LA Times Magazine names the 50 most beautiful women in film

The LA Times Magazine has published a list of the 50 most beautiful women in film - and Louise Brooks is number six. Of her near contemporaries, only Greta Garbo (#16) and Hedy Lamarr (#27) made the list. The complete list can be found at 

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2011/02/50-most-beautiful-women-in-film.html

Lulu character featured in new play

The latest adaption of Frank Wedekind's Lulu’s is Mlle. God, a new play loosely adapted by Nicholas Kazan from the original Wedekind texts. Naturally, many of the reviews have mentioned Louise Brooks, who played Lulu in G.W. Pabst's 1929 film adaption.

Kazan is an Oscar-nominated writer and director and the son of acclaimed director Elia Kazan, as well as the father of Zoe Kazan (who played the role of Lulu in a production at Yale University.) The Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA premiere of Mlle. God runs through March 6. Read more at http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-in-national/lulu-character-featured-new-play-mlle-god#ixzz1DEKc9VYd

In Mlle. God, Kazan has re-invented Wedekind’s Lulu, creating a muscular and outrageous dark comedy that is a paean to sex, art, and living in the millisecond. “I was inspired by Wedekind, by Pabst, and most of all by Louise Brooks’ luminous comic performance,” says Kazan. “Sex is, in a way, so simple...the means by which we reproduce. But the experience itself can be so powerful that it overwhelms us...as Lulu does.  This is why the character, with her playful joy, still feels so dangerous and shocking: she refuses to assign a moral weight to what is, after all, a biological necessity."

The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) booksigning

I will be signing copies of The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) at the Castro Theater during the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival winter event on February 12. 

Though I will be hanging around throughout the day, the set time for me and others to sign books is after the conclusion of Charlie Chaplin shorts program, around 2:15 pm. [Also signing are Karie Bible, co-author of Location Filming in Los Angeles, and Julie Lindow, editor and co-author of Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres.] I and the other authors may also be signing for a brief time around 6:00 pm, after L'Argent. This book signing is likely the last event for the book. 

Additional information about this book signing can be found on the San Francisco Chronicle website. Additional information on the book itself can be found here. Hope to see some of you there.

Peter Bogdanovich singles out two Louise Brooks films

Acclaimed director and author Peter Bogdanovich wrote a long blog about film in the year 1928, which is headlined "The Last and Greatest Year of the Original Motion Picture Art, B.S. (Before Sound)." His blog can be found at http://blogs.indiewire.com/peterbogdanovich/archives/1928_the_last_and_greatest_year_of_the_original_motion_picture_art_b.s._bef/

Bogdanovich begins his blog with the familiar claim that 1939 was the single greatest year in film history. Perhaps so. When considering the silent era, Bogdanovich thinks 1928 the single best year. In building his argument, Bogdanovich mentions some of the many outstanding films released that year - the last year before sound took over. Among the films mentioned are two starring Louise Brooks. Bogdanovich writes

Howard Hawks, only in his third year as a director, makes his first really Hawksian comedy-drama, A Girl in Every Port, featuring Louise Brooks in the role and haircut that defined her and caught German director G.W. Pabst’s eye, leading to this very American gal being cast in one of Germany’s most famous roles, Lulu in Pandora’s Box (1929).  In the Hawks film, Brooks comes between the two male leads whose camaraderie outlasts all rivals.  (Hawks’ first flying film, The Air Circus, is lost, but Fazil, a totally uncharacteristic novelty in his canon, has survived.)

In 1928, Louise Brooks also appears memorably in what is generally considered director William A. Wellman’s best and most personal film, Beggars of Life (only one of three films he put out that year).... 

It's a long, thoughtful blog well worth reading. And whether you agree or not (perhaps you think 1925 or 1927 the best year for film during the silent era), Bogdanovich's blog is full of excellent recommendations.

New Facebook fan page for the Louise Brooks Society

I've set up a new Facebook fan page for the Louise Brooks Society. It can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Louise-Brooks-Society/117328855002736

Fan pages are more robust, and have more functionality than the old group pages on Facebook. Eventually, this new fan page should replace the longstanding LBS group page. Please check it out.

I've set up this new page as part of my long planned rebuild of the Louise Brooks Society website. Part of the rebuild includes integrating web 2.0 functionality - as well as lots of new content!

And don't forget, Pandora's Box airs tonight on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Check your local listings.

Democrat & Chronicle article on Louise Brooks

Jack Garner, film critic for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York - and an old friend of Louise Brooks, has published an article about the actress and Turner Classic Movies' upcoming showing of Pandora's Box. The article, "TCM celebrates Louise Brooks, Oscars," can be found at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110128/LIVING0107/101280305/-1/rochesterarts/TCM-celebrates-Louise-Brooks--Oscars

The Democrat and Chronicle doesn't archive their articles online for very long, so be sure and check it out soon.

Lulu's reputation

Pandora's Box (1929), which airs this Sunday on Turner Classic Movies, is now considered a classic of the silent film era - one of the last great films released before the talkies took over. However, its reputation has not always been so well regarded; as fans are aware, both the film and Louise Brooks role in it were once harshly criticized.

The fluctuating fortunes of Pandora's Box and Lulu are considered in my new column on examiner.com. Please check it out.

Also, please be aware that the long and otherwise informative article on the TCM website about Pandora's Box does contain a handful of errors. Here are a few: Brooks made 24 films between 1925 and 1938, not "1928." The director of the French Cinematheque was Henri Langlois, not "Andre Langlois." And wasn't it Brooks who wrote that "Dietrich would have been all wrong for Lulu," not director G.W. Pabst ?

Nevertheless, its great that TCM is playing Pandora's Box. I would also like to see them show Diary of a Lost Girl and the silent version of Prix de Beaute.