and early film criticism, this presentation is a must. Here is the event description: 

"In 1922, with a weekly column in the Manchester Guardian, C. A. Lejeune became one of Britain’s first lay film critics, and began to define what that could mean. Soon, she was the best of the bunch, and the funniest, too – but her opinions often became controversial. This talk will look at Lejeune’s passion for cinema and her remarkable career, which included three decades at The Observer, and becoming a fixture on BBC radio and TV. It will also introduce some of the many women who joined her in giving British film criticism a “womanly” voice from the 1920s to the 1950s. Chief among these is her fellow “Sunday Lady” Dilys Powell, her brilliant counterpart at the Sunday Times, who outlasted them all."

As Hutchinson notes on a recent blog on Silent London, Caroline Alice Lejeune (aka C. A. Lejeune, aka C.A.L.) and other early British film critics (including Iris Barry and Elsie Cohen) are a special interest. In fact, they are a topic which Hutchinson has been reading about, researching and writing about for a while. As Hutchinson states, "I find her writing to be witty and wise and gentle, and her story, of falling in and out of love with the cinema, to be absorbing and not a little moving. It is also fascinating to me how she first got her job as the first real film critic on the Manchester Guardian, and moved to the Observer for another three decades"

Hutchinson's talk is based, in part, I would guess, on "The Making of C.A. Lejeune, Film Critic," her contribution to a new book from Edinburgh University Press called Film Critics and British Film Culture: New Shots in the Dark, edited by Robert Shail and Sheldon Hall. I have yet to get a hold of a copy, but intend to -- the book is not due out until August 31. 

In my own research on Louise Brooks and her films, I have been struck by how many female film critics there were writing for American newspapers. New York City had more than a dozen newspapers in the 1920s, and the majority of its film critics were women. The same can be said of Chicago.

The story of C. A. Lejeune intersects with that of Louise Brooks. Under the by-line of C.A.L., she reviewed some of Brooks' early silents for the Manchester Guardian. I have found writes with the lady critic's by-line for Love Em and Leave Em, Just Another Blonde, Evening Clothes, Rolled Stockings, and perhaps others. (Unforunately, some reviews and write-ups were anonymous.) Regarding Love Em and Leave Em, Lejeune wrote “It has the advantage, beyond its generic qualities, of introducing picturegoers to Louise Brooks, a young Paramount ‘discovery’ who is certainly going to be a star one day.”

Notably, Lejeune even made mention of Brooks in her 1931 book, Cinema. In the section on director G.W. Pabst, Lejeune wrote  “ . . . no director on two continents has found so much personality in Louise Brooks.” Amen.

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance film critic. She is the author of books including BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes and Pandora's Box and her work has appeared in the Guardian, Empire and the Criterion Collection. She is a columnist for Sight and Sound and edits the Weekly Film Bulletin. Her curation projects include seasons on Marlene Dietrich and Asta Nielsen for BFI Southbank. She lives on the south coast of England and indulges her obsession with silent cinema at SilentLondon.co.uk.

Pamela Hutchinson and Thomas Gladysz

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

Celebrating Asta Nielsen, an earlier Lulu

Asta Nielsen was an early European film star in whom Louise Brooks had a special interest. (For more about Asta Nielsen and her remarkable career, check out her Wikipedia page HERE, or better yet, check out this excellent article "Asta Nielsen - #Bosslady" by Nanna Frank Rasmussen. The short introductory film about Nielsen at the top of the page is surprising, even a bit shocking.) 

Brooks' interest likely stemmed from the fact that the two actresses had a few things in common. I don't know that they ever met, but they both worked under the same director, G.W. Pabst. Late in her career, Nielsen was featured in Pabst's Joyless Street (1925), which starred Greta Garbo. Brooks, of course, starred in two Pabst films, Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). Another bit of overlap came in the form of a woman named Josephine Müller, who was Brooks' maid in Berlin; according to Brooks, Müller had  once worked for Asta Nielsen, and in her essay "Pabst and Lulu," Brooks notes that her German maid thought Nielsen the best actress in the world. 

And of course, both actresses also wore their hair short throughout their life, with Nielsen at times sporting bangs and a helmet-like bob similar to Brooks. 

However, the most notable thing that the two actress had in common is that they both played the same character, Lulu. Brooks played Lulu in Pandora's Box, while Nielsen played Lulu in Erdgeist, or Earth Spirit (1923), a German film directed by Leopold Jessner. We know from Brooks' notebooks that Brooks viewed Erdgeist on June 15, 1959 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Interestingly, when Brooks recorded the fact she had seen the film, she referred to it as Loulou. If you want to see the Nielsen film, hurry on over to the Danish Film Institute where you can stream Erdgeist online for free. These days, this 69 minute film is seldom shown in theaters or at festivals, so, this is a great opportunity to see a significant silent film. BTW, this version has Dutch intertitles with Danish subtitles. But no worries, just watch it for the visuals and you will be able to follow it along. Otherwise, hard-core Lulu devotees might also want to catch this 64 minute version of Erdgeist on YouTube which features Russian intertitles.

Speaking of screenings and festivals, the British Film Institute is mounting a multi-film, two part retrospective in February and March curated by film critic / film historian / author and friend to the LBS Pamela Hutchinson. "‘Die Asta’ was silent cinema’s Danish diva," notes the retrospective webpage, "whose mesmerising performances helped invent modern screen acting." More information HERE.

As Hutchinson notes, "A single tear from Nielsen, a single flicker of her mouth, says more than any superimposed effects of suffering,’ said German director Leopold Jessner. ‘She was and is the great actress, the canvas that makes dignity visible.’ Almost an overnight success when she appeared in 1910’s melodrama The Abyss as a young woman torn between passion and duty, Nielsen soon became Europe’s greatest film star – though her transgressive films would be censored in the US. She was widely celebrated for the emotional depth and sensuality she could convey with her modern, naturalist style and her deft use of gesture, whether in comedy or tragedy. This month we’ll explore her first films, made in Denmark and Germany, which reveal her to be a screen actress of boundless range, with unique sensitivity and unforgettably hypnotic eyes." 

For those interested, here is an LBS blog from 2017 about Nielsen which contains the scans of a vintage German language booklet on the actress noted for her large dark eyes, mask-like face and boyish figure who often portrayed strong-willed passionate women trapped by tragic circumstances. Sound familiar?

Prix de beauté (1930) Louise Brooks pays the price of beauty

Be sure and check out Pamela Hutchinson's outstanding new piece on the Silent London blog, "Prix de beauté (1930): Louise Brooks pays the price of beauty". It is an insightful look at a too little regarded film, a minor masterpiece if ever there was one and a historically important film deserving greater recognition. And if ever the silent and sound versions of Prix de beauté are released on a DVD in the English speaking world, these could be the linear notes. (Hint hint Kino Lorber, Criterion, Milestone, Masterpieces of Cinema, Flicker Alley, etc...)

Louise Brooks film to screen online as part of Hippodrome Silent Film Festival

This year, the annual Hippodrome Silent Film Festival celebrating silent film and music will include the seldom seen silent version of the outstanding 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de Beauté. Originally set to run last year in Bo'ness, Scotland but cancelled due to the pandemic, this year's HippFest is set to run over the internet (via Indy on Demand) between March 17th and March 21st -- and what's more, the Prix de Beauté program will feature a short introduction by silent film expert Pamela Hutchinson as well as Stephen Horne's recently recorded score, which will be making it's internet debut! For more information on the 10th HippFest, go HERE.

According to Alison Strauss, Arts Development Officer, for this year's virtual HippFest "we have tried to create a comparable cocktail of screenings with music, workshops, events and activities to sweep you up in the marvelous magic of early cinema." It looks like they will succeed. Among the other offerings are films starring Paul Robeson (whom Brooks once met), Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Marlene Dietrich & Fritz Kortner, and others. Check out the complete schedule of films, talks and introductions. 

Prix De Beauté (1930)
Drama • 1h 48m

SILENT FILM WITH MUSIC – Stephen Horne
Q&A - Stephen Horne & Pamela Hutchinson
SAT 20 MAR, 14:10, 1H 33M

Limited capacity This film has limited viewing only. To register your interest in having this film added to your Festival Pass, please email hippfest@falkirkcommunitytrust.org with Prix de Beauté in the subject line.

"Iconic star of the silent era – Louise Brooks – lights up the role of Lucienne, a spirited, carefree, working woman who enters a beauty contest and is introduced to the alluring world of fame and the freedom it affords. Chafing under the disapproval of her idealistic but controlling boyfriend she is torn between the tantalising glimpse of glamour and a life of domesticity.

Based on a story by René Clair and G.W. Pabst the film was released as a talkie but this HippFest presentation is of the glorious, beautifully restored silent version, which eschews some crude pasted-on sound effects and awkwardly post-synched dialogue scenes, and lets the stunning cinematography and Brooks’ electric performance shine for themselves. Brace yourself for the devastating finale, deftly handled by Stephen Horne’s brilliant score."

Dir.: Augusto Genina | France | 1930 | N/C PG | 1h 48m | Italian intertitles with English surtitles
With Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Jean Bradin, Augusto Bandini

Music accompaniment: score composed and performed by Stephen Horne
Recording commissioned by Film Podiu
Screening material courtesy of Cineteca del Comune di Bologna

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic, film historian, and editor of the silent cinema website Silent London. She contributes regularly to publications including the Guardian, Sight & Sound and Little White Lies, and DVD releases including the Criterion Collection, BFI and Artificial Eye. She is a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle. Her publications include a monograph on Pandora’s Box, published as part of the BFI Film Classics series and 30-Second Cinema. She is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4’s The Film Programme and has also appeared on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 5 Live, the World Service, and BBC TV News. [Read a LBS interview with Pamela Hutchinson here.]

Stephen Horne started accompanying silent films at BFI Southbank over 25 years ago. He has recorded music for several DVD releases and regularly plays at major international festivals. Although principally a pianist, he often incorporates flute, accordion and keyboards into his performances, sometimes simultaneously. Recently Stephen won ‘best screening with a single accompanist’ for the sixth year in a row at the Silent London Poll. stephenhorne.co.uk [Read a LBS interview with Stephen Horne about Prix de Beauté here.]

Louise Brooks - Lulu and Beyond online event with Pamela Hutchinson on October 28

On October 28, film historian Pamela Hutchinson will talk about the life and legacy of 1920s star Louise Brooks during an online event sponsored by the City of Westminster Libraries & Archives in the UK. More information about this free online event can be found HERE.

About Louise Brooks - Lulu and Beyond with Pamela Hutchinson

Louise Brooks was born in Kansas, and made her name as first, one of the most beautiful dancers on Broadway, and then as one of the most rebellious starlets in silent-era Hollywood – known for her insouciant face, hot temper and distinctive flapper haircut. Her lasting fame was secured by a trio of art films she made in Europe after turning her back on Los Angeles, starting with the German silent Pandora's Box, in which she plays Lulu, a dangerous Weimar femme fatale who brings the men and women who love her to their knees. After seeing all there was to see in the movie industry on both sides of the Atlantic, Brooks lived to tell the tale, and to be reclaimed as a true star of the early cinema. In her later life, her uniquely provocative voice shone in a series of articles that told the unpalatable truth about the movie business.

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic and film historian who contributes regularly to Sight & Sound, the Guardian, Criterion, Empire and the BBC, specialising in silent and classic cinema and women in film. She is a guest lecturer at the National Film and Television School, and a member of both Fipresci and the London Film Critics' Circle. She has written essays for several edited collections and is the author of the BFI Film Classic on Pandora's Box and the editor of 30-Second Cinema (Ivy Press). She also writes the silent cinema website Silent London.

The event will be broadcast via MS Teams which can be accessed via a web browser on an app from your appstore. Start time is 11:30 – 12:30 GMT / PDT on Wednesday, October 28. Registration is required. 

Louise Brooks - Lulu and Beyond with Pamela Hutchinson

On October 28, film historian Pamela Hutchinson will talk about the life and legacy of 1920s star Louise Brooks during an online event sponsored by the City of Westminster Libraries & Archives in the UK. More information about this free online event can be found HERE.

About Louise Brooks - Lulu and Beyond with Pamela Hutchinson

Louise Brooks was born in Kansas, and made her name as first, one of the most beautiful dancers on Broadway, and then as one of the most rebellious starlets in silent-era Hollywood – known for her insouciant face, hot temper and distinctive flapper haircut. Her lasting fame was secured by a trio of art films she made in Europe after turning her back on Los Angeles, starting with the German silent Pandora's Box, in which she plays Lulu, a dangerous Weimar femme fatale who brings the men and women who love her to their knees. After seeing all there was to see in the movie industry on both sides of the Atlantic, Brooks lived to tell the tale, and to be reclaimed as a true star of the early cinema. In her later life, her uniquely provocative voice shone in a series of articles that told the unpalatable truth about the movie business.

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic and film historian who contributes regularly to Sight & Sound, the Guardian, Criterion, Empire and the BBC, specialising in silent and classic cinema and women in film. She is a guest lecturer at the National Film and Television School, and a member of both Fipresci and the London Film Critics' Circle. She has written essays for several edited collections and is the author of the BFI Film Classic on Pandora's Box and the editor of 30-Second Cinema (Ivy Press). She also writes the silent cinema website Silent London.

The event will be broadcast via MS Teams which can be accessed via a web browser on an app from your appstore. Start time is 11:30 – 12:30 GMT / PDT on Wednesday, October 28. Registration is required. 

New edition announced of book on Louise Brooks film Pandora's Box

UK author, film critic and friend to the Louise Brooks Society friend Pamela Hutchinson has announced that a second edition of her BFI Film Classics title, Pandora's Box, will be released next year. Though the book itself is the same, it will feature a new cover! The LBS is pleased to have a signed first edition in its collection, but plans on acquiring a new edition with the new cover. More information about the book can be found HERE.

In this compelling study, Pamela Hutchinson traces Pandora's production history and the many contexts of its creation and afterlife, revisiting and challenging many assumptions made about the film, its lead character and its star. Analyzing the film act by act, she explores the conflicted relationship between Brooks and the director G.W. Pabst, the film's historical contexts in Weimar Berlin, and its changing fortunes since its release.

Back in 2017, I wrote about the book's first release and spoke with the author. Here is an excerpt from that interview, which appeared on PopMatters:

TG: Was it challenge to write an entire book on a single film? I suppose some might wonder how much there is to say.

PH: There is far more to say about Pandora's Box than I could fit into this book! I had to edit judiciously. The book combines history and criticism, as well as talking about how the film endures. I wanted to give as full a picture as possible of how the film came to be made, from Frank Wedekind writing his plays to the careers of G.W. Pabst and his crew and actors.

Also, I walk through Pandora's Box act by act, drawing out more of the film's meaning. There were so many questions about the film that intrigued me—and I wanted to answer them all. Why does Dr Schön drop his cigarette? Why is there a menorah in Lulu's apartment? What does the letter K stand for? Then I gave over some space to talking about the film's legacy, and what the image of Louise Brooks as Lulu stands for now.

TG: The book's description states that you "revisit and challenge many assumptions made about the film, its lead character and its star." How so?

PH: Louise Brooks is the voice of Pandora's Box—she has written about the film and been interviewed about it more than anyone else involved in the production. This delights me, and I have a huge respect for her intellect, and her analysis of the film. But I wanted to dig deeper. Much of what she has said about the film has been taken as gospel, but there is often another side to the story.

I'm especially thinking about the character of Countess Geschwitz, and Alice Robert's performance. I wanted to reclaim the Countess as a passionate, heroic character. And there's a lot of criticism from elsewhere that I think confuses what Pabst is trying to do in his adaptation and he and Brooks are doing in the portrayal of Lulu. It's always good to look at an old film with fresh eyes, but still with an understanding of the circumstances in which it was made.

TG: What did you discover in writing the book that surprised you, or might surprise readers?

PH: Well, there's a credit on the film that always looked wrong to me, and I wanted to investigate that. In the end I discovered quite a lot about the man credited with editing the film—including the fact that he almost definitely had nothing to do with cutting Pandora's Box. He was a fascinating character, though, and while he didn't edit the film, he did have an important role to play in its reception. In America, at least.

TG: What does your book reveal that someone who has seen the film might not realize?
 
PH: Lots, I hope! For example, did you know that Pabst nearly made the film with Lili Damita as Lulu in 1926? I tried to cram as much information and informed critical thinking into the book as possible. I have covered the production history, and looked at the contribution of each actor and each key member of the crew, but I have trawled the imagery, too. It's almost impossible to tear your eyes away from Brooks when watching Pandora's Box, but if you do, Pabst is telling you the whole story in his design for the film, from the lighting, to all those ominous objects in the background.