Peter Cowie's new memoir Flashbacks: A Passion for Film features Louise Brooks

Every Louise Brooks fan should know the name of Peter Cowie. He is a highly regarded film critic, film historian, publisher, and biographer, a longtime friend of Louise Brooks, and, he is the author of the gorgeous 2006 pictorial, Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. It is a book that belongs on the shelf of every Brooks' fan. Find out more about Cowie's new book HERE.

Cowie has just published a memoir which I am excited to get my hands on. It is titled, Flashbacks: A Passion for Film, and it has just been released. (I just ordered a copy, as September 1st is its publication date.)

The publisher description reads, "In Flashbacks, Peter Cowie tells his story with the same clarity, curiosity and quiet authority that have made him one of cinema's most respected chroniclers. From his postwar childhood in the English countryside to decades spent in screening rooms, studios and film festivals around the world, Cowie reflects on a life shaped by cinema, and a career that has shaped how cinema is remembered, written about and understood. Along the way, he draws vivid portraits of the filmmakers and actors who left their mark on his life and work, including Ingmar Bergman, Alain Resnais, Orson Welles, Francis Ford Coppola, Louise Brooks, and a host of others. Flashbacks doubles as cultural history and personal meditation, on how a passion became a vocation - Sight and Sound declared that Cowie's Tantivy Press, which he acquired from his parents in 1963, "put film publishing on the map" - and fueled a lifelong conversation with the moving image. From the moment Bergman's The Seventh Seal first seized his imagination as a teenager, in 1959, Peter Cowie has been a significant force behind the way we watch and think about film."

And here is something about the author: "Peter Cowie lives in Switzerland. He is the author of more than 30 books on film, including Ingmar Bergman: A Critical Biography (1982), Coppola (1989); The Godfather Book (1997), Revolution! The Explosion of World Cinema in the Sixties (2004), Louise Brooks - Lulu Forever (2006) and God and The Devil: The Life and Work of Ingmar Bergman (2023). At the Tantivy Press from 1963 to 1981 he commissioned and published more than 70 books on film and film-making. From 1993 to 2000, he was International Publishing Director for Variety. For the Criterion Collection, he has contributed audio commentaries and essays for more than 40 releases. He has been a consultant to Dolby Laboratories and on the Main Competition jury at the Berlin Festival, the Caméra d'Or jury at the Cannes Festival, and the Opera Prima jury at the Venice Festival."

Peter Cowie's Flashbacks: A Passion for Film is 332 pages and is published by Sticking Place Books. More info HERE.

I hope to blog more about this book in the coming months. Stay tuned.

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 © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

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.   

Louise Brooks Society celebrates 30 years online

The Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) celebrates 30 years on the world wide web!

Launched in 1995 (the same year as Amazon and eBay), this pioneering fan site was the first devoted to the silent film star, and one of the very first devoted to any aspect of film history. Today, it continues to attract a loyal following and is one of the largest, more popular, and longest lasting websites devoted to any early movie star -- silent or sound.

Since its inception, the Louise Brooks Society has served as a resource for fans, scholars, creatives, and cinephiles from around the world. The site's online archive contains a treasure trove of information, including vintage articles, little seen photographs, rare ephemera, and more. Its filmography, which surpasses both IMDb and the AFI in detail, presents an in-depth look at each of Brooks' films including Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, and Beggars of Life. 

There are pages devoted to other aspects of Brooks' life including her early days as a Denishawn dancer (the basis for the PBS film, The Chaperone), her little documented time in London, her brief affair with Charlie Chaplin, and later years as the author of Lulu in Hollywood.

Also featured on the site is an extensive day-by-day chronology of the actress' life which the Irish Times called "extraordinary". Another unique section on the site -- "Homage to Lulu" -- surveys the many movie characters, comix, rock music, fiction, fashion, street graffiti, tattoo art and even perfume which celebrates the actress. At more than 260 pages, the site has become the go-to destination for anyone interested in the life and work of this singular star. 

In 1998, the popularity of the Louise Brooks Society website helped inspire the Emmy-nominated TCM documentary, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu. Since then, the site led a grass-roots campaign to bring Lulu in Hollywood, as well as the Barry Paris biography of the actress, back into print. It has also involved itself in the preservation of Brooks' films, curated exhibits, sponsored author talks and screenings, and conducted research which has led to a number of significant discoveries -- most notably rare audio recordings of Brooks' radio work in the early 1960s. 

The Louise Brooks Society maintains a long-running blog -- since 2002, and recently, it established a Substack account featuring long-form pieces. In 2010, the LBS published the Louise Brooks edition of Margarete Bohme’s bestselling book, "The Diary of a Lost Girl," which served as the basis for the 1929  film. Notably, it was the book’s first English-language publication in more than 100 years. The Louise Brooks Society has published four other books on the actress and her films, with more in the works. 

Over the years, the Louise Brooks Society has been acclaimed by all manner of print and online media, including USA Today and Wired magazine, who described the site as "exemplary." Similarly, the New York Times stated, “The Louise Brooks Society is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars.”

The Louise Brooks Society continues to attract a loyal following who share a passion for early cinema. On a personal note, I would like to express my gratitude to the dedicated community that has supported the site over the past three decades. The internet has changed a lot in the last 30 years. It hasn't always been easy to maintain a site and attract new visitors. Nevertheless, I am proud of how far the Louise Brooks Society has come since its began ever so long ago. This 30-year journey is a testament to the legacy of Louise Brooks and the enduring appeal of classic cinema.

As the Louise Brooks Society begins its fourth decade online, it remains committed to its mission of preserving the memory of one of the most iconic figures in film history. With a renewed focus on education and outreach, the website aims to introduce a new generation of film enthusiasts to Louise Brooks and the timeless allure of silent movies. Among the forthcoming projects with which it is currently involved is a disc of Brooks' "lost" films (in conjunction with the San Francisco Film Preserve) and a first ever e-book edition of Brooks' Lulu in Hollywood (in conjunction with the Estate of Louise Brooks). 

For more information about the Louise Brooks Society, including a detailed history and mission statement, visit its About page. Or, check out this online scrapbook of images from the history of the LBS.

Thomas Gladysz, founding Director of the Louise Brooks Society, is open to interviews and media / blogger / podcaster inquiries. Let's talk Lulu!

“Nobody knows more about Louise Brooks than Thomas Gladysz. Having founded the Louise Brooks Society in 1995, he has spent more than two decades researching her life and work, curating memorabilia and writing about this most fascinating of silent era actresses.” -- Pamela Hutchinson, Silent London

 

"...  if there exists a No. 1 fan and a No. 1 chronicler of Brooks, it’s Thomas Gladysz, the founder and longtime champion of the Louise Brooks Society.” -- Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

 

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.  

Television series, Hollywood and the Stars

I came across this early 1963 newspaper advertisement for the short-lived television series, Hollywood and the Stars, narrated by Joseph Cotten. A little digging led me to discover the series is available on YouTube. I love documentary histories of Hollywood, and the earlier the better: older histories of early Hollywood are especially revealing, as perceptions of the past change as well. THis series and other like it are really about how Hollywood sees itself, and in the early 1960's, it really didn't see the silent film era.

Here is the embedded video to the one of the episodes, "Hollywood & the Stars: The Wild and Wonderful Thirties." Look it up on YouTube to find the rest. The series doesn't seem to have covered the silent era, but did look at early comedians and horror films and a handful of contemporary actors, as well as the period after the coming of sound.

Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934

There is a fascinating new book from Rutgers University Press titled Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934, by Laura Horak.

It is a book which should appeal not only to fans of Louise Brooks, but as well the context of Brooks' career, namely the silent and early sound era. Readable and scholarly, Girls Will Be Boys is also revelatory; the appendix of early films featuring cross-dressed women is a veritable checklist of films to track down and watch. Happily, Horak provides information on where to find many of them.

In 2007, Horak, who is now an assistant professor of film studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, wrote a fine essay on Beggars of Life for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. That film is noted in the appendix. In her new book, Horak considers Pandora's Box, the 1929 Brooks film and its prominent lesbian character, Countess Geschwitz. In doing so, she cites the 2012 essay I wrote for the Silent Film Festival on the G.W. Pabst film which discusses the film's turbulent reception in the United States.

Horak's anthology, Silent Cinema and the Politics of Space (Indiana University Press, 2014), co-edited with Jennifer Bean and Anupama Kapse, won the Society of Cinema and Media Studies’ Award for Best Edited Collection of 2014.

Horak's new book has received good reviews. Publishers Weekly said "Horak has produced a meticulously researched, astutely argued, and highly readable text … her use of archival materials is impeccable and her filmic and historical analyses clearly display a nuanced understanding of her topic." I agree.

Girls Will Be Boys considers "Cowboy Girls, Girl Spies, and the Homoerotic Frontier," "Cosmopolitanism, Trousers, and Lesbians in the 1920s," and "The Lesbian Vogue and Backlash against Cross-Dressed Women in the 1930s" and other topics.

Publicity still from lost film The Amazons (1917)

The publisher's description of Girls Will Be Boys: "Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Katharine Hepburn all made lasting impressions with the cinematic cross-dressing they performed onscreen. What few modern viewers realize, however, is that these seemingly daring performances of the 1930s actually came at the tail end of a long wave of gender-bending films that included more than 400 movies featuring women dressed as men.

Laura Horak spent a decade scouring film archives worldwide, looking at American films made between 1908 and 1934, and what she discovered could revolutionize our understanding of gender roles in the early twentieth century. Questioning the assumption that cross-dressing women were automatically viewed as transgressive, she finds that these figures were popularly regarded as wholesome and regularly appeared onscreen in the 1910s, thus lending greater respectability to the fledgling film industry. Horak also explores how and why this perception of cross-dressed women began to change in the 1920s and early 1930s, examining how cinema played a pivotal part in the representation of lesbian identity.

Girls Will Be Boys excavates a rich history of gender-bending film roles, enabling readers to appreciate the wide array of masculinities that these actresses performed—from sentimental boyhood to rugged virility to gentlemanly refinement. Taking us on a guided tour through a treasure-trove of vintage images, Girls Will Be Boys helps us view the histories of gender, sexuality, and film through fresh eyes."

Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930)

Here are a few more blurbs from early reviews:

"Drawing on the early archives of American cinema, Horak questions the assumption that cross-dressing actresses were inherently transgressive ... and provides a new lens through which to view gender, sexuality and film." (Autostraddle 15 Queer/Feminist Books To Read In Early 2016)

"Who knew how important were those girls who would be boys? Not only as signs of 'deviancy' but as ideals of red-blooded boyhood itself? This engaging, well-researched book tells more than we ever knew about the many and various reasons 'girls will be boys.'" (Linda Williams University of California, Berkeley)

"Laura Horak's Girls Will Be Boys is without peer as a historical contribution to queer scholarship on early film. It is a revisionist work that draws upon a wealth of historical research to completely overturn previous accounts." (Robert J. King, author of The Fun Factory: The Keystone Film Company and the Emergence of Mass Culture).

Here are a few related images of Brooks not discussed in Horak's book which further support its thesis. These images not only range across gender, but also class.