Found

Found today on a street light poll in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. This is not the first example of Louise Brooks' image used on a rock n roll handbill that I have come across.

Stolen Moments

The most recent issue of Stolen Moments - Donna Hill's always interesting silent film podcast - features an interview with Stephen Salmons, director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. In the interview, Salmons talks about Beggars of Life, the 1928 Louise Brooks film which will be screened at this year's festival. This podcast - as well as each of the earlier installments - are well worth a listen.

Colleen Moore website

Jeff Codori - silent film buff, researcher, and Colleen Moore fan - has launched a major new Colleen Moore website. The site can be found at http://www.colleenmoore.org/  Jeff has put a lot of work into the site, and it contains many pictures and lots of text. I would encourge everyone to check it out. And what's more, Jeff is working on a book on the actress. Perhaps you can help ?

A Spring Awakening - Pandora's Box connection

Everybody knows that Spring Awakening (the play which served as the source for the hit Broadway musical) and Pandora's Box (the play which served as source for the 1929 film starring Louise Brooks) were BOTH written by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind.

Well, the connection doesn't stop there. Recently, two member's of the Tony award winning Broadway play were interviewed prior to the screening of the Louise Brooks film. According to a May 29th article in the New York News,

Tonight the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville will be hosting a special Q&A with the Tony-nominated talent behind the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening."

Composer Duncan Sheik and book writer-lyricist Steven Sater will be interviewed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin in conjunction with a screening of the 1929 silent-film classic "Pandora's Box." 

I wasn't able attend this event at the Burns Film Center (which is located in the New York City area). Did any reader of this blog make it to this screening and onstage-talk?

p.s. The long-dead and somewhat neglected Frank Wedekind has certainly been getting more attention lately. This is due in large part to the success of Spring Awakening on Broadway. Interestingly, due out this fall is a new translation of Spring Awakening by acclaimed novelist Jonathan Franzen (author of The Corrections).

Rudolf Arnheim Dies

Rudolf Arnheim, a psychologist and scholar of art and ideas, has died. He was 102 years old. Arnheim was born in Berlin, and was known to film buffs for his classic study, Film as Art. According to Wikipedia, Arnheim's

preoccupation with film led to the publication in 1932 of his first book entitled Film als Kunst (Film as Art), in which he examined the various ways in which film images are (and should always aspire to be) different from literal encounters with reality. However, soon after this book was released, Adolph Hitler came to power, and because Arnheim was Jewish, the sale of his book was no longer allowed.

The book was published in English translation in 1957, and was widely used in American classrooms during the 1960's and 1970's. For those not familiar with the book, it should be noted that it contains three short passages concerning the 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Diary of a Lost Girl.

Amanda Howard

On Friday, I had a chance to meet in person longtime LBS member Amanda Howard. Amanda is a leading research contributor to the Louise Brooks Society, and in the past we have exchanged many emails and spoken on the phone a few times. (I have blogged about Amanda's contributions in the past.)

Amanda, who lives in Wichita, was in San Francisco on vacation. She stopped by the bookstore where I work and said hello. It was a great pleasure to finally meet you, Amanda !

Lulu in Brookline, Mass

Pandora's Box will be shown in Brookline, Massachusetts at the Coolidge Theater later this month. Click here for more info.

PANDORA'S BOX (1929) dir. G.W. Pabst, w/ Louise Brooks, 1h 40m
Sun, June 24 @ 11 am
newly restored 35mm print!
with musical accompaniment by Martin Marks
$9.50 general admission /$3.00 seniors, children, and Coolidge Members 

G.W. Pabst's retelling of the tragic life and death of Lulu, the ultimate vamp, played by iconic American actress Louise Brooks in a mesmerizing performance. Martin Marks returns to the Coolidge to perform his score for a gorgeous new 35mm print of of the film. To watch a clip of this film and other coming attractions, click here.

On the cover of CineAction

A full page photograph of Louise Brooks is on the back cover of the current issue of CineAction (issue number 71, 2007). This issue of this Toronto-based film periodical is devoted to sexuality in the cinema. (Catherine Denevue is on the front cover.) I didn't notice anything about Brooks among the articles, though the credit for the back cover image reads "Louise Brooks Centenery 1906-2006."

On the road again

Wow! I just received the program brochure (pictured above) for the 2007 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. This year, among other films, the festival is showing Beggars of Life (1928), starring Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen. Set among the hobo-camps of the American west, Brooks plays a girl - dressed as a boy - who murders her abusive step-father and goes on the run. It's a really fine film. And Brooks makes for one terrific cover girl on this brochure! Hope to see you at this year's festival !

Speaking of life on the road, later today I leave for New York City. I'll be attending the annual booksellers convention, as well as taking a few personal days to do some research in the Big Apple. I have an appointment scheduled at the Museum of the City of New, where I will be looking through their files on the 1924 George White Scandals and 1925 Ziegfeld Follies. (Brooks appeared in each show.) I will also be visiting the New York Public Library, where I plan to look through yet more reels of microfilm of the various New York and Brooklyn newspapers. And finally, I plan to spend a couple of days at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where I hope to look through files, personal papers, and scrapbooks belonging to Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and Louis Horst - all of which relate to the Denishawn Dance Company and Brooks two-plus years as member of the company. What I'll find, I can't say. . . .  At Lincoln Center, I will also be looking through other scrapbooks and files and microfilm and magazines in search of material relating to Brooks' 24 films.

I will be back in a week's time, and will let everyone know what I find.