Cool pic of the day: Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks' film closes Denver Silent Film Festival

On Sunday, September 23, the Denver Silent Film Festival will screen Pandora's Box (1929) at the King Center in Denver, Colorado. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Donald Sosin. Additional details, and ticket availability, can be found here.  The Denver Post ran a piece about the Festival which can be found here.

If you can't make it to the Denver event, please note that Pandora's Box will be shown on Sunday, November 4 on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Beggars of Life with Louise Brooks screens at Andy Warhol Museum

Beggars of Life (1928), the sensational William Wellman directed film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Andy Warhol Museum (117 Sandusky Street) in Pittsburgh, PA on Friday November 2nd. The screening is part of a series of films called "Unseen Treasures from The George Eastman House." The Warhol will screen a newly restored, 35mm archival print of the 81 minute silent film with live musical accompaniment. More information about this special event can be found on the Warhol Museum website. 

The event description reads "Louise Brooks’ penetrating charisma and transcendent naturalness made her an icon of 1920s silent cinema.  In director William Wellman's early Depression-era portrait of transient life, she gave one of her absolute strongest performances during her brief stint in the Hollywood, playing a girl who must go on the run after killing her abusive stepfather in self-defense. Fleeing, she meets the handsome drifter Richard Arlen and the two hit the road, one step ahead of the law and soon encounter Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery), a tough, high-spirited hobo. Together they ride the rails, with Brooks dressed as a boy, through a hobo underworld where danger is always close at hand. This empathetic, darkly realistic drama is loaded with stunning visuals and is one of the great late silent-era features.  The Warhol Museum continues its partnership with the world-renowned photograph and motion picture archives, George Eastman House, to bring rarely shown silent and early sound masterpieces from its extensive collection exclusively to Pittsburgh."

Here is another lobby card for the film, which to my eye, contains a few stylistic touches which anticipate Pop art. I think Warhol would have liked them.

Louise Brooks in Movie Collectors World

Louise Brooks appears on the cover of the October 2012 issue of Movie Collector's World. There is also a two page article about the actress by David Hogan. The article, "Discovering Louise Brooks," is on pages 18 and 19. Copies of Movie Collector's World can be found on newsstands; or, print copies can be ordered through the Movie Collector's World website at http://www.mcwonline.com/

If you can't find Movie Collector's World at your local newsstand, you can read and/or download a digital copy of the magazine for free at http://mcw-bi.s3.amazonaws.com/2012/772.pdf  I liked David Hogan's piece. It is a nice written appreciation.

Pandora's Box screens in UK with new score

Pandora's Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in England with a new score by Hildur Guðnadóttir and Jóhann Jóhannsson. The two Icelandic composers have composed a new score for the G.W. Pabst's silent film, which they will perform live with Philip Jeck and clarinettist Dov Goldberg in four cities across the UK.

The film, which traces the rise and fall of Lulu (played by Brooks), will be screened with the new score at the London Islington Assembly Hall (31 October), Leeds Howard Assembly Room (1 November), Manchester Royal Northern College of Music (2 November), and Coventry Warwick Arts Centre (3 November).

The event description for the Manchester screening reads: "GW Pabst’s 1929 silent film follows the rise and fall of the captivating, amoral young prostitute Lulu. Brought to life by the inimitable and incandescent Louise Brooks, the heroine of GW Pabst’s 1929 silent film is driven by curiosity and expresses herself only through pleasure. This special screening is accompanied by a brand new live score by award-winning Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and cellist and composer Hildur Gudnadóttir (Múm/Animal Collective), featuring Philip Jeck."

It is amazing to me how often this film is shown, and how often a new score are composed for it.

If you can't make it to the UK to see the film or to hear this new score, please note that Pandora's Box will be shown in the United States on Sunday, September 23 at the Denver Silent Film Festival and on Sunday, November 4 on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Canary Murder Case released on DVD in Italy

Yesterday, I reported on the forthcoming release of Overland Stage Raiders (1938). Louise Brooks last film will be released on DVD and BluRay in early October. The release of Overland Stage Raiders by Olive Films marks the first time this B-western starring John Wayne will be available on DVD.

Now come word that another hard-to-come-by Brooks' film, The Canary Murder Case (1929), will be or already has been released on DVD in Italy.

Overland Stage Raiders coming on DVD

Good news: the Louise Brooks film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), will be released on DVD and BluRay on October 2 by Olive Films. This marks the first time Brooks' last film has been released on disc. The film had previously been issued on VHS in 1997.

Here is what the Olive Films website has to say: "The Three Mesquiteers was the umbrella title for a series of fifty-one B-westerns released between 1936 and 1943. The films featured the characters Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and Lullaby Joslin or Rusty Joslin as the threesome; played by many B-western stars of that era. In 1938, John Wayne took over for Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke and starred in eight Mesquiteers films between 1938 and 1939, he was joined by Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin for the first six and Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin for the last two… all eight films were directed by George Sherman (Big Jake). John Ford’s Stagecoach was perfectly sandwiched between the eight films and John Wayne portrayal of the outlaw gunfighter made him a superstar and ended Wayne’s Stony Brooke run… Livingston was rehired as Brooke and went on to make fourteen more Mesquiteers films and for an incredible total of twenty-nine. Overland Stage Raiders (the second of eight Wayne Mesquiteers films) co-stars silent film icon, Louise Brooks (in her final performance) and Anthony Marsh as siblings who partner up with the three amigos to save their struggling airline, standing in their way is an evil business man and his band of outlaws."

More on this new release once it is out.

Denver Silent Film Festival shows Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks

Here is a scan of the oversize postcards sent out by the Denver Silent Film Festival. The Festival takes place September 21 through September 23. Louise Brooks is pictured, obliquely, on the postcard because on Sunday, September 23 the Festival will screen Pandora's Box (1929) at the King Center in Denver, Colorado. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by the great Donald Sosin. Additional details, and ticket availability, can be found here.  Today, the Denver Post ran a piece about the Festival which can be found here.

Historical footnote: Louise Brooks herself visited Denver in 1922 as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company. That was some three years before her entry into films and some six years before she left for Germany to star in Pandora's Box. Denishawn, whose company also then included Martha Graham, performed at the Denver Auditorium on the evenings of Tuesday, December 26 and Wednesday, December 27.

Prior to their two performances, the company had spent the Christmas holiday in Denver. Considered important artists, local papers reported on their activities, which included spending their off hours sewing. Ruth St. Denis also gave a special radio talk in Denver, which was quite a novelty as radio was then in its infancy. 

Reviews of the two Denishawn performances were exceptionally positive. Denver critics used words like "enchanting" and "Supreme Art," and noted that the company gave many encores. Leading "Society Folk" were reported to have attended, and one local critic reported she was "Enraptured By Rare Artistry of Denishawn Dancers."

The Wyrd Sisters: Peter Carey and I

In situ the Wyrd Sisters: Peter Carey and I -- photo taken at a bookstore in San Francisco, California