Pandora's Box screens in Buffalo, New York TONIGHT

Don't forget: Pandora's Box (1929) will be shown tonight in Buffalo, New York. 

The G.W. Pabst film, which stars Louise Brooks as Lulu, begins the 2013 film series sponsored by the Buffalo Film Seminars at the University of Buffalo. 

The announcement of the screening was originally made in the UB Reporter, the campus newspaper. More information can be found by following these links.

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

Silent films were everywhere

Silent films were shown everywhere in the 1920s.... Witness this Chinese newspaper which carries an advertisement for Clara Bow's 1928 film, Red Hair, on the left hand page. On the right hand page are advertisements for other films showing at theaters named Embassy, Apollo, Orient, etc....

Red Hair does not survive, except in fragments. Here is a clip of those fragments - in color. She certainly had it!

Pandora's Box shows Jan 15 in Buffalo, New York

Don't forget: 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. 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 a film: the film is screened, and after a brief break, there is an open discussion with students and anyone else who cares to join in.

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, give the parking ticket to the 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. Here is a brief excerpt from the film.

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.

Frank Wedekind's Lulu staged in 1930

I found this hard to resist. It is an article, seemingly program notes, about a 1930 stage production at the Lobe Theater of Frank Wedekind's Lulu. The Lobe Theater was in what was Breslau, Germany but is now Wroclaw, Poland. At the time, according to Wikipedia, Breslau was a "known as a stronghold of left wing liberalism" - which is interesting because director G.W. Pabst was also known to be left-leaning liberal, and this play was staged about a year after Pabst directed Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box. The woman depicted in the woodcut sitting on a man's head would be the character of Lulu. Doesn't she seem to have a certain Brooksian flair?

Poland anticipates Prix de Beaute

Here is a 1929 clipping from a Polish newspaper listing films in production or scheduled for release in the near future - a kind-of "something to look forward to" piece. The 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de Beaute, is listed a couple of entries above Charlie Chaplin's City Lights.

A number of Louise Brooks' films were shown in Poland. I have newspaper advertisements for Pandora's Box, A Girl in Every Port, It's the Old Army Game and Beggars of Life clipped from Warsaw and Krakow newspapers.

Fantasio, Prix de Beaute in Spain, mainly

Besides Iceland and Turkey (see previous post), the 1930 Louise Brooks' film, Prix de Beaute, was also popular in Spain, where it showed in various cities. Depicted above is a newspaper advertisement for the film.

Louise Brooks herself was also apparently somewhat popular. Below, she is depicted for no apparent reason on the cover of La Prensa, a major daily newspaper. This clip is from 1928. Louise Brooks is described as an "American Artist." Wow.