A little bit of Louise Brooks

Though no Louise Brooks films were shown at yesterday's San Francisco Silent Film Festival winter event, the actress, I'm happy to report, was well represented just about everywhere.

Yesterday, I did my last formal book signing for the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl. To promote the my booksigning and others, an image of the book (with Brooks on the cover) was shown on the big screen of the historic Castro Theater. And afterwords, more than a few fans, as well as old friends like Bob Wilkins (pictured below), lined up to get a copy of the book. I was also pleased as well to have sold one of the rare hardback limited edition copies of this recently published book (a copy can be spotted on the table in front of me).

Sitting next to me was Karie Bible (pictured left, above), co-author of Location Filming in Los Angeles (Arcadia). Though we've emailed and are Facebook friends, this was the first time Karie and I really met. She is also the official tour guide for Hollywood Forever Cemetery and the creator of FilmRadar.com, a website dedicated to Los Angeles repertory and revival films. Karie has also spoken about film at various venues including the RMS Queen Mary, and has appeared on Turner Classic Movies. Location Filming in Los Angeles is an outgrowth of her interest in film.

Also among those at the event was documentary filmmaker Hugh Neely, whose Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, should be well known to all fans of Louise Brooks. If you haven't seen this stylish, Barry Paris-penned documentary - go out and find a copy NOW. It is splendid.

I first met Hugh (pictured above with yours truly) at the Cinecon film convention in Hollywood some years ago, before the Emmy-nominated Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu first aired on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in 1998. Hugh, like many of you, is a big fan of the actress. Thus, I was pleased to be able to present him with a copy of my book. I also told him about cartoonist Rick Geary, whose rubber stamp depiction of Louise Brooks I use while signing books. As the steward of TimeLine films, Hugh Neely has also made an number of other outstanding documentaries, including films on Clara Bow, Olive Thomas, Theda Bara, Mary Pickford, Cecil B. DeMille, Marion Davies and others. Each are exceptional.

The two vendors at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival winter event, Books Inc and the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, each carried a few Louise Brooks items, such as books, DVDs, postcards and art. I spotted a few festival patrons, some sporting Louise Brooks' bobs, purchasing some of each. All in all, it was a good day for silent film and Louise Brooks.

Rick Geary draws Louise Brooks

Writer & acclaimed comix artist Rick Geary draws a portrait of silent film actress Louise Brooks, to whom he is related. Geary is shown here in timelapse video.

I've been in touch with Geary in the past. Over on examiner.com, I had written about his graphic novel, Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (NBM Publishing). Geary is also the author of a graphic novel about the Bloody Benders of Kansas, whose crimes took place not so far in time and place from Cherryvale.

I first became aware of Geary (and his connection to Brooks) through Barry Paris. When I put on an event with Barry in San Francisco for the reissue of his biography of Louise Brooks, Barry signed books and then rubber stamped them using a rubber stamp design created by Geary. I carry on the tradition. At past events for The Diary of a Lost Girl, and at today's booksigning at the Castro Theater, I will be stamping copies of books with the Rick Geary design. It's similar, but not the same, as the image depicted in the video above.

Louise Brooks featured star

Louise Brooks is the featured star of the month on the Silent Hollywood website. Check it out at www.silenthollywood.com.

More on Lulu and Mlle. God

There has been a good deal in the press lately about Mlle. God, the Nicholas Kazan adaption of Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. The Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA premiere of Mlle. God runs through March 6.

Earlier, referring to Louise Brooks' role as Lulu in the 1929 film, Pandora's Box, Kazan stated "I was inspired by Wedekind, by Pabst, and most of all by Louise Brooks’ luminous comic performance.” And today, in an interview with Los Angeles Times, the Oscar-nominated director was asked what inspired him to reconsider the Lulu plays and character? Kazan's answered, "Watching Louise Brooks in “Pandora’s Box,” G.W. Pabst’s 1929 film adaptation of Wedekind’s plays. Wedekind saw his story as a tragedy; Louise Brooks sees it as a triumph."

Check out the entire interview with Kazan at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/02/the-spotlight-nicholas-kazan-on-mlle-god-at-atwater-village-theatre.html

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.