I finally had the chance to see The Grand Inquisitor (2008), a recent short film by Eddie Muller (the author and film historian known as the "Czar of Noir"). I mention it because this exceptionally well done short work contains an homage to Louise Brooks. It is well worth checking out. This 22-minute movie can be viewed online at Strike.TV.
The Grand Inquisitor stars 1940's film star Marsha Hunt as Hazel Reedy, and debut actress Leah Dashe as Lulu. Hunt is superb, and Dashe is oh so charming in this noirish tale. More on the film can be found at www.grandinquisitormovie.com/ Check it out - I really liked it.
A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts
about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the
Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Grand Inquisitor
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A portrait of Louise Brooks
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Louise Brooks on the cover
My thanks go to Jason, who tipped me off to the appearance of Louise Brooks (or at least her distinct hair) on the cover of this just published novel by Kate Walbert. Not sure if the actress herself makes an appearance in the book, which was published by Scribner. Here is some publisher supplied copy.
About the book: National Book Award finalist Kate Walbert's A Short History of Women is a profoundly moving portrayal of the complicated legacies of mothers and daughters, chronicling five generations of women from the close of the nineteenth century through the early years of the twenty-first.
The novel opens in England in 1914 at the deathbed of Dorothy Townsend, a suffragette who starves herself for the cause. Her choice echoes in the stories of her descendants interwoven throughout: a brilliant daughter who tries to escape the burden of her mother's infamy by immigrating to America just after World War I to begin a career in science; a niece who chooses a conventional path -- marriage, children, suburban domesticity -- only to find herself disillusioned with her husband of fifty years and engaged in heartbreaking and futile antiwar protests; a great-granddaughter who wryly articulates the free-floating anxiety of the times while getting drunk on a children's playdate in post-9/11 Manhattan. In a kaleidoscope of voices and with a richness of imagery, emotion, and wit, Walbert portrays the ways in which successive generations of women have responded to what the Victorians called "The Woman Question."
As she did in her critically acclaimed The Gardens of Kyoto and Our Kind, Walbert induces "a state in which the past seems to hang effortlessly amid the present" (The New York Times). A Short History of Women is her most ambitious novel, a thought-provoking and vividly original narrative that crisscrosses a century to reflect the tides of time and the ways in which the lives of our great-grandmothers resonate in our own.
About the Author: Kate Walbert is the author of Where She Went, a New York Times Notable Book of 1998; The Gardens of Kyoto, winner of the Connecticut Book Award for fiction in 2002; and Our Kind, finalist for the National Book Award in 2004. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and numerous other publications.
Has anyone read this book?
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Friday, July 10, 2009
SFSFF starts today
I'm excited about this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It starts today. No Louise Brooks film, but plenty of cinematic action. Here is what I am especially looking forward to.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Thursday, July 9, 2009
A wow Louise Brooks discovery
My latest discovery . . . . It depicts Louise Brooks' image in a window display promoting the release of The Canary Murder Case. As you can see, the actress is prominent in this display. My guess is that this image was shot in early February, 1929.
It is one of five different images I have uncovered of different store windows taken in Los Angeles at various department stores and shops including the May Company and the Owl Drug store.
Apparently, there was a widespread push to promote the film. Some of the images feature hearts and candy (suggesting a pre-Valentine promotion - the film was officially released on February 16th), while others include photoplay book edition of the novel on which the film was based. Nevertheless, Louise Brooks - in the form of a lifesize cardboard display piece - is front and center in each of the displays.
Wow wow wow wow wow! I have never seen these before.
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
The Art of Nell Brinkley
Throughout the teens, twenties, and early thirties, Nell Brinkley was about as big a name as there was in the world of cartooning and illustration. Brinkley’s independent-minded and always pretty heroines pirouetted, waltzed, shimmied, and vamped their way through various adventures – often with a dashing young man by their side.
I don't think she ever drew Louise Brooks, but she certainly drew a number of silent film stars. Early in her career Brinkley drew actresses like Mae Murray, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, as well as entertainers like Irene Castle, Evelyn Nesbit, and the Dolly Sisters. Other of her characters (though not identified as such) bear a strong resemblance to silent stars Ronald Colman, Nils Asther, John Gilbert, and others.
Brinkley's work is the subject of a new book, The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons, 1913-1940 (Fantagraphics). My illustrated article on the book can be found at www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Movie-Examiner~y2009m7d8-Nell-Brinkley-art-highlighted-in-book-by-San-Francisco-herstorian
I don't think she ever drew Louise Brooks, but she certainly drew a number of silent film stars. Early in her career Brinkley drew actresses like Mae Murray, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, as well as entertainers like Irene Castle, Evelyn Nesbit, and the Dolly Sisters. Other of her characters (though not identified as such) bear a strong resemblance to silent stars Ronald Colman, Nils Asther, John Gilbert, and others.
Brinkley's work is the subject of a new book, The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons, 1913-1940 (Fantagraphics). My illustrated article on the book can be found at www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Movie-Examiner~y2009m7d8-Nell-Brinkley-art-highlighted-in-book-by-San-Francisco-herstorian
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
Friday, July 3, 2009
Author line-up announced for Silent Film Festival
Though they're not showing any Louise Brooks films this year, there are still plenty of reasons to attend the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Along with a line-up of must-see films, a number of historians, biographers, archivists, scholars and authors will be in attendance at the annual event.
I've just published an article highlighting the those who will be signing books and DVD's at this years silent film lovefest. My article can be found here. Please check it out!
I've just published an article highlighting the those who will be signing books and DVD's at this years silent film lovefest. My article can be found here. Please check it out!
This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society™. Launched in 1995, the Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website and online archive devoted to the legendary silent film star. The Louise Brooks Society operates with the consent of the Estate of Louise Brooks (Louise Brooks Heirs, LC), and have its permission to use the name and likeness of the actress. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. CONTACT: louisebrookssociety (at) gmail.com
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