Louise Brooks Retrospective at La cinémathèque française

La cinémathèque française in Paris is mounting a major retrospective of the films of Louise Brooks which is set to take place later this month, from September 17 through September 24. The 10 program series will feature 9 of the actress's feature films, along with a 10th program featuring the surviving fragments from three of Brooks' other films. There is, as well, a 60 minute discussion about Brooks with Professor Marion Polirsztok, moderated by Marién Gómez of the Cinémathèque française. More about this event, including times, venues, and ticket availability, can be found HERE.

Notably, this is the first retrospective of Brooks' films since the recent preservation of four of the actress' surviving / fragmentary films, each of which was included on the 2026 release Focus on Louise Brooks, from Flicker Alley. AND, for at least a couple three of these films, it will mark their first showing in Paris in 99 or 100 years!

The brief introductory statement says, in translation, "One of the legendary figures of 1920s cinema, celebrated as much for her modern acting style as for her scandalous aura—the ultimate embodiment of the freedom and avant-garde spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Once a Hollywood queen and a shooting star of European cinema (*Diary of a Lost Girl*, *Pandora's Box*), she reinvented herself as a writer before fading into obscurity on the eve of World War II—until Henri Langlois resurrected the fallen star in 1955, opening his tribute at the Cinémathèque Française with the definitive declaration: 'There is no Garbo, there is no Dietrich: there is only Louise Brooks!'"

Appropriately, the retrospective's overture screening is the restored sound version of Prix de beauté. (Too bad they are not showing the silent version as well, as a coda.) The retrospective concludes with a three film program of the aforementioned three film fragments from Focus on Louise Brooks. Otherwise, here is the schedule of films: the descriptive text comes from the La cinémathèque française website, and is given in English translation.

September 17

Prix de beauté
Augusto Genina 
France / 1930 / 99 min / DCP / Restored version 
With Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Henri Bandini. A young typist wins a beauty contest that sparks jealousy and desire. Originally written by René Clair and directed by Augusto Genina, *Prix de beauté* bears the fascinating traces of the transition from silent to sound film, blending silence, voices, and a sense of melancholic modernity.
 

"She represents the intelligence of screen acting; she is the perfect embodiment of photogenie; she alone encapsulates everything the cinema of the late silent era sought: extreme naturalness and extreme simplicity. Her art is so pure that it becomes invisible." (Henri Langlois)

September 18

It's the Old Army Game
A. Edward Sutherland
USA / 1926 / 70 min / 35mm unique print / French intertitles
Based on the play *The Comic Supplement* by J. P. McEvoy and W. C. Fields.

With W. C. Fields, Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring. 
Musical accompaniment by Arno Dedeycker.

 

A pharmacist sees his daily life descend into chaos as he deals with a parade of intrusive customers and passing con artists. Drawing on W. C. Fields’s vaudeville routines, the film offers a mischievous tale filled with gags and absurd situations, all illuminated by the singular presence of Louise Brooks. A slapstick whirlwind that is as chaotic as it is delightful.

 

The Street of Forgotten Men

Herbert Brenon

USA / 1925 / 75 min / DCP / French intertitles

With Percy Marmont, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton.

 

In the Bowery, a con man lives by his wits and pretenses—until a young woman he has protected finds herself in danger. Herbert Brenon grounds his story in an urban setting rich in colorful detail and, amidst the deceptions, sketches a path toward possible redemption. It also marks the debut of Louise Brooks as a spirited companion.

 

September 19

A Girl in Every Port
Howard Hawks
USA / 1928 / 77 min / 35mm / French intertitles
With Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks.
Musical accompaniment by Medhi Telhaoui

Working from a screenplay he wrote himself, Howard Hawks directs Robert Armstrong and Victor McLaglen in a comedy about male friendship strained by the opposite sex. Underlying the story is the ambiguous relationship between two men—a theme Hawks would revisit repeatedly throughout his career. Opposite them—and calling the shots for a time—is Louise Brooks, on loan from Paramount for the occasion. Hawks chose this "pretty, rebellious girl" for her looks and determination. She brings an avant-garde edge to the film, and her role as a "bad girl" caught the eye of Pabst, who saw in her his future *Lulu*. *A Girl in Every Port* is "conceived in the present yet identifies with the past," notes Henri Langlois. It is a melodrama tinged with humor—resolutely modern and, for Hawks, seminal. Also known by the title *Poings de fer, cœur d'or* (Iron Fists, Heart of Gold). 

Discussion with Marion Polirsztok
Moderated by Marién Gómez 60 min
It is generally understood that Louise Brooks’s life and career were profoundly shaped by the two German films she made with Pabst. "In Berlin," she wrote, "I became an actress." But what was she in Hollywood? An "anti-star," as the 1977 book dedicated to her suggests? Revisiting *A Girl in Every Port* offers a chance to rediscover Louise *before* Lulu—to see the image, the roles, and the femininity she embodied within the American film industry of the late 1920s. —  Marion Polirsztok Marion Polirsztok is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Rennes 2 University. Marién Gómez is a Cultural Activities Coordinator at the Cinémathèque française.

Beggars of Life
William A. Wellman
USA / 1928 / 82 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the novel *Apache Rising* by Julian Johnson. *Beggars of Life* by Jim Tully.
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks.
Screening presented by Marion Polirsztok. Musical accompaniment by Kolia Chabanier

After killing her attacker, an orphan girl hits the road across the Midwest with a charming drifter. They become entangled with a band of stowaways led by the fearsome Oklahoma Red. Adapted from the novel by Jim Tully—a literary classic chronicling the hobos who secretly rode freight trains—this is a raw, realistic slice-of-life portrait of the vagrants of the 1890s recession. Beyond Wellman’s masterful direction, the film—released a year before the 1929 crash—derives its power from its cast (featuring real-life drifters) and a deeply moving Louise Brooks in one of her finest roles.

Loulou / Die Büchse der Pandora
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Germany / 1929 / 134 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the plays *Pandora's Box* (*Die Büchse der Pandora*) and *Earth Spirit* (*Erdgeist*) by Frank Wedekind.
With Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz.

Refusing to bow to the social conventions that seek to confine her, Lulu moves through various social circles and desires, living for passion and pleasure. Drawing on Frank Wedekind’s plays, Pabst crafts a lucid tragedy—a dance of love and death—that exposes the hypocrisies of a society obsessed with controlling the body. A blend of innocence and sensuality, Louise Brooks’s modern performance—with her bobbed hair and intense gaze—elevates a masterpiece of latent eroticism, where fascination and destruction go hand in hand, cementing the birth of an enduring cinematic icon.

"No one captured the feverish atmosphere backstage on the opening night of a grand revue quite like Pabst: the dizzying haste, the seemingly aimless coming and going, the press of bodies as sets are shifted about, the stage seeming to tilt askew during the acts, the entrances and exits, the performers’ eagerness to take their bows amidst the applause, the rivalry, the camaraderie, and the humor—that bewildering mix of prop men and electricians at work, artistic aspiration, colorful spectacle, and easy sensuality. A dazzling display, a heated atmosphere, and sensuality awash in waves of light—shimmering on lamé curtains, gleaming on helmets and armor, and casting a pearly glow over the bodies of near-naked women." "Everything wavers in the hazy background where Loulou appears as a kind of pagan idol—alluring, glittering with sequins, feathers, frills, and furbelows." (Lotte Eisner)

September 20

Le Journal d'une fille perdue / Tagebuch einer Verlorenen
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Germany / 1929 / 95 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the novel *Tagebuch einer Verlorenen* by Margarete Böhme.
With Louise Brooks, Sybille Schmitz, Edith Meinhard.
Screening introduced by Florence Tissot

Cast out by her family, seduced and then rejected, a young woman endures the brutality of institutions, moving from a boarding school to a brothel. Louise Brooks’s elusive gaze haunts this indictment of the moral order, elevated by Pabst’s poetic realism. A hymn to forgiveness and generosity.

"Louise Brooks represents the intelligence of screen acting; she is the perfect embodiment of photogenie. She alone encapsulates everything the cinema of the late silent era sought: extreme naturalness and extreme simplicity. Without her, Pabst could never have achieved universality; he could never have attained that direct, stripped-down, objective style; he could never have gone so far, handling such risqué subjects with such elegance—that way of saying everything, analyzing everything, without seeming to touch it." (Henri Langlois)

The Canary Murder Case
Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle
USA / 1929 / 82 min / 35mm (unique print) / Original version with French subtitles
Based on the novel *The Canary Murder Case* by S. S. Van Dine.
Starring William Powell, James Hall, Louise Brooks.

A cabaret singer—a past master at the art of blackmail—is found dead. Surrounding her is a gallery of compromised men, all suspects and all manipulated. A product of the Pre-Code era, *The Canary Murder Case* plunges into a world of mercenary seduction and deceptive appearances, where scandal is the common currency. A poisonous mystery and a scathing portrait of the nightlife scene.

September 24

The Show Off 
Malcolm St. Clair
USA / 1926 / 75 min / 35mm unique print / French intertitles
With Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, Louise Brooks.

An inveterate braggart insinuates himself into a respectable family, making promises he cannot possibly keep. Ford Sterling delivers a performance of unbridled bluster, mirroring a social veneer cracked by constant lying and chatter. It is a biting comedy that turns absurdity into a driving force and the loudmouth into a true agent of chaos.

The American Venus
Frank Tuttle
USA / 1925 / 8 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
With Esther Ralston, Lawrence Gray, Louise Brooks.

Beauty pageants, advertising, and dreams of stardom provide the backdrop for a comedy set in the heart of 1920s America. Through the already captivating figure of Louise Brooks in her first major role, Tuttle captures the emergence of a form of femininity that is exposed and mediated—featuring actual footage from the Miss America pageant—and held captive by a spectacle that shapes bodies and images. 

Now We're in the Air
Frank R. Strayer
USA / 1927 / 23 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Starring Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, and Raymond Hatton.

Amidst espionage and cases of mistaken identity, two bumbling aviators find themselves swept up in the war. Driven by the comic duo of Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton, this third installment in a series of military comedies favors slapstick and adventure. Louise Brooks plays mischievous twins, bringing charm and levity to a fast-paced, whimsical film punctuated by spectacular aerial sequences borrowed from William Wellman’s *Wings*.

Just Another Blonde
Alfred Santell
USA / 1926 / 32 min / French intertitles / Restored version
Starring Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, Louise Brooks.

A New York player must woo the woman he loves on behalf of his best friend. At Coney Island, charm is a weapon, promises are traded like chips, and hearts fall faster than illusions. Shot on location, *Just Another Blonde* turns the pursuit of success into a lively, cheeky game of deception where everyone tries their luck—even if it means cheating a little. 

Be sure and check out the adjunct pages linked to from the main retrospective page, including the letter from Louise Brooks to Henri Langlois, and Élodie Tamayo's essay, "The Art of Punctuation," which begins with the brilliant opening line, "What if Louise Brooks were a punctuation mark?"

Find out more about four of the films in this historic retrospective by checking out one or more of these publications from Thomas Gladysz and the Louise Brooks Society, all of which are available from amazon France.

Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, by Thomas Gladysz (with a foreword by William Wellman Jr.) 

Now We're in the Air: A Companion to the Once "Lost" Film, by Thomas Gladysz (with a foreword by Robert Byrne)

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, by Thomas Gladysz (with forewords by Robert Byrne & Kevin Brownlow)

Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star, by Thomas Gladysz

The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition), by Margarete Bohme (edited & with an introduction by 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 content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Prix de beauté, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1930

Prix de beauté, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1930. In her last starring role and last European film, Louise Brooks plays a typist stuck in a dull job who wins a beauty contest. Like Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, Prix de beauté is a tragedy in which misfortune befalls the character played by Brooks. In a sense, the film can be seen as the third in a European trilogy starring the actress. The film is notable for being the first sound film to feature Brooks, although her dialogue and singing were dubbed, as well as one of the earliest French sound films. 

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

Production of Prix de beauté was problematic. Intended as silent film and based on a story by G.W. Pabst and Rene Clair (with the French Clair as the intended director), funding for the project fell apart, and its production delayed. This was at the time when the European cinema was transitioning to sound. Eventually, Prix de beauté was released as a “talkie” under the direction of Augusto Genina, an Italian, with the Polish-born Rudolph Maté acting as cinematographer.

In June, 1930 Morris Gilbert wrote an article on the changing French film industry for the New York Times. He noted that a handful of American stars were appearing in French productions, including “Louise Brooks, a product of young Hollywood, is starring in the French Prix de beauté.” Gilbert’s mention was one of the first the film received in the United States.

That same month, writing in the British journal Close-Up, Charles E. Stenhouse gave the film one its first English-language reviews. Stenhouse wrote, “Louise Brooks [was] looking very photogenic as Miss France but not acting as well as when directed by Pabst. Never has one of Pabst’s discoveries achieved more than when under his inspiring influence. Greta Garbo! Brigitte Helm! And now Louise Brooks! The big trick in Prix de beauté is its remarkable ending, which redeems the previous passages whose very mediocrity emphasizes the ending’s splendour. An exceptional one and for once not a happy one. . . . A trick – but really one of beauty and irony, and at last a morsel of true sound-film technique.”

Variety reviewed the film on September 3, 1930. Writing about the Berlin screening, Magnus gave Prix de beauté a mixed notice. “In itself this talker is neither better nor worse than most others. . . . It shows the right conception for facts, a natural way of looking at things and reality. . . . This talker is very interesting, if only for the scene when the little girl has sunk back dead in her chair and her tune-picture continues singing from the screen. . . . Owing to bad synchronization this talker is a failure. . . . The acting is very good. Louise Brooks looks charming and she knows how to move.”

Miss Europa, as it was titled in Germany, did poor business, and reportedly only played for five days in August 1930. The film played across Europe — from Iceland to Poland, as well as in now former French colonies, like Algeria and Haiti. The film was not shown in the United States until decades later.

Under its French title, documented screenings of the film took place in Algeria, Belgium, Haiti, Japan, Madagascar, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.

Elsewhere, Prix de beauté was shown under the title Vanidad (Argentina); Miss Europa (Austria); Miss Europa (Brazil); El Premio Fatal (Cuba); Miss Europa and Der Schönheitspreis (Czechoslovakia) and Miss Európa (Slovakia); Miss Europa (Danzig); Miss Europa (Denmark); Beauty Prize and Miss Europe (England); Miss Europa and Preis der Schönheit and Der Schönheitpreis (Germany); A szépsvg vására or Szépségvásár and Miss Europa (Hungary); Fegurðardrottning Euröpu (Iceland); Miss Europa and Premio di bellezza and Regina di bellezza (Italy); ミス・ヨーロッパ or Misu yōroppa (Japan); Premija par skaistumu and Skaistuma godalga (Latvia); Miss Europa (Der Schonheitspreis) (Luxembourg); Miss Europa and Schoonheidsprijs (The Netherlands); Skjønhetskonkurransen (Norway); Kobieto nie grzesz and Nagroda pieknosci and Nie Grzesz Kobieto (Poland); Miss Europa (Der Schonheitspreis) and Weib, sündige nicht (Poland, German language publication); Prémio de Beleza (Portugal); Nagrada za lepoto and Zrtev velike ljubezni (Slovenia); Premio de belleza (Spain, including Catalonia); Miss Europe (Switzerland); Güzellik Kiraliçesi and Güzellik Kirali-çasi and Küzellik Kirali-çasi and Güzellik Ödülü (Turkey); Nie Grzesz Kobieto! (Ukraine); Приз краси and Приз за красоту (U.S.S.R.); Vanidad (Uruguay, 1977); Vanidad (Venezuela).

In recent years, numerous screenings of the film have been taken place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Prix de beauté (or Beauty Prize or Miss Europe) in Australia, Canada, United States and elsewhere.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— For the European market, Prix de beauté was released in four languages – French, English, German and Italian. Brooks’ voice was dubbed by Hélène Regelly (in French) and Donatella Neri (in Italian).

— On June 15, 1930 Morris Gilbert wrote an article on the changing French film industry for the New York Times. He noted “Louise Brooks, a product of young Hollywood, is starring in the French Prix de beauté.” This marked the first mention of the film in an American publication. Prix de beauté, however, was not shown in the United States until decades later.

— In 1932, Editions Jules Tallandier published an illustrated novelization of the film as part of its Cinema-Bibliotheque series. Boisyvon, who would go on to establish himself as a film historian and critic, wrote the story.

 More about Prix de beauté can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Prix de beauté (filmography page). 

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. 

Surrealist Painting artist Man Ray sent to silent film icon Louise Brooks goes to auction

If you've read the outstanding Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks, then you likely know that the famed surrealist Man Ray once sent Louise Brooks a small painting. That painting has just gone to auction at Sothebys in New York City. (While the paining is on display at Sothebys gallery in NYC, the auction itself is also being held online. The link to the auction can be found HERE.)

According to the Sothebys' auction page, "Andrew Strauss and Timothy Baum of the Man Ray Expertise Committee have confirmed the authenticity of this work under reference 00468-P-2025 and that it will be included in the Catalogue of Paintings of Man Ray, currently in preparation."

Man Ray was something of a fan of Louise Brooks. According to the Paris biography, the artist "was struck by Brooks's face" when he saw it in magazines during the filming of  Prix de Beaute." And, he never forgot her. [To imagine one of the covers Man Ray might have seen, be sure and check out this gallery page of French magazine covers featuring Louise Brooks circa 1929 / 1930 on the Louise Brooks Society website.]

Louise Brooks' image on display in Paris in 1930

The artist and the actress met for the first time in late 1958, when Brooks was in Paris for a retrospective of her films. According to the Paris biography, "On one occasion, she met Man Ray, the surrealist artist-photographer, who had long admired her and soon sent her, upon her return to the States, one of his small abstractions." That painting hung on the wall of Brooks' bedroom apartment in Rochester, New York until the time of her death in 1985, when it was willed to her heirs. The Estate has had the painting in their possession these 40 years, and have now decided to sell it.

I've long wondered... why would a then very famous artist send a then somewhat forgotten silent film star one of his newest paintings? I think the answer is nostalgia, that he once was and may still have been somewhat smitten with Brooks - especially her look, and what she represented to the artist, not to mention her resemblance to his one-time paramour Alice Prin (aka Kiki de Montparnasse), who Man Ray described in his autobiography as "beautiful" and having "the hairdo then in fashion among the smart women, short cut with bangs low on the forehead." (Coincidentally, Man Ray and Kiki had one of their first dates in a movie theater, when they held hands. I wonder what film they saw?) As Robert Benayoun, a surrealist historian and the one-time editor of the French film magazine Positif  told Barry Paris, "The surrealists were always in love with her... Man Ray loved that kind of face and image."

(Left) A 1928 newspaper ad featuring a Man Ray flm and a Louise Brooks film,
and (Right) the lovely Kiki de Montparnasse

Here is a picture of the reverse of the painting, which is inscribed in the artist's hand, "for Louise Brooks a souvenir of Man Ray Paris 1958". To me, it is a somewhat curious inscription. This small but extravagant gift is described not as a souvenir of an occasion, or of a place, or of their meeting -- but as a souvenir of a person - the artist.

For more about "Louise Brooks and the Surrealists", be sure and check out a this page on the subject on the Louise Brooks Society website. 

Also, check out this earlier Louise Brooks Society blog, "The Indestructible Lee Miller and the Destructible Louise Brooks," from December 13th of last year. It details the time that a Man Ray film and a Louise Brooks film shared the same bill at the Ursulines theater (shown above) in Paris in 1928!

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. 

A follow up to Louise Brooks and Los Angeles: Getting the facts straight about London and Paris

In the previous post, Louise Brooks and Los Angeles: Getting the facts straight, I pointed out one of a few  factual errors found on the Louise Brooks Wikipedia page.

As I note, the Wikipedia page on the actress states, "Brooks began her entertainment career as a dancer, joining the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts modern dance company in Los Angeles at the age of 15 in 1922." I pointed out that this statement is INCORRECT. In my post, I point out that Brooks went to New York City (not Los Angeles) to study at and then join Denishawn. History records as much, and Brooks herself said so in Lulu in Hollywood, one the sources incorrectly cited to support the incorrect Wiki statement. 

I am writing this post to point out yet another incorrect statement on the Louise Brooks Wikipedia page. The two sentences which follow the incorrect statement reads: "The company included founders Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, as well as a young Martha Graham. As a member of the globe-trotting troupe, Brooks spent a season abroad in London and in Paris." The first sentence, regarding who else were in the company, is correct. However, the second sentence is NOT. This sentence is supported by a reference to the same piece cited by the previous incorrect sentence, "Just a Prairie Flower," a 1926 Picture-Play article by Malcolm H. Oettinger.

The paragraph in "Just a Prairie Flower" which, apparently, is being cited reads, "One learned that the Brooks career had been given over generously to glob trotting. There had been a season in London at the Kit-Kat, and in Paris at the Casino, as a member of the Ruth St. Denis troupe." All I can say is ... don't believe everything you read, especially in a fan magazine. 

During Brooks' two seasons with Denishawn, the only globe trotting the troupe did was to perform in a few of the bigger cities in Canada, like Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kingston, and London, Ontario. (The Louise Brooks Society website features a short history of Louise Brooks and Denishawn, as well as the complete itineraries of her two seasons with the company.) While Brooks was in Denishawn, the dance company never went to Europe. And there was never a season in London and Paris.

After Brooks left Denishawn, she joined the George White Scandals, a Ziegfeld Follies like review in New York City. She was with them for just a few months when Brooks and her then best friend, Barbara Bennett, decided to take off for Europe. Brooks would spend about three weeks in Paris before heading for London, where a job for her was waiting not at the Kit-Kat club, but at the Cafe de Paris. A detailed account of this European adventure (mostly spent on her own, as Bennett soon returned home) can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website on the page titled, Louise Brooks at the Cafe de Paris in London. It contains some never before seen material, including the only known clipping from a London newspaper mentioning Brooks' appearance at the Cafe de Paris.

(In my research into Brooks' time in Europe at the end of 1924, I have never found that she was employed or worked while in Paris -- likely she had little money and was hanging out in hotel lobbies hoping someone might come along and help her -- which is what happened.)

Why did Malcolm H. Oettinger (a furniture salesman and sometime free-lance writer) state in 1926 that Brooks had spent "a season in London at the Kit-Kat, and in Paris at the Casino, as a member of the Ruth St. Denis troupe." He likely got his facts mixed up, or thought it sounded a bit more glamorous then Brooks' actual account. 

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A French Street Named after Louise Brooks

Is there a resident of Paris or the surrounding area that might be able to take a picture of a local street sign? I would like to get a clear straight on photograph of Impasse Louise Brooks, which is located in Bois-d'Arcy, a commune in the Yvelines department in north-central France. (Bois-d'Arcy is located about an hour, or some 37 kilometers outside Paris.)

Other streets in this subdivision are named after Greta Garbo, Erich von Stroheim, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Jean Vigo, Joan Crawford, Georges Méliès, Jacques Tati, Fritz Lang and others. Notably, Impasse Louise Brooks intersects with Allèe Marlene Dietrich, and Rue Voltaire.

From what I can tell, Impasse Louise Brooks is actually two dead end streets which meet-up (but don't actually connect, or pass through). And consequently, there are two street different signs at the entrance to each dead end. The images shown here are from Google street view. Unfortunately, part of one street sign is blurred. That is the kind of image I would like to get. 

If anyone can take a few nice photo of the Impasse Louise Brooks street sign, on its pole, and close-up, that would be swunderfull!

The Louise Brooks Society blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Roland Jaccard (1941-2021), French author of Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star

Only recently I became aware of the passing of the French writer and critic Roland Jaccard (1941-2021), who is best known to fans of Louise Brooks as the author / editor of the first ever book about the actress, Louise Brooks : portrait d'une anti-star (1977). That heavily illustrated work, which included pieces by and about the silent film star, was translated into English and published in the United States as Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star (1986). It helped advance the Brooks' revival in the 1980s.

Jaccard was the author of a number of other books, most notably Portrait d’une flapper (2007), which depicts Brooks on the cover, and another, Lou (1982), a fictional autobiography of Lou Andreas Salomé, the German-Russian woman of letters and pioneering psychoanalyst known for her relationships with Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud and significantly Frank Wedekind. (There are some, including Jaccard, who have speculated that Wedekind based his Lulu character on Lou Andreas-Salome.)

Besides his writings on film (he also authored a book on John Wayne in 2019), Jaccard was also involved in the making of a few films. Here is his IMDb page. Jaccard was also a novelist, essayist, journalist, publisher and a specialist in psychoanalysis, having published several essays on Freud. Despite his many activities, he was little known in the United States, excepting for Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star, which received a small number of reviews in America in the 1980s.

According to his French Wikipedia page, Jaccard believed in assisted suicide. In 1992, he wrote Manifeste pour une mort douce (Manifesto for a Gentle Death) with Michel Thévoz, the director of the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. In Jaccard's last autobiographical book, One never recovers from a happy childhood, released in 2021 a few weeks before his death, he announced that he would commit suicide “after the summer,” declaring old age horrified him. Jaccard died, apparently by his own hand, on September 20, 2021, two days before what would have been his 80th birthday. Notably, both his grandfather and father had also committed suicide around the same time in their lives.

I met Roland Jaccard in Paris back in January 2011. I was in the French capital to give a talk at the Village Voice bookshop (the now defunct English-language bookshop) and to introduce a screening of a Brooks' film at the Action Cinema. Both events were meant to promote my 2010 publication, the "Louise Brooks edition" of Margarete Böhme's The Diary of a Lost Girl. Some 50 plus people turned-out for the bookstore event (a good turn-out considering I am an unknown in Paris), including a few noted devotees of Brooks. Among them was Roland Jaccard. Pictured below is a snapshot from the event. On the left holding my "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl is the French translator of the Barry Paris biography, Aline Weill - I am in the middle, and on the right is Jaccard holding a copy of his Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star.

Not only did Jaccard attend my event, he also agreed to meet for dinner a couple of days later. Jaccard was well known for his love of Japanese food, and we met at one of his favorite Japanese restaurants, where he answered my questions about Brooks. (They were correspondents in the 1970s.) Jaccard also gifted me with a cache of rare Louise Brooks documents - including a vintage postcard, photographs, six handwritten letters, and other material. Eleven years later, I still can't believe his generosity.

During our dinner, the French actress Marie-Josee Croze arrived, and we were introduced. We spoke with her a bit (she knew of Brooks), and I gifted her with one of my mini-Lulu pins, which she immediately put on. It was a lovely evening, the kind that could only happen in Paris. Below is a snapshot of Jaccard chatting with Croze, who can be seen wearing my Lulu pin-back button.

Jaccard also generously autographed three different copies of  Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star which I had carried with me on the airplane in hopes of meeting the author. (Being a completest, I own both the English and French editions of the book.) I also signed a book for Jaccard, which he had bought at the Village Voice bookstore before my event!

For those interested in learning more about Jaccard, here is a link to an article, "Death of essayist and columnist Roland Jaccard" in The Canadian. And here is another piece, “The elegance of Roland Jaccard”, by Frédéric Schiffter, a friend of the writer.

Jaccard's French Wikipedia page has a number of links to other recent articles, including this one by the noted novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun, who was also a contributor to Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-Star. A small number of videos featuring Jaccard can be found on YouTube, including this, episode #4 of Cinephiles.

Louise Brooks and the Surrealists

"Louise Brooks is the only woman who had the ability to transfigure no matter what film into a masterpiece. The poetry of Louise is the great poetry of rare loves, of magnetism, of tension, of feminine beauty as blinding as ten galaxial suns. She is much more than a myth, she is a magical presence, a real phantom, the magnetism of the cinema." -- Ado Kyrou, author of  Le Surréalisme Au Cinéma (1963)

 It is known that the Surrealists took notice of Louise Brooks. She had the look - a bit transgressive (though they didn't use that word back then), and strikingly beautiful, but in an iconic, modern sense. It's known that Philipe Soupault, the French Surrealist poet, mentioned the actress in his journalism and even reviewed Diary of a Lost Girl. (A couple of images of the actress adorn the poet's collected writings on the cinema, Ecrits de cinema 1918-1931.) 

Kiki of Montparnasse

It's also known that Man Ray was smitten by the actress. His paramour in the 1920s, Kiki of Montparnasse, resembled Brooks. Man Ray first noticed Brooks in Paris in 1929 and 1930, when she was all the rage and her films, Prix de Beaute, Loulou, Diary of a Lost Girl, and Beggars of Life dominated Parisian screens. The photographer and the film star met in Paris in late 1958, when Brooks was being celebrated at the Cinematheque Francaise; at the time, Man Ray recounted how he had seen her image in Paris years before. The artist was fond enough of Brooks that he sent her a small painting in memory of their meeting and in memory of his memory.

The Louise Brooks film that might well have introduced the actress to the Surrealist was likely A Girl in Every Port, which writer Blaise Cendrars called "the first appearance of contemporary cinema". The film debuted in Paris at the Ursulines. The Ursulines theatre opened in 1926 with films by André Breton, Man Ray, Fernand Léger, René Clair and Robert Desnos, and over the years, showed both mainstream and experimental cinema. At one point, the theatre also showed G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl, which starred Brooks and also enjoyed a successful run in Paris.

Perhaps Man Ray also saw A Girl in Every Port at the Ursulines when it shared the bill with a short Man Ray film, L'Etoile de Mer, during the months of October, November, and December of 1928. L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish) was scripted by the surrealist poet Robert Desnos and stars Desnos and Alice Prin. Better known as Kiki de Montparnasse, Prin famously sported Louise Brooks-like bobbed hair and bangs.  

The pairing in Paris of A Girl in Every Port with a Surrealist film was not a one-time thing. Something similar also took place in Barcelona, Spain -- as seen in the advertisement below when A Girl in Every Port (under the Catalonian title Una xicota a cada port) was paired with the Salvador Dali - Luis Bunuel film, Le Chein Ansalou (An Andalusian Dog). Notably, A Girl in Every Port is described as an avant-garde film.

I have written about the Surrealists and Brooks before, but mention it again because I have just today come across another connection - this time to Salvador Dali. If I understand it correctly, the Spanish book, Por qué se ataca a la gioconda? (Ediciones Siruela, 1994), collects Salvador Dali's miscellaneous writings. (The book was reissued by Ediciones Siruela in 2003.) According to the publisher: "From the early years, and especially in the moments of greatest creativity - between 1924 and 1945 -, Dalí worked in parallel in the fields of literature and painting, which together contribute to the creation of a universe of shapes and symbols that he will not leave until the end of his days. The texts collected in this anthology correspond to different times that go from 1927 to 1978; they were published in the French magazine Oui and this edition rescues them in their entirety. The chronological order of the articles makes it easier to follow the evolution of the artist's ideas. His obsessions are his main thematic source: eroticism, death and rot, which articulate a very peculiar universe appearing recurrently throughout his life. . . . In his writings he mixes philosophical ideas with seemingly irrelevant anecdotes and is also concerned with surrealism and some of its problems, such as object, automatism or dream, without neglecting other topics such as photography and cinema." 

Por qué se ataca a la gioconda? contains a piece written in Paris in 1929. It is a surreal piece, touching on factual and the dreamlike. Dali's piece reads in part, "Transcurren dos minutos de intervalo. Sobre la hoja cae un granito de arena que permanece inmovil en el centro di la hoja. Los cinco minutos expiran sin otra modificacion. Rene Clair, el realizador del popular film de vanguardia Entr'acte, ha comenzado a filmar Prix de beaute, con Louise Brooks. Sera una peli cula documental sobre el desnudo de Louise Brooks. Rene Magrite acaba de terminnar un lienzo donde "hay" un personaje que se encuentra a punto de perder la memoria, un grito de pajaro, un armario y un paisaje."

In translation, it reads, "Two minutes apart. A grain of sand falls on the leaf and remains motionless in the center of the leaf. The five minutes expire without further modification. Rene Clair, the director of the popular avant-garde film Entr'acte, has begun filming Prix de beaute, starring Louise Brooks. It will be a documentary film about Louise Brooks' nude. Rene Magrite has just finished a canvas where "there is" a character who is about to lose his memory, a bird's cry, a closet and a landscape."

I will end this post with a chance discovery from a while back of an article about Beggars of Life (as Captaires de Vida) which by chance rests next to an article about Dali (pictured center of page). It comes from a Catalonian newspaper.

I wonder if any of the Surrealists wrote any poems about Louise Brooks? Does anyone know? I know they wrote about Charlie Chaplin.

The Rise & Fall of Max Linder, and a couple of tenuous connections to Louise Brooks

A few months ago I received a copy of The Rise & Fall of Max Linder: The First Cinema Celebrity, a remarkable new biography by Lisa Stein Haven. The book, the first English language study of the life and art of the comedic great, is published by Bear Manor Media. I have been slowly making my way through it, not because it is slow going, but because I am relishing reading it. The Rise & Fall of Max Linder is an immersive biography. Reading it, absorbing its rich detail, learning about the life of someone I admittedly knew only little about made me feel like I was displaced back in time to the beginning of the 20th century. 

Before reading Haven's book, I was only a bit familiar with Linder. I knew that he was French. I had seen a few of his short films, and also knew that he was a comedic actor and had influenced Charlie Chaplin. That's about it - except for a tenuous connection to Louise Brooks, which I mention later. What is remarkable about Haven's book is that it pulls back the curtain on a time and place long ago and reveals a distant world from which this comedic genius sprang. That is revelatory.

Max Linder was born Gabriel Leuvielle in St. Loubes, France in 1883; he started in films with the Pathe Brothers in 1905, making him one of the first film comedians to achieve world-wide renown. In fact, according to Haven, there is evidence that Linder was the first screen celebrity to see his name in print. His comedy timing and gags -- Linder started writing his own scenarios early on -- have been copied and imitated by many of his followers, including Charlie Chaplin. (Upon receiving the news of Linder's death, Chaplin is reported to have closed his studio for a day out of respect.)

Notably as well, his high society characterizations as the dapper "Max" also influenced such actors as Adolphe Menjou and Raymond Griffith. (Louise Brooks played in two films opposite Menjou, A Social Celebrity and Evening Clothes, and appeared in another, God's Gift to Women, which was co-authored by Griffith.)

Just how big was Linder? The universality of silent films brought Linder fame and fortune throughout Europe, making him the highest paid entertainer of the day. By 1910, he had become the most popular film actor in the world, and is thought to be the very first movie star with a significant international following. In Russia, he was voted the most popular film actor, ahead of Asta Nielsen. He also had a Russian impersonator, Zozlov, and a devoted fan in Czar Nicholas II. Another professed fan was British playwright George Bernard Shaw. The first feature film ever made in Bulgaria was a remake of one of Linder's earlier movies. He was offered $12,000 to spend a month in Berlin making public appearances with his film screenings, but declined for health reasons. Later, in 1911 and 1912, he began touring Europe with his films, including Spain, where he entertained thousands of fans, as well as Austria and then Russia, where he was accompanied on piano by a young Dimitri Tiomkin. 

via Lisa Stein Haven

Spoiler alert: Of course, nothing lasts forever, and Linder's story is both a comedy and a tragedy. His meteoric rise to fame beginning in 1907/1908 hit a roadblock in 1914 with the onset of World War I, and was dealt a death blow by his attempts to revive his career in America and Austria (and in a changing world). His marriage to a young wife was ill-fated and ill-timed, leading Linder to take the life of his wife and himself on the night of October 31, 1925. Linder himself died on November 1, 1925 - 76 years ago today, leaving behind a 16-month-old daughter named Maud who would devote her life to restoring his film legacy. 

I mentioned a tenuous connection to Louise Brooks. Actually, there are two. The first is the famed singing Frenchman, Maurice Chevalier, who is best known to devotees of Brooks as the singer who popularized "Louise" (a song not about Brooks, though long associated with her). Along with director Abel Gance, Chevalier was once one in the company of actors employed by Linder.

In his native France, Linder was a superstar, hugely popular to the degree that a movie theater was opened in Paris which bore his name. Of course, it showed more than just Linder films. In fact, it was at the Max Linder Pathe (located at 24 boulevard Poissonnière in Paris) that Brooks' sole French film, Prix de beauté, debuted on May 9, 1930. To open at the 1,200 seat Max Linder Pathe was considered an honor, and Brooks' film rose to the challenge and proved popular. At the time, most films played a few days or a week before moving on. However, as this ad shows, Prix de beauté was a hit, and ran more than "2eme mois" or two months at the Max Linder Pathe.

The Max Linder theater is still open to this day, helping keep the memory of this comedic actor alive. I would encourage anyone interested in early film to check out The Rise & Fall of Max Linder: The First Cinema Celebrity. It is a good read.

 

Lisa Stein Haven is an Professor of English at Ohio University Zanesville, specializing in British and American modernist literature, the Beat poets and silent film comedy, especially the work of Charlie and Syd Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Max Linder. In 2010, she organized and hosted "Charlie in the Heartland: An International Charlie Chaplin Conference" at Zanesville, which was attended by participants from 11 countries outside of the United States.

In summer 2014, Haven was the keynote speaker at Charlot 100, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Chaplin's Little Tramp persona, held in Bologna, Italy and sponsored by Roy Export S.A.S and the Cineteca di Bologna. She is also a member of the executive board for the Buster Keaton Celebration, held every year in Iola, Kansas. 

Stein's earlier books, which I have read and written about in the past, include another first ever study, Syd Chaplin: A Biography (McFarland, 2010), a book about Chaplin, A Comedian Sees the World (University of Missouri, 2014), and Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in America, 1947–77 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

via Cinema Treasures at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/16578

A follow-up to Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In my last post, I wrote about two little documented periods in the life of Louise Brooks. One of them was the couple three weeks Brooks spent in Paris, France in the Fall of 1924. She had gone there with Barbara Bennett, and not long after their arrival, Bennett decided to return to the United States. Suddenly on her own, and with little money, the 18 year old Brooks was at loose ends.

According to Brooks, she was sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Edouard VII (39 Av. de l'Opéra) in Paris when Archie Selwyn encountered her. The well connected American producer persuaded her to go with him to London, where he got her a job dancing at the Cafe de Paris in London. According to the International Herald Tribune, Selwyn was reported to be in Paris as of October 14; he was in Paris with his wife and staying at the Hotel Claridge (37 Rue François), working to secure a contract with the Spanish singing star Raquel Meller, who is performing in Paris to great acclaim at the Palace.

So, now we know how Brooks got to London (where she lived at 49A Pall Mall) and how she got a job at the Cafe de Paris (3-4 Coventry St.), at which she began dancing on October 20. On October 21, 1924, Variety reports that Brooks was "cordially received upon opening last night at the Cafe de Paris cabaret," and that Layton & Johnstone have returned to the establishment for an extended engagement.

From January 1925, the first depiction of Louise Brooks in a European publication. As this early portrait doesn't show up in American publications, I am going to assume it was taken in London.

News sometimes travels slow, especially in small-town Kansas. On November 6th, the Burden Times from Burden, Kansas reported that the Cherryvale Republican reports that the Wichita press reports that Brooks was in Paris, France. The Burden paper notes, "Her departure from France was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris." Unfortunately, the Cherryvale Republican is not available for 1924, and I am not sure it is even extant. Thus, I cannot trace the lineage of the reportage mentioned in the article pictured here.

Louise Brooks and the mystery of missing time

In researching the life and career of Louise Brooks, there are two brief intervals which remain something of a mystery. The first was Brooks' first visit to Paris in 1924. The second were the months following Brooks' marriage to Deering Davis when the couple was traveling and living in the American Southwest. I have wondered where she was exactly, and/or what might she have been doing? 

In compiling a chronology of her day-by-day activities, which can be found at Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1906-1939 and Louise Brooks: Day by Day 1940-1985, I have been frustrated in my attempts to locate any online records (i.e. newspapers articles, etc....) which might shed even a little light on Brooks' activities during these time periods. Until now....

1924 passport photo

On September 18, 1924, Brooks applied for and was given an emergency passport. On September 20, she left the United States aboard the RMS Homeric bound for Europe. The trip took a week. Brooks was traveling with friend Barbara Bennett (of the famous Bennett family), and we know they went to Paris. But we know little else, except that the boat landed in Cherbourg, France on the 27th. 

the RMS Homeric

Here is the clipping from the International Herald Tribune (the European edition of The Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News), an English-language newspaper located in Paris, which mentions Brooks' arrival. This is the earliest mention of Brooks in an European publication.

Just recently, I came across a brief mention of the trip in the Wichita Eagle. On October 12, 1924, the newspaper reported Brooks is in Paris, France, noting, "Her departure was sudden and her parents have not received a letter from her since her arrival in Paris. She went abroad as a member of a company expecting to appear in the French capital." 

A comment and an observation. First, how did the Wichita Eagle know Brooks was traveling to Europe? My guess is that one of her parents likely told the paper - this being a time when locals traveling abroad or even just visiting the next town over made the news. And if her parents did alert the paper, they likely did so because they were worried about Brooks and had not heard from her; this might have been their way to find out something, anything, via the newspapers of the day. Secondly, Brooks did not travel to Europe with a company of performers, as the Wichita Eagle says. She went on a "vacation" with a wealthy friend. The Wichita paper was likely misinformed, or told something that wasn't exactly true. Perhaps Louise herself told or suggested to her parents that she was traveling to Europe to work, when in fact that wasn't her intention. I wonder what Brooks did in Paris for the couple three week she was there. I have searched the Parisian newspaper of the time, but have never found any mention of the budding performer.

By October 19, 1924, Brooks was in London, England living at 49A Pall Mall. And on October 20, she began dancing at the famous Cafe de Paris nightclub in the heart of the English capital.

= = =  = 

Here is another mystery. Why did Louise Brooks marry Deering Davis, a decidedly unglamorous looking Chicago playboy?

The other brief period of time that is something of a mystery is interval following her more-or-less sudden marriage Davis in October 1933. As Barry Paris writes in his thoroughly researched biography, "The Associated Press reported that, for a honeymoon, the Davies would go by car to a ranch in Tucson, via Colorado Springs. Davis liked the Southwest and wanted to settle there, but it was too close to Kansas for Louise's comfort. Nothing is known of their three months traveling, except that Davis and Louise - with the aid of a Victrola and the odd nightclub here and there - had plenty of time of time to work up their dance act." The underline is mine for emphasis.

What we know is this: on October 10, 1933, Brooks (age 26) married wealthy Chicago playboy Deering Davis (age 36) at City Hall in Chicago, Illinois. The ceremony was read by Judge Francis J. Wilson, and witnessed by Davis' brother and sister-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Nathan S. Davis III. After a few days, the couple left for a three month honeymoon in Tucson, Arizona, where they were expected to "live on a ranch." The marriage made news across the country. On October 11, the two newspapers in Tucson carry stories reporting Brooks would soon come to reside on a ranch near the Arizona town. I recently came across those two Tuscon clippings. Here is one of them - they are both very similar.

News of the Deering Davis - Louise Brooks wedding ran in newspapers across the country for the next few days. All of these stories, which were mostly captioned photos on the picture page, said pretty much the same thing.

And then that's it until February of 1934, when the couple reemerges in Chicago and perform as dancers on a few occasions. I know they were on their honeymoon, but I have wondered why they otherwise dropped off the radar. Too me, it doesn't make sense. Certainly, a celebrity couple driving around the Southwest would have made the news in local papers in Colorado or Arizona. Did they pass through Kansas? Did they in fact live on a ranch in Tucson, Arizona? I wonder if something else was going on.

If they did live on a ranch, which ranch was it? What kind of ranch was it? Was it a "dude ranch"? Or was the ranch the kind individuals with a drinking problem spent time at in order to dry out or pull themselves together? I think we know Brooks was unhappy at this time in her life. In 1932, she declared bankruptcy, and couldn't get work in films. And the United States was in the grips of the Depression. This stretch of three to four months was about the longest I have found (for the 1920s and 1930s) for Brooks not to have had her name in the papers. There was always something, a mention in a gossip column, an appearance at a restaurant or nightclub or theater. But for three or four months, they was nothing. Who knows? Perhaps Brooks and Davis were just practicing their dance routine.