Discovering a Polish Lulu

For those interested in European film history, in silent film, and in Louise Brooks - Marek Haltof’s Polish National Cinema (Berghahn Books) offers a little something for everyone. Haltof’s 300-page survey is the first comprehensive English-language study of Polish filmmaking and film culture from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century. It’s also a groundbreaking work well worth checking out - whatever your interst.

The book's first two chapters, “Polish Cinema before the Introduction of Sound” and “The Sound Period of the 1930s,” are each fascinating and detailed accounts of the origins and development of the Polish cinema.

Buffeted as it was between Germany and Russia and by the more dominant film industry’s found in each of those countries, Polish cinema was, naturally, influenced by its neighbors. German and Russian as well as French and American films all showed in Poland – and each left their mark. It’s known, for example, that at least a few of Louise Brooks’ American silent films as well as her German-made movies were shown in Warsaw – the capitol of both Poland and the Polish film industry.

For example, Pandora’s Box, retitled Lulu, opened at the Casino Theater in Warsaw at the end of May, 1929. It ran for a few weeks, and was well received. In my research, I have been able to track down the Polish newspaper reviews and advertisements for that historic screening.

One striking example given by Haltof of the German influence on Polish cinema is noted in the book’s second chapter, on the films of the 1930s.

Haltof writes, “The treatment of women in Polish melodramas oscillates between presenting them as femme fatales in the tradition of Pola Negri’s silent features made for the Sfinks company, and as vulnerable figures at the mercy of the environment. The former representation, which is not very popular in Polish cinema, can be seen in Zabawka (The Toy, 1933), directed by Michal Waszynski. The title refers to the female protagonist Lulu (Alma Kar), a Warsaw cabaret star, who is invited to a country manor by a wealthy landowner. The landowner’s son and local Don Juan both fall in love with Lulu and pay for it. The name of the protagonist and the theme of the film suggest G.W. Pabst’s influence (Louise Brooks as Lulu in Pandora’s Box, 1929), and this inspiration has been emphasized by one of the scriptwriters of the film.” Pictured here is Alma Kar as Lulu in Zabawka.

Haltof, a Polish-born scholar, is now resident in the United States where he teaches Film in the English Department at Northern Michigan University. Via email, he confirmed the influence of one film on the other. He also supplied a photocopy of a page from a hard-to-find Polish work, Historia filmu polskiego (1988), which he cites in his own book. It quotes coscriptwriter Andrzej Tomakowski on the influence of Pandora’s Box on Zabawka.

A viewing of Zabawka itself confirms the influence (see video clip below - the entire film resides, in parts, on YouTube). The character, played by the charming Alma Kar, is named Lulu and is like Pabst’s version of Lulu a showgirl desired by many (including a Father and his son) with disastrous results. In one early scene, this Polish Lulu is surrounded by a line of chorus girls each wearing a sharp bob haircut just like that worn by Brooks in Pandora’s Box – except each of these Polish chorines are blonde!

Marek Haltof’s Polish National Cinema was first published in 2002, and was reprinted in softcover in 2008 by Berghahn Books. It is available online and at select independent bookstores.

Starts Thursday!

Starts Thursday! is a new blog devoted to the art and history of coming attraction slides -  the kind shown in movie theaters during the silent and sound era to promote forthcoming films. The blog is run by Robert Byrne, a San Francisco Bay Area film preservationist and a big fan of Louise Brooks. 

Today, I guest blogged for Starts Thursday! I wrote about a glass slide for The American Venus, Louise Brooks' second film and the first in which she had a starring role. My blog also discussed Fay Lanphier, one of the other stars of that film and the actress whose image appears on the slide. Check out my guest blog here.

An unusual girl, an unusual photo

In the past, I've blogged about some of the various newspapers around the country which are selling off their photographic archives. Among them is the Chicago Tribune - one of the country's great newspapers. I once spent a few days in Chicago pouring over past issues.

Some of these photos are being sold on eBay, where just recently three Tribune images have shown up. One of them, seemingly colorized, is rather unusual.

According to a scan of the reverse of the photo provided by the seller, the photo is dated (or at least stamped) October 4, 1928. This photo likely dates from around the time when Louise Brooks left for Germany to begin filming Pandora's Box.

Without examining the photo itself, it's hard to say if the pattern on Brooks' jacket is actual, an enhancement, or just a creative embellishment. Whatever the case, I like it.

The other two images from the Chicago Tribune archive, each of which show photo retouching typical of the time, can be found here and here. Be sure and check them out.

Leonard Maltin comments on Diary of a Lost Girl

At the recently concluded San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I had a chance to speak with Leonard Maltin. He told me how much he appreciated The Diary of a Lost Girl, the 1929 Louise Brooks film which had been screened the day before.

Just recently, Maltin posted a long entry on his blog, "Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy,"  highlighting what were for him some the Festival's many highlights. About the Brooks film, Maltin commented, "It’s been many years since I saw G.W. Pabst’s Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) with Louise Brooks, but I don’t remember being affected by it the way I was this time around. I’m older, and perhaps that has something to do with my response, but I found it incredibly hypnotic, sad, and moving." These comments echoed what he had told me in person.

Read more - including comments on the various Festival films - at http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/archives/2010/07/27/silent_films_live_again

A fragile image

I just obtained a falling-to-pieces copy of Arts Monthly Pictorial. It dates from 1926, and contains this earlier and rather uncommon image of Louise Brooks by Edwin Bower Hesser. The magazine is on brittle paper. I wanted to share it with everyone before the paper falls apart. It is a fragile thing.

Huffington Post: Loving Louise Brooks

Loving Louise Brooks is a short film and the work of now graduated French Lycee / high school students - which, as a student film has all charms and shortcomings of student work. Nevertheless, I like it. Some further thoughts at the Huffington Post.

Louise Brooks stars at 2010 Silent Film Festival

Louise Brooks seemed to be just about everywhere at the just concluded 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Brooks’ image adorned the badges worn by staff, volunteers, the press, special guests, and festival pass holders. Her image was on the handbill for the event, and could be found in the display cases outside the Castro Theater in San Francisco, where the event was held.

Individuals could be seen sporting pin back buttons featuring a likeness of the actress. And if that weren’t enough, more than a few individuals could be spotted wearing Brooks’ t-shirts - either those issued by the Festival in 2006 when it showed Pandora’s Box, or the all-black “strand of pearls” shirts being sold by one of the vendors on the Castro mezzanine.

Brooks’ postcards were for sale on the mezzanine, along with a selection of books both by and about the actress. As was the limited edition silkscreen poster for Diary of a Lost Girl commissioned for this year’s event. It proved especially popular, and sold out. I managed to secure # 29, since that was the year the film was released.

Diary of a Lost Girl, the 1929 G.W. Pabst film which stars Brooks, was the Festival centerpiece. That's because it was the “Founder's Presentation” film. Before the film was shown to a nearly sold-out house of 1400 movie buffs, SFSFF founders Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons were honored for their efforts in having started the annual event which has, over the years, grown from a single co-presentation to a four day film lover's extravaganza and the largest silent film festival in North America. At this special presentation of Diary of a Lost Girl, the Colorado-based Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra performed their original score for the film. It was very well received. And I liked it a lot too.

After the screening, three authors signed copies of their books. Emmy nominated Hollywood screenwriter Samuel Bernstein (pictured left in a black shirt, with me) signed copies of his recently published Lulu: A Novel (Walford Press). The subject of this “non-fiction novel" is Brooks and the period in her life when she went to work with Pabst in Germany. It’s the latest in a shelf worth of works of fiction which have taken the silent film star as their muse.

Also signing was Ira Resnick. This longtime collector and founder of the Motion Picture Arts Gallery in New York City (the first gallery devoted exclusively to the art of the movies) was signing copies of his new book, Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood (Abbeville). It features hundreds of images including a number of posters and lobby cards from various Brooks’ films. Resnick’s new book also includes a small "love letter" to the actress as his own collecting muse.

I also signed books. I've just published the "Louise Brooks edition" of the book which was the basis for the film Diary of a Lost Girl. This new illustrated edition of the 1905 German novel brings this important book back into print in the United States after more than 100 years. It includes a long introduction detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 silent film of the same name.For those lucky attendees who lined up for a copy, I gave away a free pin back button (there were three styles to choose from) and also rubber stamped their copy using my Rick Geary drawn caricature of Louise Brooks. Fans seemed to like that.

Brooks’ part in Diary of a Lost Girl wasn’t her only appearance on the screen at the 2010 event. Her image was flashed on the screen during the in-between film slideshow. And, during the Sunday morning presentation, "Amazing Tales from the Archives," Mike Mashon of the Library of Congress presented a fascinating report on American silent film survival rates which referenced Brooks and her films.

During his presentation, Mashon focused on Paramount, and naturally - Brooks' name and films popped up at least 6 or 8 times. (Brooks was under contract to Paramount during large parts of her career.)

In particular, Mashon relayed the story of the 1928 Brooks’ film, Beggars of Life, and how it has come to survive till today. At one point, Mashon even showed a 1950 purchase order from James Card of the George Eastman House for a 16mm dupe of the film. All copies in circulation today, Mashon noted, come from this copy of the film made decades ago.

Mashon also showed another document which referenced a 1951 archive acquisition of another Brooks’ film, A Social Celebrity (1926). It has subsequently been lost.

As Brooks’ longtime friend Kevin Brownlow (pictured right with me - notice we are both wearing our Louise Brooks Festival badges, and I my Prix de Beaute t-shirt) pointed out during his remarks at the event, the motto of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is “True Art Transcends Time.” Twenty-five years after her death, the same might be said for Louise Brooks.

[More images from the event in the slideshow which follows the article at examiner.com.]