Watch a Rare Louise Brooks Documentary II

Here is a rare British television documentary about Louise Brooks from 1986, shown the year after the actress died and three years before the release of the Barry Paris biography. Except for a couple of factual errors (such as Louise Brooks married Eddie Sutherland in 1926, not 1927), it is excellent. Contains a bunch of little seen material. Parts one and two were be posted yesterday.

Watch a Rare Louise Brooks Documentary I

Here is a rare British television documentary about Louise Brooks from 1986, shown the year after the actress died and three years before the release of the Barry Paris biography. Except for a couple of factual errors (such as Louise Brooks married Eddie Sutherland in 1926, not 1927), it is excellent. Contains a bunch of little seen material. Parts three and four will be posted tomorrow.

Nominate Louise Brooks films for the National Film Registry

The United States Congress first established the National Film Registry in the 1988. Along with mandating continuing implementation of a plan to save the American film heritage, this law authorizes the Librarian of Congress (after reviewing public suggestions and consulting extensively with film experts and the 44 members and alternates of the National Film Preservation Board) to select up to 25 films each year for inclusion in the Registry. The 625 films chosen to date illustrate the vibrant diversity of American film-making.

The Library of Congress is currently seeking nominations. Public nominations play a key role when the Librarian of Congress and Film Board are considering their selections. To be eligible for the Registry, a film must be at least 10 years old and be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Recommendations are due in September. And new selections are usually announced at the end of December.

The  Louise Brooks Society suggests you recommend these Louise Brooks films (and other silent films):

Beggars of Life (1928)

The Street of Forgotten Men (1925)

The Show Off (1926)

A Girl in Every Port (1928)

Love Em and Leave Em (1926)



Please forward your recommendations (limit 50 titles per year) via email to: dross@loc.gov

Looking for other films to nominate? Check here for hundreds of titles not yet selected to the National Film Registry. Please include the date of the film nominated, and number your recommendations. And if you would, tell how you learned of the Registry.Email is preferred; to submit via regular mail, send your nominations to:

National Film Registry
Library of Congress
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
19053 Mt. Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701
Attn: Donna Ross

Beggars of Life screens in Scotland at Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema

The 1928 Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, will be shown today at the 4th annual Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema, which takes place in Scotland's oldest purpose-built cinema – the Hippodrome in Falkirk. This special event has already sold out.

The Dodge Brothers, a skiffle and rockabilly band led by film critic Mark Kermode, will accompany the 1928 Brooks' film. The Dodge Brothers will be joined by Neil Brand.

The event description reads thus: "Country blues, rockabilly and skiffle four-piece The Dodge Brothers are joined by one of the world's leading silent film piano accompanists, Neil Brand, to perform their live score for this glorious railroad romance starring icon of the silent era: Louise Brooks, looking more beautiful than ever in men’s clothing. Taking their inspiration from the music of the American Delta blues and country musicians of Depression-era USA, the Dodges have created the perfect accompaniment for this adventure of a couple of vagabonds jumping freight trains to escape the law."

A few more images of Asta Nielsen

Here are a few more images of the divine Asta Nielsen.... To learn more, check out her Wikipedia or IMdB pages.

Asta Nielsen as Lulu

Asta Nielsen and Charlie Chaplin
as Adam and Eve

Lately, I have been reading about the great Danish actress Asta Nielsen (1881-1972). Though she worked mostly in Germany, her fame transcended that nation's film industry and Nielsen is and was widely considered one of the first international movie stars.

About her, the great French poet Guillaume Apollinaire once exclaimed, "She is everything! She is the drunkard's vision and the lonely man's dream."

Notably, Nielsen played Lulu in Leopold Jessner's 1923 film  of Frank Wedekind's play Erdgeist. However, she may best be known to film buffs for her role as an aging prostitute in the 1925 German film Die freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street), which was directed by G. W. Pabst and starred then newcomer Greta Garbo.

Years later, Pabst stated "One has long spoken of Greta Garbo as 'the divine' – for me Asta Nielsen has always been and will always remain 'the human being' par excellence." Wow.

I don't know that Louise Brooks and Asta Nielsen ever met. And I don't know that Brooks was even much aware of actress, an actress who in so many ways set the stage for Brooks' own performance as Lulu in Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929). Nevertheless, the two actresses had much in common. At various times in the 1920's, including for her role as Lulu, Nielsen sported a severe Dutch bob not unlike Brooks.

Asta Nielsen, 1930

And like Brooks, Nielsen was known for her erotically charged style of acting as well as for her occasional androgynous appearance. (One of her best regarded film roles was as Hamlet, from 1921.) Not surprisingly, some of Nielsen's German films were censored when shown in the United States, where she failed to become well known.

 Below is an image of Asta Nielsen, as Lulu in Erdgeist. It is a striking, and very stylized image.

And here below is another image of Asta Nielsen as Lulu in Erdgeist. It is less stylized, though still striking. The studio who took this image is Binder. They also photographed Brooks.

And finally, here is a seven minute excerpt from Erdgeist. It features a new score by Luke Styles  commissioned by and premiered at the Stummfilmtage 2009 in Karlsruhe, Germany, by ensemble Amorpha under the direction of Luke Styles.

Lulu7 a new take on Frank Wedekind's Lulu

Lulu7, a new work for the stage, is described as a sharp and witty take on Frank Wedekind's Lulu written by Abi Zakarian. In a series of interlinked monologues seven women play Lulu, charting her passage from rags to riches to prostitution to her final fatal encounter with Jack the Ripper.

Lulu7 will be staged at the Drayton Theater in London, England on March 11-15 and again March 18-22. More information on ticket availability here.

Lulu7 is directed by veteran actress Sarah Berger, whose production of Dwina Gibb's Last Confessions of a Scallywag will be produced at the Mill at Sonning this August. Lulu7 was written by Abi Zakarian, who has just been commissioned by the RSC as part of their season of new writing.

Lulu7 is the third production produced by the so and so arts club, a global internet based group of artists from across disciplines.