Listerine and Lulu

Shown here is a very rare 1929 Dutch newspaper advertisement for Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks as Lulu. In two days, on December 26th, another rare vintage advertisement from The Netherlands will be posted here.

New e-book features Louise Brooks

Film historian and journalist Jordan R. Young has authored a just published ebook which includes Louise Brooks and features the silent film actress on its cover. The book is Academy Award Losers, 1912-1939: Great Performances in the Oscar Hall of Shame, Vol. 1 (Past Times Publishing Co. (December 21, 2012). 

The book's description reads in part, "How could Barbara Stanwyck, Judy Garland, Myrna Loy, Louise Brooks and other luminary actresses of the movies’ golden age fail to win a competitive Oscar? How could such legends as Buster Keaton, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, or Peter Lorre never once achieve such honors? . . . Many of the movies’ best actors never won the ultimate recognition, the Academy Award, and many more were never even nominated. In an alternate and more equitable universe, things might have been different—especially for actors of color like Louise Beavers and Dorothy Dandridge. . . .  The Oscar Hall of Shame is crammed with iconic movie performances that failed to merit a nomination. This book attempts to offer some perspective, from the point of view of a show business historian and lifelong movie aficionado."

Louise Brooks pops up in the year 1929. Young awards Brooks that's year's "best actress" honor for her role in the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, which she shares with Anna May Wong for her role in Piccadilly. They beat out Nina Mae Kinney for her role in Hallelujah, and Corrine Griffith for her role in The Divine Lady.

Louise Brooks on Twitter

The Louise Brooks Society has been on Twitter for more than a couple years, and has garnered more than 1,333 followers. The LBS Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/LB_Society

Want to know what folks are saying about Louise Brooks and the LBS on Twitter? To do so, follow this link https://twitter.com/search?q=louise+brooks     Here are a few recent examples:

Lee Relph ‏@MibIH

I was about to bemoan the lack of Louise Brooks on BBC 4's "Screen Goddesses" but they left her until the very end! Whoo! 

BeardyFreak ‏@GrindhouseDave

BBC 'Arena' doc on Screen Goddesses got better. Nice to see Anna May Wong,but was sad no Louise Brooks..THEN they had her brilliantly end it 

Ivan Kirby ‏@hellothisisivan

Screen Goddesses documentary on BBC4 has convinced me Louise Brooks is the most beautiful woman who's ever lived. 

LuiseRainer.net ‏@LuiseRainer

Louise Brooks, making Christmas cooler than ever... #HollywoodXmas @LB_Society pic.twitter.com/NhO0z3VL 

Warner Archive ‏@WarnerArchive

Why not join the Louise Brooks Society with this YouTube clip of a Tour Around Berlin In 1929?http://bit.ly/WuXvCX

Static Mass Emporium ‏@StaticMass

G.W. Pabst's Diary Of A Lost Girl (1929), a Louise Brooks classic and a much treasured film from the Weimar days http://ow.ly/gc2XI

Gratannia Panjaitan ‏@icubelle

Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore are my role model. Hairstyle that i currently obsessed with and adopted. ☺ # http://instagr.am/p/TSki98Ak6D/

Warner Archive ‏@WarnerArchive

the Louise Brooks Society sounds off: "easily the actress' best talkie." http://bit.ly/VIrLaM

Tour Around Berlin In 1929

Thanx to Bryan McCarthy for sending this delightful link to a YouTube video of Berlin in the late 1920's. The first song is by Marlene Dietrich. The film footage is from Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday), which was scripted Billy Wilder.

Pandora's Box shows in Buffalo, NY on Jan 15

Mark your calendar: Pandora's Box will be shown in Buffalo, New York on January 15, 2013. The film, which stars Louise Brooks, begins the 2013 film series sponsored by the Buffalo Film Seminars at the University of Buffalo. The announcement of the screening was made in the UB Reporter, the campus newspaper.

The Buffalo Film Seminars take place Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. promptly at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center in downtown Buffalo, the only eight-screen publicly-owned film theater in the United States. Each week Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson introduce the film, the film is screened, we take a brief break, and then have an open discussion with students in a University at Buffalo film class and anyone else who cares to join us.

Tickets for the seminars are adults $9, students $7, seniors $6.50. Season tickets are available any time at a 15% reduction for the cost of the remaining films. Free parking is available in the M&T fenced lot opposite the theatre's Washington Street entrance: pay the attendant $3, given the parking ticket to the ticket clerk in the theatre and get the $3 back.

Handouts with production details, anecdotes and critical comments about each week's film on goldenrod paper are available in the Market Arcade lobby 45 minutes before each session. The Goldenrod handouts are posted online one day before the screening. (All previous handouts are also online.) The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center and the University at Buffalo.

Pandora's Box has also been shown in Buffalo as part of the Buffalo Film Seminars in Fall of 2001 and the Spring of 2007. Read the earlier film notes by clicking on the links.

Diary of a Lost Girl tonight on Swiss TV

Diary of a Lost Girl, the classic 1929 German silent film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown tonight on Swiss television. That's according to this webpage. The film gets four stars out of five.

Cineasten-Tipp

Tagebuch einer Verlorenen

Diary of a Lost Girl

Stummfilm, Deutschland 1929, Regie: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Buch: Rudolf Leonhardt, Kamera: Sepp Allgeier. Autor: Roman von Margarete Böhme. Musik: Hans Jönsson, Produzent: Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Mit: Louise Brooks, Vera Pawlowa, Franziska Kinz, Fritz Rasp, André Roanne, Josef Rovenský, Arnold Korff, Andrews Engelmann, Valeska Gert, Edith Meinhard, Sybille Schmitz, Sig Arno, Kurt Gerron, Hedwig Schlichter, Hans Casparius, Jaro Fürth, Emmy Wyda, Marfa Kassatskaya, Sylvia Torf, Michael von Newlinsky.

Thymian (Louise Brooks) ist nicht gerade vom Glück verfolgt ...

Die junge Apotheker-Tochter Thymian wird von dem Gehilfen ihres Vaters verführt, vergewaltigt und nach der Geburt ihres unehelichen Kindes von der Familie in ein Heim für "gefallene Mädchen" gesteckt. Dort leidet sie, wie die anderen Mädchen, unter dem sadistischen Regiment des Vorsteher-Paares. Mit Hilfe des jungen Grafen Osdorff gelingt ihr schließlich die Flucht. Doch ihr Kind ist verstorben und so landet die mittellose Thymian in einem großstädtischen Edel-Bordell. Mit ehrlicher, wenn auch der gesellschaftlich nicht akzeptierter Arbeit als Prostituierte will sie sich selbst aus ihrer misslichen Lage befreien. Als ihr Vater stirbt, erhält Thymian von ihrem Vergewaltiger, der die Apotheke erstanden hat, eine hohe Abfindung, da sie als Alleinerbin eingesetzt war. Das ruft Graf Osdorff auf den Plan, der die vermögende Thymian heiratet. Doch die hat ihr Geld längst verschenkt … (- 1.30 Uhr) 

 Der aus dem böhmischen Raudnitz (heute Roudnice nad Labem, Tschechien) stammende Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885–1967) gilt als einer der größten deutschen Regisseure der Stummfilmzeit, bis heute unvergessen sind Meisterwerke wie "Die freudlose Gasse", "Geheimnisse einer Seele" oder "Die Dreigroschenoper". Nach dem 1905 erstmals erschienenen, gleichnamigen Roman von Margarete Böhme - seinerzeit ein Bestseller - inszenierte Pabst nach seinem Kassenerfolg mit "Die Büchse der Pandora" dieses Stummfilmdrama erneut mit der wunderbaren US-Schauspielerin Louise Brooks, die in der Rolle der jungen Thymian glänzt, die sich gegen alle Widrigkeiten des Lebens behauptet. "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen" gilt als einer der am meisten zensierten Filme der Weimarer Zeit, denn ursprünglich hatte Pabst der Berliner Filmprüfstelle 3132 Meter vorlegt, doch das Werk wurde mit Jugendverbot belegt und zunächst auf 2863 verkürzt, 1930 schnitt Hans H. Zerlett, der unter den Nationalsozialisten 25 Filme drehte, den Film wegen "entsittlichender Wirkung" auf 2001 Meter zusammen. Besonders die Internats- und Bordellszenen waren der Zensur zum Opfer gefallen, konnten aber in einer aufwändigen Rekonstruktion durch das Deutsche Filminstitut - DIF in Zusammenarbeit mit der Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung fast komplett wieder hergestellt werden. Heute liegt "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen" wieder in einer Länge von 2980 Metern vor, allerdings fehlen gegenüber der Originallaufzeit immer noch rund sechs Minuten.
Foto: ARD/Degeto