Prix de beaute on TV

At this very moment, I am watching the closing scene of  Prix de Beaute on the ARTS channel. How thrilling it is to see Louise Brooks on television. Feelings of discovery, wonder, happiness. . . Are others watching?

[In the United States, the ARTS Channel shows musical clips from old movies intermixed with classical music video.]

More Bay Area screenings

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote about a recent project - a record of screenings of Louise Brooks films in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the last few days, I got some additional work done, and am posting what I have so far found regardings Brooks' three European films. I would appreciate knowing from anyone who might know of screenings not noted here.

Pandora’s Box

Bay Area screenings:  Surf Theater in San Francisco (Jan. 22-23, 1974 with The Last Laugh); KTEH Channel 54 television broadcast (Dec. 17, 1977 and Dec. 24, 1977 and Dec. 25, 1977); KQEC Channel 32 television broadcast (Dec. 24, 1977 and Dec. 25, 1977); Wheeler Auditorium in Berkeley (Feb. 10, 1978 withL’Age D’Or); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Mar. 7, 1981 as part of the series “Organ Accompaniment By Robert Vaughn”); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Dec. 7, 1983); U.C. Theater in Berkeley (Sept. 18, 1985); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 13, 1985 as part of the series “A Tribute to Louise Brooks (1906-1985),” accompanied on piano by Jon Mirsalis); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 29, 1986); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Nov. 17, 1988); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Dec. 4, 1990 as part of the series “Surrealism and Cinema”);  Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Apr. 5, 1992 as part of the series “Silent Film Classics”);  Castro in San Francisco (May 11, 1992 with Diary of a Lost Girl); Castro in San Francisco (May 5-8, 1995 accompanied by the Club Foot Orchestra, as part of the San Francisco Film Festival); Castro in San Francisco (Dec. 16-17, 1995 accompanied by the Club Foot Orchestra);Castro in San Francisco (Apr. 2, 1996 with Wings, accompanied on organ by Robert Vaughn); Towne Theatre in San Jose (June 28, 1996 accompanied on organ by Robert Vaughn); Castro in San Francisco (May 18, 1998 as part of Femme Fatale Festival); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (May 28, 2000);Jezebel’s Joint in San Francisco (Feb. 10, 2003); Castro in San Francisco (July 15, 2006 as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, with introductions by Thomas Gladysz and Bruce Conner); Rafael Film Center in San Rafael (Nov. 11, 2006 introduced by Peter Cowie); California Theatre in San Jose (Mar. 9, 2007 as part of Cinequest).

Diary of a Lost Girl

Bay Area screenings:  Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Apr. 12, 1981); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 12, 1983); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 5, 1985 as part of the series “A Tribute to Louise Brooks (1906-1985)” with Lulu in Berlin); Castro in San Francisco (Jan 22, 1987 with Sadie Thompsonas part of “Vamps”); Castro in San Francisco (May 11, 1992 with Pandora’s Box); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Nov. 5, 1999 as part of film series“Revivals & Restorations”); Castro in San Francisco (Jan. 14, 2002 American premiere of restored print, as part of the Berlin & Beyond Festival); Jezebel’s Joint in San Francisco (Dec. 8, 2002 as part of SF IndieFest Microcinema)

Prix de Beaute

Bay Area screenings:   Palace Hotel in San Francisco (July 26, 1974 as part of Art Deco Film Festival ***); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (May 16, 1982 and June 12, 1982 as part of the series “Rediscovering French Film”); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (Oct. 10, 1985 as part of the series “A Tribute to Louise Brooks (1906-1985)”); Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (May 21, 2000).

I also included a few local television broadcasts. All in all, I think this is a remarkable record. The Bay Area certainly loves Lulu.
*** the film series was curated by then San Francisco resident Kenneth Anger. The series was adjunct to a major Art Deco exhibition on display at a local museum.

Prix de Beaute in Pittsburgh tonight!

Prix de Beaute will be shown in Pittsburgh tonight! An article in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes

 

A little-seen Louise Brooks film called "Prix de Beaute" will screen tonight at 8 at the Andy Warhol Museum. It's part of an "Unseen Treasures From the George Eastman House Film Series."

Tickets, $7.50, will be available at the door.

Brooks plays a French typist who wins a Miss Europe beauty contest, only to find it complicates her life. Dialogue is in French, with no subtitles, but Cecile Desandre will speak Brooks' lines in English.

PG film critic Barry Paris, author of a biography on Brooks, will introduce the 1930 film directed by Augusto Genina. Go towww.warhol.org for directions and other details.

Additional information about this 8:00 pm screening can be found on the Warhol Museum website. I wish I could be there!

Lulu in Pittsburgh

Prix de Beaute (1930), featuring the one and only Louise Brooks, will be screened at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA on Friday, December 12th. For more info see www.warhol.org

Unusually unusual

Here is something you don't see everyday - as a matter of fact, it's a somewhat uncommon image. A copy is available on eBay.

Prix de beaute shows tonight

Prix de beaute (1930) shows at the Harvard Film Archive tonight at 7:00 pm. For more information about this superb Louise Brooks film and tonight's event, check out this webpage.

Pordenone

There was an error in yesterday's "News of Lulu" - the email newsletter of the Louise Brooks Society. I had stated that Pandora's Box was to be shown at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (aka Pordenone) in Italy. I was mistaken. The world famous silent film festival was to have shown that film, but seemingly changed their minds. Instead, the silent version of Prix de Beaute will be shown instead (along with the documentary Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu) as part of a special "Louise Brooks 100" celebration. Happily, you an read or download the extensive festival catalog - including introductory remarks on Louise Brooks by Kevin Brownlow - by visiting www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/edizione2006/edizione2006_frameset.html

Once there, click on the link on the right that opens or downloads the pdf file of the festival's program. Then, go to pages 33-36 to see the introduction by Kevin Brownlow and a full description (all listings first in Italian, followed by English translation) of Prix de Beaute and Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. Thanx Lee!

Eureka - Hélène Caron

I found it! And at long last, a minor Louise Brooks mystery has been solved . . . . In the early sound film Prix de Beauté, Louise Brooks is seen singing "Je n'ai qu'un amour, c'est toi," a charming chanson of love and jealousy. As she did not speak French, Brooks' dialogue is dubbed. And the song she is seen singing at the end of the film is actually sung by someone else. There has been some speculation as to whom that performer might be. The film itself does not credit anyone. And, in his detailed biography, Barry Paris does not state who sings. Some have suggested Edith Piaf. Now, I am 99% sure that Hélène Caron is the singer who performs "Je n'ai qu'un amour, c'est toi" in Prix de Beauté.

In December of last year, while searching the internet, I came upon a compact disc of French music from the Thirties. I ordered a copy from Europe, and it arrived today. The disc contains "Je n'ai qu'un amour, c'est toi" by Hélène Caron, and it is a match for the version found in Prix de Beauté. Additionally, the linear notes state the song is from the film (as well as indicates that this recording was released on the Parlaphone label). "Je n'ai qu'un amour, c'est toi" is a truely charming song. And, as this is one of three versions I have found recordings of, a perhaps popular song in France in 1930. I plan on adding this newly discovered recording to RadioLulu sometime soon.

I did a Google search on Hélène Caron, but turned up nothing. Does anyone know anything about her? Did she ever record anything else?

Prix de Beauté

From the April 18th Village Voice article on the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival - "Best in Show: The Top 40 Picks of the Tribeca Film Festival" by J. Hoberman.

Prix de Beauté

In her final starring role, Louise Brooks plays a Parisian typist who wins a beauty contest and dumps her boyfriend, with tragic consequences. Augusto Genina's direction is routine, but this is a cinematographer's movie, from the dazzling location shooting to the beautifully lit projection room climax. Cameraman Rudolph Mates does wonders with Brooks's radiant face—her performance is an irresistible mix of innocence and eroticism. The film began shooting as a silent, sound was added, and it was released in four languages. The rarely revived silent version will be shown, preceded by Giovanni Pastrone's The Fall of Troy, an important film in the history of set design—the magnificent decors often give a sense of bound- less space in contrast to the one-dimensional sets of earlier historical pictures. E.S.

Louise Brooks's Swan Song to Stardom

The Village Voice ran a short review of the new Prix de Beaute DVD in their April 7th issue. The article, "Louise Brooks's Swan Song to Stardom," is by Michael Atkinson.

The moviehead re-rediscovery of flapper chic continues with this rarely seen French cornerstone (released in 1930), starring a free-from-expressionism-at-last Louise Brooks, she of the iconic jet-black bob, androgynous figure, and laser sight line. She plays a typist at a Parisian newspaper who, despite the snitty protestations of her fiance (Georges Charlia), enters and wins a Miss Europe beauty pageant, which is when her biggest conflicts begin. Italian journeyman Augusto Genina's film is far from conventional in tone - the pre-fem awakening of Brooks's unpretentious everygirl starts with a chilly carnival moment when she realizes all of the men around her, including her boyfriend, are grotesque fools. The breathtakingly lurid finale, set in a screening room, has an almost necrophilic obsessiveness. (The film did turn out to be Brooks's swan song to stardom; she picked up supporting work in Hollywood and England for a few years, but then quit movies in disgust, at the age of 31.) But the movie's ramshackle form is what makes it truly fascinating: It's a vintage example of a fleeting breed, the unsynchronized early talkie (a lost silent version was also made), often avoiding the actor's moving mouths altogether and then suturing the narrative with a frenetic soundtrack of dubbing, ambient noise, and music. (Rene Clair, whose original story was adapted by Brooks pal G.W. Pabst, pulled off a similar but more visual coup with the nearly silent Under the Roofs of Paristhe same year.) A newspaper quote included on the DVD attests that Genina's patchwork approach, which represented "an ideal model for the talkie," was easily dubbed into seven languages - a paramount concern on the tongue-twisted European mainland circa 1930. Extras include promotional art, including ad art by famed costume designer Boris Bilinsky.

Donald Sosin

Today, I received an email from composer and accompaniest Donald Sosin. He wrote to tell me that he will be accompaning Prix de Beaute when it is screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in little more than a month. (See an earlier LJ entry for details.) Donald's music can be heard on a number of DVDs, including Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Forgotten Films of Fatty Arbuckle, etc....  He has also accompanied earlier screenings of Pandora's Box (at the Brooklyn Academy of Music),Diary of a Lost Girl, and A Girl in Every Port. More about Donald and his work can be found at www.silent-film-music.com/  Check it out!

Rare silent version of Prix de Beauté screening in NYC

The Tribeca Film Festival in New York City has announced that it will be screening the rare silent version of Prix de Beauté, which according to the festival, "is somewhat different from the sound version that is usually shown." The 2006 Festival will take place from April 25 - May 7, 2006.

The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002. It screens a variety of films, including a section devoted to restored and rediscovered films. According to it's website, "Renewing the Festival's commitment to highlighting remarkable treasures from the history of cinema, this section, co-curated by Martin Scorsese and Peter Scarlet, includes newly restored or preserved copies from some of the world's leading film archives."

Prix de Beauté directed by Augusto Genina, written by René Clair and G.W. Pabst (France).  As her final starring role, the legendary Louise Brooks plays a typist who wins a beauty contest in this French-shot feature. We are screening the rare silent version, which is somewhat different from the sound version that is usually shown. Preceded by Giovani Pastrone's one-reeler, The Fall of Troy (1911). Both films with live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin and live translation of French and Italian intertitles.

Prix de beauté review

A review of the new KINO release of Prix de beauté has turned up on-line at dvdtalk.com. "The script by Pabst and Rene Clair repeats the tale of beauty entrapped by possessive men, a pattern almost identical to the Dorothy Stratten tragedy told in Bob Fosse's Star 80." More from the review by Glenn Erickson can be found here.

Mick LaSalle's Prix review

Today, Mick LaSalle, the well known film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, reviewed the recent Kino DVD release, Prix de Beaute. Mick is a fine newspaper critic, and the author of two worthwhile books on pre-code film, Complicated Women, and Dangerous Men. However, he has never much liked Louise Brooks.

A 1995 article by LaSalle, titled "Pandora's Box is Steeped in Critical Hysteria," began by stating "Pandora's Box, which opens today for a four-day run at the Castro, is one of those revered classics, so steeped in critical hysteria that it's almost heresy to question its greatness." He goes on to suggest that Brooks (who he refers to as "a minor star best known for her Moe-in-the-Three-Stooges haircut") is today known only because of her friendships with a number of film critics. LaSalle also refers to Kenneth Tynan's long 1979 article in the New Yorker as "critical lunacy." LaSalle's review of Prix de Beaute echoes his earlier sentiments. Today's piece begins "More nonsense has been written about Louise Brooks than any other silent-era figure. A minor American actress . . . ." I would suggest that some of that nonsense about Brooks is LaSalle's own.

Prix de Beaute on DVD

Kino will be releasing Prix de Beaute (1930) on DVD on March 7, 2006. Run time is 88 minutes. (Black & White, Subtitled, NTSC, Region 1.)

Prix de Beauté on DVD

Bruce Calvert reports that he received the new Kino on Video catalog yesterday, and noticed that Kino has announced that Prix de Beauté (1930) will be released on DVD in Spring 2006. It looks like next year - the Brooks centennial - is shaping up to be a big year for all things Brooksie!

A package from France

I received a package from France. It contained a letter from Rene Clementi-Bilinsky, who was enquiring if any "members of the Louise Brooks Society have ever encountered an illustrations of the couple of posters designed by my grandfather, Boris Bilinsky (1900 - 1948), for the movie I recieved a package from France. It contained a letter from Rene Clementi-Bilinsky, who was enquiring if any "members of the Louise Brooks Society have ever encountered an illustrations of the couple of posters designed by my grandfather, Boris Bilinsky (1900 - 1948), for the movie Prix de Beaute." Rene writes that he is certain these posters exist, but he has yet to see them. If you are familiar with them, please post a comment.

Rene also printed out my bibliography of articles and reviews of Prix de Beaute (1930), on which he pointed out a number of typos and errors. I have made corrections, and have posted the revised bibliography to the web.

Rene also sent along a newly published article about Prix de Beaute which appeared in April, 2005 issue of 1895, a French journal focussing on film history. This long article, by Davide Pozzi, was followed by a second piece which contained Rene Clair's original outlines and synopsis for the film. There were also some swell pics of Louise Brooks. Thank you Rene." Rene writes that he is certain these posters exist, but he has yet to see them. If you are familiar with them, please post a comment.

Popular Front Paris

I've received an advance copy of Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture, by Dudley Andrew and Steven Ungar. I've only skimmed the book so-far, but this interesting academic work (published by Harvard University Press) seems quite promising. From the publisher . . . .

"The story of Paris in the 1930's seems straightforward enough, with the Popular Front movement leading toward the inspiring 1936 election of a leftist coalition government. The socialist victory, which resulted in fundamental improvements in the lives of workers, was then derailed in a precipitous descent that culminated in France's capitulation before the Nazis in June 1940. In this book, Dudley Andrew and Steven Ungar apply an evocative 'poetics of culture' to capture the complex atmospherics of Paris in the 1930's. They highlight the new symbolic forces put in play by technologies of the illustrated press and the sound film - technologies that converged with efforts among writers (Gide, Malraux, Celine), artists (Renoir, Dali), and other intellectuals (Mounier, de Rougemont, Leiris) to respond to the decade's crises. Their analysis takes them to expositions and music halls, to upscale architecture and fashion sites, to traditional neighborhoods, and to overseas territories, the latter portrayed in metropolitan exhibits and colonial cinema. Rather than a straight story of the Popular Front, they have produced something closer to the format of an illustrated newspaper whose multiple columns represent the breadth of urban life during this critical decade at the end of the Third French Republic."

Film in general, and Prix de Beaute (1930) in particular, are discussed. Louise Brooks is pictured (page 268), and is described as "the sensational Art Deco film idol who changed styles of hair, couture, and behavior in France and around the world." Anyone interested in the cultural history of this time and place might want to check out this new book.