Toronto Silent Film Festival to screen It’s the Old Army Game

The Toronto Silent Film Festival has announced it will screen the celebrated 1926 silent comedy, It’s the Old Army Game, at next year’s event. The film stars Louise Brooks and screen legend W.C. Fields. It’s the Old Army Game will be shown on Wednesday April 6 at 8:30 pm at the Fox Theater, 236 Queen Street East, in Toronto. The film will be accompanied by Toronto organist Andrei Streliaev. More at examiner.com

Christian Zimmerman - Diary Of A Lost Girl (World Of Apples Mojave Rehab Mix)

Not sure if this piece of music by Christian Zimmerman has anything to do with the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary Of A Lost Girl, but here you go. If Christian Zimmerman sees this, please let us know.

Louise Brooks & Bruz Fletcher

Anyone who checked out my recent examiner.com list of recommended new releases for the Louise Brooks fan might be wondering who Bruz Fletcher is and what is his connection with the silent film star. The list includes a new book by Tyler Alpern titled, Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp (Blurb Books).

Yesterday, I set out to answer that question with my latest column on examiner.com. My article, titled "Louise Brooks & Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped, Riotous Vamps," discusses their apparent friendship as well as other individuals with whom both worked. Please check it out.

Tyler Alpern and I have been in contact for a number of years, and some time ago he graciously provided me with a .mp3 of one of Bruz's recordings. It was likely one of the songs Bruz sang when Louise Brooks heard him perform at the Club Bali in Hollywood in 1937 and 1938. I placed that song in rotation on RadioLulu.

Besides issuing his book, Alpern has also put out a compact disc of Fletcher's hard-to-find recordings titled Drunk with Love. The CD is available through CD Baby and other sources. You haven't lived till you've heard "Nympho-Dipso-Ego Maniac" and "She's My Most Intimate Friend" and "The Hellish Mrs. Haskell." These 1930's recordings take the double entendre to the limit.

Stanzas about Louise Brooks

Did you know that Vachel Lindsay wrote poems about Mary Pickford? Or that Hart Crane wrote poems about Charlie Chaplin? Or that Frank O'Hara wrote a poem inspired by Louise Brooks? 

The tradition of writing poems about silent film - and especially about silent film stars, goes all the way back to the silent film era. Lindsay was among the first, and is certainly the most famous practitioner. Anthony Slide's book, The Picture Dancing on a Screen: Poetry of the Cinema (Vestel Press, 1988) collects a number of early examples by both well known and little know writers from the first half of the 20th century. Another expansive anthology is The Faber Book of Movie Verse (Faber & Faber, 1995). This latter collection contains a selection devoted to the silent era.  One book I've come across on the subject is Laurence Goldstein's The American Poet at the Movies: A Critical History (University of Michigan Press, 1995).  

A blog which continues the tradition is Silent Stanzas. It bills itself as "poetry, photos and anecdotes about silent film." It's well worth checking out. And, its where I found this poem about Louise Brooks.

Scrubbie's Sonnet

Her liquid gaze could melt the coldest heart,
Her perfect face framed ‘round by ebony;
Since early on her dancing was an art –
Lithe hands and limbs in quaking ecstasy.
Not one to walk on eggshells, biting wit
And knife-blade tongue would often trouble make;
But unrelenting, in the face of it
She’d stand, too proud to let it see her break.
From featured player to forgotten star,
To author/critic, razor-edged and quick:
A sharpened, honey-coated scimitar,
A heady blend of sex and arsenic.
With such a life – complex beyond compare –
How strange her strongest legacy’s her hair.

Artist Includes Louise Brooks in Mural Series

A Kansas artist has included an image of Louise Brooks in a series of murals currently on display in a museum in Salina, Kansas. The portrait of Brooks is part of the exhibit, "Remarkable Kansas Women," by Jennifer Randall at the Smoky Hill Museum. The Salina Journal ran a piece about the exhibit, which is about to go on display in Salina. An image of Randall's art can be found at http://www.salina.com/photos/encore-eyes-jpg

And here is a page from artist Jennifer Randall's website about Louise Brooks which includes a better image of her piece depicting the Kansas born and raised film star. 

 Visit http://jenniferrandall.net/women/kswomen/LouiseBrooks.html

Diary of a Lost Girl, with Louise Brooks, to screen at National Gallery of Art

It has just been announced that Diary of a Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown  at National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. on January 2, 2011. This special screening will feature live musical accompaniment by 3epkano. 

This Irish musical ensemble, which specializes in silent film accompaniment, will perform their original score to the G.W. Pabst directed film. The January 2nd screening marks the first appearance by 3epkano in Washington D.C. Their score to Diary of a Lost Girl was premiered in June at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

More about this special event and the Irish group and the German film can be found on examiner.com

Pandora's Box mentioned in Sight & Sound

Bill Kromm wrote from England to let everyone know that the January 2011 edition of Sight & Sound contains a couple of references to Pandora's Box. It's from the annual critics' list of favorite movies and year's highlights:

from David Thompson, "critic and documentarian, UK" --

"Highlights: Two magnificent presentations of silent cinema: the newly restored (courtesy of Hugh Hefner!) Pandora's Box, looking as though it were shot yesterday, premiered in Paris; and Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) -- the superior silent version -- at the Barbican. Both were supplied with electrifying musical scores by Neil Brand."

and from Vlastimir Sudar, "critic UK" --

"Highlights: The nicest surprise -- finally a high-quality restoration of Pabst's Pandora's Box, thanks to Berlin's Deutsche Kinemathek."

Bill concluded by stating, "Here's hoping this newest restoration will find its way DVD and Blu-ray (Criterion or UK's Masters of Cinema?) very soon."