Friday, May 3, 2013

Louise Brooks silent film to show at Cineteca Nazionale

The Louise Brooks silent film, Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), will be show at Cineteca Nazionale in Italy on May 12th. The film will be accompanied on piano by Maestro Antonio Coppola. The Cineteca Nazionale website says this:

«Pensavamo di titolare questa rassegna di cinema muto accompagnato dal vivo con Il cinema è donna, ma nel rifletterci più appassionatamente abbiamo deciso per femmina che ci è suonato più autorevole ma non retorico, più impetuoso ma non enfatico, più seducente ma non provocante. Qualcuno ha detto che la donna è come la Natura, generosissima ma spietata, e prendendo per buona questa definizione, seppur estrema, abbiamo compilato il programma includendo non solo dive ma anche registe e autrici. Perché affermiamo che Il cinema è femmina? Sebbene rispondere a una domanda con un'altra domanda cozzi violentemente contro la buona creanza, ci concediamo uno scampolo d'insolenza replicando: "Cosa vagheggeresti se anziché spiegarti il perché e il percome nominassimo semplicemente Francesca Bertini? Greta Garbo? Louise Brooks? Pina Menichelli? Mary Pickford? Leda Gys? Quali e quanti cassetti della tua memoria e della tua anima si spalancherebbero rovesciando cascate di emozioni e di immagini?". Il cinema come arte prenderebbe immediatamente corpo nel tuo immaginario al di là di tutte le chiacchiere, troverebbe istantaneamente nitida connotazione, schiettissima identità fino alla tanto paradossale quanto legittima asserzione che per quanto volessimo disquisire sul Cinema, per quanto volessimo essere accademici, ecumenici e snob, la donna uscirebbe sempre e comunque dalla porta per rientrare dalla finestra, gettando alle ortiche tutti i possibili papiri e le possibili ciance. Per questa rassegna il Cinema Trevi sarà la nostra spalancata finestra. Buona visione e buon ascolto» (Antonio Coppola).

L'appuntamento di maggio è dedicato a Louise Brooks. «Nata nel Kansas, a Wichita, nel 1900. Iniziò come ballerina, allieva della famosa Ruth Saint-Denis; il grande impresario Ziegfeld la scoperse mentre si esibiva nelle "Denishawn Dancers" e la scritturò per lo spettacolo Louis the th14 alle "Follies", segnato quindi da George White che la volle con sé per Scandals e dal famoso "Café de Paris" che la chiamò a Londra. Tornata negli Stati Uniti, Hollwyood ne saggiò cautamente le possibilità affidandole, a partire dal 1925, alcune parti di fianco. Due anni dopo, Howard Hawks la impone all'attenzione con A Girl in Every Port (Capitan Barbablù). […] Con il film di Hawks, la ballerina del Kansas diviene il prototipo della ragazza europea dell'epoca, inquieta, e piena di vita. "Bruna, con occhi vivi e stupendi, i capelli diritti acconciati con la frangetta di moda, lo sguardo provocante e pur fanciullesco, il riso smagliante grazie ad una chiostra di denti sfavillanti, essa era l'immagine stessa della garçonne, la maschietta, la ragazza europea degli anni intorno al 1925" (Castello). La sensualità frammista ad un fondo di maliziosa innocenza, soprattutto la prepotente freschezza e vitalità sono le caratteristiche che fecero della B., pur nel numero limitato delle sue interpretazioni, un'attrice importante (dotata, tra l'altro, di notevoli qualità espressive). Nel '29 fu protagonista assoluta di The Canary Murder Case, un film poliziesco che Malcom St. Clair aveva tratto dal romanzo di S.S. Van Dine, conosciuto in Italia come La canarina assassinata, imperniato sulla misteriosa morte d'una celebre "diva" del varietà, conosciuta come la "Canarina" per un suo costume di piume. […] Ormai famosa, l'attrice attendeva ancora un film di autentico impegno e fu Pabst, nel suo periodo migliore, ad offrirgliene l'occasione, con il torbido personaggio di Lulù, la donna che si degrada nel vizio e finisce assassinata, in Die Büchse der Pandora (Lulù), ispirato a due drammi di Wedekind; ad esso seguì Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (Il diario di una donna perduta) […]. A cavallo fra il '29 ed il '30 la B. disegnò il suo ultimo personaggio importante, la sartina che diventa Miss Europa (Prix de beauté), in un film diretto da Augusto Genina su soggetto di Clair» (Ernesto G. Laura, Filmlexicon degli autori e delle opere).

ore 21.00
Diario di una donna perduta (1929)
Regia: Georg Wilhelm Pabst; soggetto: tratto dal romanzo omonimo di Margarethe Bohme; sceneggiatura: Rudolf Leonhardt; fotografia: Fritz Arno Wagner, Sepp Allgeier; musica: Timothy Brock, Otto Stenzeel; interpreti: Louise Brooks, Adré Roanne, Josef Rovensky, Fritz Rasp, Vera Pawlowa, Franziska Kinz; origine: Germania; produzione: Hom Film, Pabst Film; durata: 106'

Thymiane (Maria nella versione italiana) figlia di un farmacista, viene violentata dall'assistente del padre. Rimasta incinta viene rinchiusa in un riformatorio. Scappa con un'amica e le due finisco a lavorare in un bordello.«Ultimo dei 10 film muti di Pabst, forse il più geniale, anche più di Lulù, certamente il più sarcastico nella critica sociale. Al centro di un macchinoso intrigo, esplicitamente melodrammatico, la Brooks vi disegna un personaggio complesso e contraddittorio di taglio sadiano che si adatta con vitalità primitiva alle peripezie del suo destino» (Morandini).


Here is the Italian language page run through Google Chrome translate:

"We thought the owner of this collection of silent films accompanied by live with The cinema is a woman , but we decided to think about it more passionately female that there is not rhetorical but sounded more authoritative, more impetuous but not emphatic, more seductive but not provocative. Someone said that the woman is as Nature, generous but ruthless, and taking good for this definition, albeit extreme, we have compiled the program including not only dive but also directors and authors. Why do we say that cinema is female ? While answering a question with another question cozzi violently against good manners, we allow a remnant of replicating insolence: "What if instead of vagheggeresti explain the whys and wherefores nominassimo simply Francesca Bertini? Greta Garbo? Louise Brooks? Pina Menichelli ? Mary Pickford? Leda Gys and what and how many drawers of your memory and your soul will throw open waterfalls spilling of emotions and images? ". The cinema as art in your body immediately take imaginary beyond all the talk, would instantly clear connotation, schiettissima to the identity as paradoxical as a legitimate assertion that as far as we wanted to quibble about the cinema as we wanted to be academic, ecumenical and snobbish, the woman always come out the door to return to the window, throwing to the winds all possible papyri and possible nonsense. For this review, the Cinema Trevi will be our window wide open. Good vision and good listening "(Antonio Coppola).

The appointment of May is dedicated to Louise Brooks. "Born in Kansas, Wichita, in 1900. She began as a dancer, a student of the famous Ruth Saint-Denis, the great impresario Ziegfeld discovered while she was performing in the "Denishawn Dancers" for the show and scritturò Louis the 14th to "Follies", then scored by George White that decided to use him for Scandals and the famous "Café de Paris" who called in London. Back in the United States, Hollywood nor wise cautiously entrusting the possibilities, starting from 1925, some parts of the left. Two years later, Howard Hawks to the attention with A Girl in Every Port ( Captain Bluebeard ). [...] With the Hawks film, the dancer of Kansas becomes the prototype of the European girl at the time, restless, and full of life. "Brown, with bright eyes and beautiful, straight hair with bangs styled fashion, the look provocative and even childish, rice thanks to a dazzling white teeth gleaming, it was the very image of tomboy, the flapper, the European girl the years around 1925 "(Castle). The sensuality mixed with a fund of mischievous innocence, especially the bully freshness and vitality are the characteristics that made ​​of the B., even in the limited number of his interpretations, an actress important (with, among other things, of considerable expressive qualities) . In '29 it was the absolute protagonist of The Canary Murder Case , a crime film that Malcolm St. Clair had the novel by SS Van Dine, known in Italy as the canary murdered , based on the mysterious death of a famous "diva" of the variety , known as the "Canarina" for his costume feathers. [...] Now famous, the actress was still awaiting a film of genuine commitment and Pabst was, in his prime, to offer him the opportunity, with the turbid character of Lulu, the woman who degrades in vice and ends up murdered in Die Büchse der Pandora ( Lulu ), inspired by two plays by Wedekind, it followed Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen ( The Diary of a Lost Girl ) [...]. At the turn of the '29 and '30s B. drew his last major character, the seamstress who becomes Miss Europe ( Prix de Beauté ), in a film directed by Augusto Genina on the subject of Clair "(Ernesto G. Laura, Filmlexicon of authors and works ).

21.00
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst , subject: based on the novel by Margarethe Bohme; screenplay: Rudolf Leonhardt; photograph: Fritz Arno Wagner, Sepp Allgeier; Music: Timothy Brock, Otto Stenzeel; Cast: Louise Brooks, Adre Roanne, Josef Rovensky, Fritz Rasp, Vera Pavlova, Franziska Kinz; origin: Germany; production: Hom Film, Film Pabst, duration: 106 '

Thymiane (Maria in the Italian version), the daughter of a pharmacist, is raped by the Assistant father. Pregnant is locked up in a reformatory. Run with a friend and the two end up working in a brothel. "Last of the 10 silent films of Pabst, perhaps the most ingenious, even more than Lulu, certainly the most sarcastic social criticism. At the center of an intricate plot, melodramatic explicitly, the Brooks will draw a complex and contradictory cutting Sadian that fits with primitive vitality to the vicissitudes of his destiny "(Morandini).

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

New novel with Louise Brooks cover - The Killing of Emma Gross

Speaking of Weimar Berlin. . . .  there is a new novel coming out in softcover in the UK which features Louise Brooks on the cover. The book, The Killing of Emma Gross, by Damien Seaman, will be published in the UK as a paperback by Five Leaves Publications and as an ebook by Blasted Heath in June 2013. The book will also be available as an ebook in the United States. 

I have an interest in all things Weimar Berlin, and am interested in reading this new novel, which is based on the true story of notorious serial killer Peter Kürten and the unsolved murder of Düsseldorf prostitute Emma Gross. And anyways, I have to try and acquire a copy for my ever growing collection of Louise Brooks book covers.

The Killing of Emma Gross is a historical thriller, a police procedural set in Weimar Republic-era Germany. Here is the publisher supplied description: 

"Dusseldorf prostitute Emma Gross has been murdered and the police have charged Peter Kurten, the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf', the first man ever to be called a serial killer. Murderer, yes, but did he commit this particular crime? The arresting officer, Thomas Klein, thinks not, even though Kurten has confessed. These are the dying days of Weimar Germany, the police force is increasingly divided between right and left. It is a dangerous time. Klein thinks that the real killer is somewhat closer to home. Yet the only people who can help him include a Communist journalist, Gross's friends, and others in the underworld who hate the police. This is a novel of obsession set in the wild days of Weimar, doomed to end with the Nazi takeover."

In an interview, UK author Julie Morrigan asked about motivation, and Seaman answered this way: "I lived in Berlin for several years and fell in love with the place. Having done a history degree that ended up dampening a lot of my enthusiasm for the subject, living in Berlin awoke my passion for the past and made me want to write about what happened there. I was also reading a lot of noir and hardboiled crime at the time, and I wanted to marry the sensibilities of American hardboiled literature with the expressionist movies and art of early 20th century Germany. When I decided to look for a real life murder case to base my story on, the most compelling one was that of Peter Kürten – the so-called Vampire of Düsseldorf – so I ended up pouring all of my inspiration about Berlin into a novel about Düsseldorf instead."

The Killing of Emma Gross is Damien Seaman's debut novel. Check it out.


Monday, April 29, 2013

1920s Berlin cabaret uncovered

I wonder if Louise Brooks ever visited the Berlin cabaret mentioned in this December 2012 BBC story and video? Check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20656929 (Thank to Bryan McCarthy for pointing out this news story.)

And for fun, here is a video tour around Berlin in 1929, the same year she was there making Pandora's Box and The Diary of a Lost Girl for G.W. Pabst.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Louise Brooks Society on Twitter

The Louise Brooks Society is on Twitter @LB_Society. The LBS is followed by more than 1,500 fans. Why not be one of them? Be sure and visit the LBS Twitter profile, and check out
the more than 1,900 LBS tweets so far!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Louise Brooks inspired electro swing speakeasy

Speaking of Louise Brooks ever growing popularity in England . . . . in London, there is a popular  electro swing speakeasy called White Mink which has more than a little Louise Brooks about it. Witness their Louise Brooks pearls-portrait look-alike logo.


And too, this promotional image for White Mink's larger venue in Brighton, which uses an early Louise Brooks nude.


What's it all about? Here is what the website itself says. "WHITE MINK is the zeitgeist-capturing speakeasy where the sounds and styles of the 1920s and 30s are turned on their head and smuggled into the 21st century.

What started out as a launch party for our compilation CD series; White Mink : Black Cotton (Electro Swing vs Speakeasy Jazz), became the accidental hub of a clubbing scene and subsequently a hot festival circuit attraction. White Mink also runs the regularly sold out Electro Swing nights at London’s Book Club, our own pop-up nights and has hosted stages at dozens of major UK festivals since 2009.

The production company is run by a stylish triumvirate of Nick Hollywood, Chris Tofu and Dan O’Neill. Under the White Mink name they bring together the finest DJs, VJs, live bands, dancers, cabaret and burlesque performers for an unforgettable and unrivaled speakeasy experience."

For more about White Mink, check out their website. It is full of stylish video, audio, images, events  and more.

On a not unrelated note, the Louise Brooks Society has also noticed a Youtube video of a retro-styled "chap-off" which took place at a White Mink event. The screen grab shown here includes the famous pearls portrait of Louise Brooks displayed on stage.


The video embedded below, "Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer Vs Professor Elemental," was shot in Sussex, England in 2011. 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Dodge Brothers & Neil Brand accompany Beggars of Life in UK

The Dodge Brothers & Neil Brand will accompany Beggars of Life at the Aldeburgh Cinema in Suffolk, England. The May 5th screening, which takes place at 8:00 pm, is part of SOUNDS & SILENTS: A Festival of Silent Film & Live Music.


Directed by William Wellman, Beggars of Life (1928) tells the story of a girl who attempts to escape the country with a young vagabond after killing her abusive step-father. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police and reach Canada. The film stars Wallace Beery as rail-riding hobo Oklahoma Red and Louise Brooks as Nancy, the girl on the run. Many consider Beggars of Life Brooks' best American film.

The Dodge Brothers are composed of Aly ‘Dodge’ Hirji (acoustic guitar, mandolin), Mike ‘Dodge’ Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals, banjo, dobro), Mark ‘Dodge’ Kermode (double bass, harmonica, ukulele, accordion, vocals), Alex ‘Dodge’ Hammond (washboard, snare drum,  percussion), and Neil ‘Dodge’ Brand (piano). More on the band can be found at http://www.dodgebrothers.co.uk/

"BEGGARS OF LIFE and the Dodge Brothers - deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks - they were made for each other." -- Bryony Dixon, Curator of silent film, BFI National Archive

"Wistful, sometimes mournful, sometimes dangerous, sometimes galloping blue-grass  … my advice to anyone is buy your ticket early!" -- Richard O'Brien (Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Another new Lulu comic, Louise et les loups, by Marion Mousse

Lulu, by John Linton Roberson, is not the only new Lulu-inspired comic. . . . Only recently, I was made aware of Louise Brooks tome 1 - Louise et les loups, by Marion Mousse. This 160-page French release, whose subtitle translates as Louise and Wolves, dates from late 2012.

The description from Amazon France, translated on Google Chrome, reads "What remains of Louise Brooks today? Everyone knows that face the evil and unforgettable beauty, but what do we know of the silent film star who is a few years past the ephemeral actress status to icon? Louise Brooks, wife of 20 years, is still the epitome of fatal beauty. A free agent, who wanted to enjoy his life, beyond a sexist and hypocritical morality which reduced its simple role as a woman. In the vein of Seth and Daniel Clowes, Marion Moss gives us a biography in the form of testimony by which we discover the battle of the actress. A strong and humorous graphic style to elegant narrative."

The author biography, from the same page, reads "Marion Moss was born in 1974 in Chabeuil (26) and now lives in Marseille. His first comic book published in 2001: Phineas, album black and white pseudo-philosophical but humorous published by TreizeÉtrange. It then adjusts Moonfleet, a novel published in 1896 Falkner, also made into a film by Fritz Lang in 1954, Moonfleet. He then launches into a loose adaptation of the novel by Théophile Gautier: Sunder will be published in three volumes between May 2004 and May 2005. In From Outer Space, released in late 2006 at Six feet underground, Marion Moss to offer a parody of science fiction through his hero Everett Scool, traveling interstellar trade and representative combs ... In brown head, he wrote in a thriller Las Vegas 60s around the controversial figure of Frank Sinatra. Amateur film of the year 50/60, but also a great reader of science fiction novels, he confesses his admiration for Jarry Queneau. And BD, De Crecy, Blutch, Sempe and Mignola .. More recently, he adapted Scum days of Boris Vian Delcourt (collection mirages)."

Despite the rough translation, one can gleam enough to more or less understand what it's about. (Here is a French language review.) I haven't yet seen a copy, but hope to get one soon - if I can find one. Has anyone seen this new comic?


Friday, April 19, 2013

LULU, a comic, by John Linton Roberson


Lulu is a newly published comic, or graphic novel, by John Linton Roberson. It is based on the Lulu plays by Frank Wedekind. Those same plays, of course, were the basis for the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. They also were the basis for Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, as well as the Lulu Reed & Metallica recording, Lulu, and much else. 

These incarnations of Lulu inspired Roberson, who offers an original and up-to-date take on Lulu and her archetypal story. According to Martin Pasko, who wrote the introduction, "LULU translates into graphic storytelling terms Wedekind’s meditation on sexual repression and its role in facilitating exploitative seduction with all its disturbing ferocity intact." This ain't for the faint of heart, nor the underage. Roberson's work has been described by critics as "fairly obsessed with sex & death." He disagrees with "fairly."

Roberson's latest is book one of Lulu. More volumes are in the works. In an extensive interview with Robb Orr on the Comics Forge website, Roberson was asked, "Which elements of Wedekind’s LULU inspired you to adapt it into a comic format?" 


Partly its history–it’s been adapted a number of times before to different media, most famously as Alban Berg’s opera and, even more famously, Pabst’s silent film with Louise Brooks PANDORA’S BOX (which is basically just the second play, and which most readers if interested can see on TCM quite often). Brooks in fact became so identified with Lulu that the name is almost a synonym for her, but i avoided my Lulu looking like her. Mine is based on an Italian actress some might know from 1900 and SUSPIRIA, Stefania Casini. But it was also adapted as a film in 1923 with Asta Nielsen and in 1980 by Walerian Borowczyk for French TV. That particular version is interesting–though it’s not the best–because it deals with the erotic content of the plays more openly than other versions, though Berg’s opera does so too; besides that it’s one of the few modernist operas that appears regularly, it’s also one of the only ones to regularly feature nudity and sexual content. That caught my interest because most people seem to think the classics are “clean” and I like to point out that they’re not, that’s just how we’re taught they are. The work takes a remarkably modern view of sexuality and women–both with Lulu and Geschwitz–and challenges a lot of our set ideas of how women were viewed at the time. It’s also never been adapted for comics, as far as I know, except one scene used in Moore & O’Neill’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: CENTURY 1910, mashed up with–and killed by–Macheath from THREEPENNY OPERA. And then there’s that it’s a chance to do something in comics very different than a lot of the sci-fi, horror and superhero stuff that presently predominates, and of which I’m kinda sick.


John Linton Roberson is the creator of VITRIOL, VLADRUSHKA, ROSA & ANNALISA, MARTHA, the play SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, and numerous other works in comics, script and prose. For more about the artist and his new work, check out his website. Lulu is available on Amazon.com and on Createspace.


Powered By Blogger