Film Forum in NYC Announces "It" Girls Series, includes Louise Brooks

The Film Forum in New York City has announced a forthcoming series, "It Girls: Flappers, Jazz Babies and Vamps." The two week series, running March 11-24, includes a Saturday, March 19th screening of Pandora's Box (1929), with Louise Brooks in the role of Lulu. Other actresses featured in the series include Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Anna May Wong, Marlene Dietrich and others. Don't miss it.

Tonight: Buffalo Film Seminars opens with ‘Pandora’s Box’

Tonight, the Buffalo Film Seminars in Buffalo, New York opens its annual film series with Pandora’s Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks. More information about the season long series can be found HERE (pdf).

This is not the first time the Buffalo Film Seminars have screened this classic German silent directed by G.W. Pabst. Many consider Pandora's Box not only Brooks' finest film, but one of the greatest silent films of the late silent era.  More information about this film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page devoted to it.

The local Buffalo News ran a piece about the event.

The Buffalo Film Seminars take place Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. promptly at the Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main Street, in the University Plaza, directly across the street from UB's Main St Campus.

Each week Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson introduce the film, the film is screened, 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 $9.50, students $7.50, seniors $7.00. Season tickets are available any time at a 15% reduction for the cost of the remaining films. There is ample free parking, with a disabled parking zone close to the theatre.

Handouts with production details, anecdotes and critical comments about each week's film on goldenrod paper are available in the theatre 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 Dipson's Amherest Theatre and the University at Buffalo.

What a trippple bill of classic silent films!

Over the years, I have found hundreds if not thousands of newspaper advertisements for Louise Brooks' films. Many of them are of little interest beyond the record of a Brooks' film having shown in a particular place on a particular date. But some stand out, especially if they note a premiere, an usual opening live act (like dancer George Raft, or pianist Art Tatum), or include unusual graphics.

Others stand out if they promote a Brooks' double bill - a somewhat rare occurance. Over the years, I have found a few vintage advertisements promoting Love Em and Leave Em with Just Another Blonde, or Now We're in the Air together with The City Gone Wild. In both instances, these paired films were likely shown together because they were released around the same time (not because Brooks was in both films).

Another double bill I once came across, dating from 1931, featured the Brooks' talkie It Pays to Advertise (1931) with G.W. Pabst's The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), starring Leni Reifenstahl. What did the movie patrons think of that odd pairing?

Here is one of the most distinguished advertisements I have ever found, a rather brilliant trippple bill.

From the Louise Brooks Society archive, a November 1930 newspaper advertisement for the Ursulines theater in Paris. The evening's program begins with G.W. Pabst's Joyless Street (1925), followed by Howard Hawk's A Girl in Every Port (1928) starring Louise Brooks, followed by G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) starring Louise Brooks. Wow, what a line-up!

I wish I could have been there. . . . and, through the magic of the internet, I can, at least in my imagination. Here is an exterior and an interior view of what turns out to be a rather famous venue.

If I am not mistaken, this Ursulines theater survives, and thrives. In fact, it has an illustrious history as well as it's own Wikipedia page.

According to Wikipedia, Hawk's A Girl in Every Port premiered in Paris at the Ursulines. Also, "It is one of the oldest cinemas in Paris to have kept its facade and founder's vision" as a "venue for art and experimental cinema. The cinema opened January 21, 1926. Films by André Breton, Man Ray, Fernand Léger, René Clair and Robert Desnos were shown. In 1928, it premiered the first film of Germaine Dulac, taken from a story by Antonin Artaud, The Seashell and the Clergyman. The film was heckled by the surrealists, leading to a fight that stopped the screening."

Between 1926 and 1957, a range of now-classic films premiered at the theater, such as René Clair's Le Voyage Imaginaire and Erich Von Stroheim’s Greed." According to the wonderful Cinema Treasures website, "This little theatre with a balcony has a very charming facade looking like a romantic country house. At the beginning of talking movies, the premiere of Sternberg’s Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich took place here, and ran 14 months."

Video tribute to the films of G.W. Pabst

Found on YouTube, a video tribute to the films of G.W. Pabst. Check out his IMDb page as well.

Universal Lulu : Το Κουτί της Πανδώρας - G.W. Pabst

In the continuing series Universal Lulu: Το Κουτί της Πανδώρας - G.W. Pabst, starring Louise Brooks. I believe this is Greek, just like the myth of the Box of Pandora.

A Musical Movie Marathon at LACMA

Imagine having to improvise a musical score for a full length silent film lasting nearly two hours. Imagine having to do that for four films, one of which you've never seen before. Now, imagine having to play for those films one after another for a period of more than eight hours. And imagine being allowed only the shortest of breaks in between each film.

That's the very real challenge facing pianist Michael Mortilla, who on Sunday, January 17 will improvise live scores for five silent films (one will be repeated) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Mortilla's musical movie marathon will take place in one of the galleries devoted to "New Objectivity: Modern German Art In The Weimar Republic, 1919-1933."

Both challenging and celebratory, Mortilla's extra-ordinary performance is a noteworthy send-off to this remarkable LACMA exhibit, which closes the following day. It is also a fitting send-off, as music (think Kurt Weill, Otto Stenzel, etc...) was a key part of the cultural ferment of the Weimar era.

The Weimar Republic marked a period of uneasy transition. Tucked between the end of WWI and Nazi rise to power, Germany experienced economic, political and social turmoil along with an explosion of art and culture. As the country came to endure yet another upheaval, many artists came to reject florid Expressionism (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) in favor of a sober, skeptical, always unsentimental and sometimes even brutal "realism."


Video walk through of "New Objectivity: Modern German Art from the
Weimar Republic, 1919–1933." Be sure to notice the fleeting image of
film star Gloria Swanson.

Dubbed Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity, Weimar artists turned a cold eye toward society. Mirroring many of the themes and motifs found in the exhibit, the films Mortilla will accompany depict the social realities of the German Republic. These range from the misery of the lower class--as portrayed in Gerhard Lamprecht's Slums of Berlin (1925)--to new forms of consumer culture and a fascination with new technologies and architecture, as brilliantly assembled and edited in Walter Ruttmann's non-narrative Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927).

A renewed interest in the everyday is depicted in Robert Siodmak's tender People on Sunday (1930 - with contributions from Edgar Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann, and Billy Wilder, among others), while G. W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929) reflects a shift away from traditional societal roles; in the latter film, directed by the one cinema artist most associated with New Objectivity, Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a personification of the era's New Woman.

Mortilla's accompaniment to these moving pictures provides an audio landscape, or a kind-of soundtrack, to the still images on display. According to Mortilla, "LACMA wanted to do something special for the last weekend of the exhibition," and the musician "enthusiastically embraced the challenge." It is a challenge, Mortilla remarked, that he has been preparing for all his life as a musician.

"As I always do when playing as a soloist, I will be completely improvising. Improvisation in classical styles has been my primary focus for over four decades, and I use it as a method of developing more formal compositions. When I was a dance accompanist in New York City, I would sometimes play from 8 am to 9 pm, so I am prepared for that kind of a workout. The real challenge is to stay within a musical sensibility that supports the exhibit and, of course, the films."

"I accompanied Pandora's Box several times, most recently in early December of last year at UC Santa Barbara. I've played People on Sunday a few times, and I've played Berlin: Symphony of a Great City once before "cold" (not having seen it beforehand) and have not seen it since. Slums of Berlin is completely unknown to me. I hope to spend an entire day in the exhibit and watch all the films prior to the performance. If not, I'll play that film cold as well."

Mortilla added "Artistically, the best preparation for this kind of event is knowing the plot, characters and their motivations, the action, and director's intent in the films. These won't be watered down performances. I'll play each film full out."

Mortilla also noted that he's spoken with fellow accompanists and none are aware of anyone having played as long in a silent marathon. For more on Mortilla and this special event, check out this LACMA blog.

At this time, the film schedule begins with Berlin: Symphony of a Great City from 10:30 - 11:38 am, followed by Slums of Berlin from 11:45 am - 1:40 pm, People on Sunday from 1:50 - 3 pm, Pandora's Box from 3:15 - 5:30 pm, and following the conceit of the film, closes with Berlin: Symphony of a Great City from 5:40 - 6:50 pm.

A variant of this post appeared on the Huffington Post