Friday, July 22, 2016

NEW BOOK: The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907-1933

Here's a new book I've just become aware of.... and it looks good! No, it looks great! The book is The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907-1933 by Anton Kaes (Editor), Nicholas Baer (Editor), and Michael Cowan (Editor). It is published by the University of California Press.

I was turned on to the book by

Notably, the book includes pieces by G.W. Pabst, including his 1929 essay "Reality of Sound Film." That was the year he made both Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl with Louise Brooks. There are also pieces by Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Emil Jannings, Lotte Eisner, Bertolt Brecht, and Kurt Weill. Siegfried Kracauer contributes pieces on Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin.

From the publisher: "Rich in implications for our present era of media change, The Promise of Cinema offers a compelling new vision of film theory. The volume conceives of “theory” not as a fixed body of canonical texts, but as a dynamic set of reflections on the very idea of cinema and the possibilities once associated with it. Unearthing more than 275 early-twentieth-century German texts, this ground-breaking documentation leads readers into a world that was striving to assimilate modernity’s most powerful new medium. We encounter lesser-known essays by Béla Balázs, Walter Benjamin, and Siegfried Kracauer alongside interventions from the realms of aesthetics, education, industry, politics, science, and technology. The book also features programmatic writings from the Weimar avant-garde and from directors such as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau. Nearly all documents appear in English for the first time; each is meticulously introduced and annotated. The most comprehensive collection of German writings on film published to date, The Promise of Cinema is an essential resource for students and scholars of film and media, critical theory, and European culture and history."

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!! The editors have also set up an extensive website related to the book which is a must visit. Check it out at http://www.thepromiseofcinema.com/

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REVIEWS:

“This extraordinary book expands all horizons of cinema. Its utopian vision inspires us to imagine a film art for the twenty-first century.”—Alexander Kluge, filmmaker and author of Cinema Stories

“A treasure trove of insights and ideas, this book uncovers the excitement cinema generated as the art form of modernity. Film studies may take years to digest the richness this volume contains—and I believe it will never be quite the same afterward.” —Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity

“Opening entirely new pathways to the research and teaching of German film culture, this carefully edited sourcebook reveals the fantastic wealth of early ideas and thoughts on cinema.”—Gertrud Koch, author of Siegfried Kracauer: An Introduction

“On page after page, a vibrant debate, previously lost in archives, comes to life again. This book changes our idea of what cinema was and is.”—Francesco Casetti, author of Eye of the Century: Film, Experience, Modernity

“An indispensable and revelatory resource for all who are exploring the political and aesthetic genealogy of the media culture we inhabit today.”—Jonathan Crary, author of Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture

"This remarkable collection appearing at this historical moment invites us to think about cinema before its first German theorists knew what it might become, just as we wonder what the cinema will become today as it transforms itself all over again." —Jane M. Gaines, author of Contested Culture: The Image, the Voice, and the Law

"Any form of memory worthy of the term ought to address the future even more than the past. The great strength of this collection lies in its ability to make one century speak to another, thereby evoking the future of film today."— Raymond Bellour, author of Between-the-Images


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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Anton Kaes is Professor of German and Film & Media at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written and edited numerous books, including Shell Shock Cinema and The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, and is coeditor of the Weimar and Now series.

Nicholas Baer is Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Philosophy at Purchase College, State University of New York. He has published many essays on German cinema, film theory, and the philosophy of history.

Michael Cowan is Reader in Film Studies at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of numerous books and collections including, most recently, Walter Ruttmann and the Cinema of Multiplicity: Avant-garde - Advertising - Modernity

Friday, July 15, 2016

Stacks of Brooks

I was tidying up my bookshelves the other day when I decided to snap a few picture of my many Louise Brooks and Louise Brooks-related book. Here are a few of those snapshots.

The core collection, the books at the heart of the matter.

Editions of Lulu in Hollywood from around the world.
Not pictured is the rare Russian edition which credits the Louise Brooks Society!

Photoplay editions and novelizations, including a rare Empty Saddles.

The copy of Beggars of Life on the far left once belonged to Colleen Moore.

A few more oversized books, including City Girls, with Brooks on the cover.

Most of my Denishawn related books, including copies signed by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn.

If I need to take my books somewhere, I cane use this nifty Lulu tote bag, featuring art
by William Kentridge.

My tote bag is a limited edition from last year, when William Kentridge staged Lulu at the Met.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Long and Short of It: Another Vintage article on Bobbed Hair Styles of Silent Film Stars

And another vintage article on bobbed hair which mentions Louise Brooks (see yesterday's post as well). This one is "The Long and Short of It" by Eileen Bourne. . . . The piece begins, "The young girl of today may look to a Garbo, a Gaynor, a Louise Brooks for coiffure guidance. . . ."

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

To Bob or Not to Bob: Perhaps the Definitive Article on Silent Film Star Hair Styles

Ok, here it is, perhaps the definitive article on silent film star hair styles, "To Bob or Not to Bob," by  Rosalin Haffer. Who bobbed first? Who bobbed last? Who bobbed best? Includes eternal combatants Colleen Moore and Louise Brooks.

Tune in tomorrow for another vintage expose on this still raging controversy.



Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Flapperanto - Dialect of the Modern Girl

Here's a vintage article devotees of the Jazz Age should appreciate, "Flapperanto - Dialect of the Modern Girl." I wonder how many words Louise Brooks would have recognized, or even used?


Our Flapper, Our Miss Brooks....

Monday, July 4, 2016

On the Beach with Louise Brooks

It's July 4th and summer has begun. Here are a few images of Louise Brooks at the beach.

As a member of Denishawn, in 1923. Louise Brooks is second from right.
Martha Graham is center. Picture taken on the Atlantic Coast.

As a Paramount actress, in 1927. Louise Brooks is center, with
Sally Blane (left) and Nancy Phillips (right). Pacific Coast.


Southern California in 1927, with Sally Blaine

At the Cavilier Beach Club, Virginia Beach, in 1929.


In a scene from Prix de beaute, filmed in France in 1929.
I would guess this was taken on the Mediterranean.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks screens in Sheffield on July 10

As part of its crowdfunding campaign for its inaugural event, the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival has announced that it will be showing the 1929 Louise Brooks film Pandora's Box not once, but twice  during the course of its month long series of screenings. Lillian Henley will accompany the film on piano.

The Festival is set to take place July 1 through July 30, with one of the Pandora's Box screenings set to take place on July 10 at 6 pm at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield.

More information HERE (Facebook) and HERE (website).



Thursday, June 30, 2016

Polish Tango 1935: Ach zostań (Oh, Stay!) by Adam Aston

This is pretty atmospheric: A Polish Tango from 1935 - "Ach zostań" ("Oh, Stay!") by Adam Aston, featuring some nice video visuals. Adam Aston can be heard on RadioLulu.

Adam Aston & Orkiestra Syrena Records - Ach zostań! (Oh, Stay!) Tango z teatru "Wielka Rewia" (Tango from theatre "Grand Revue") (J.Petersburski /A.Włast), Syrena-Electro 1935 (Poland)


And another from Aston, the lovely "Madame Loulou", 1934.

Harry Waldau's valse-hesitation received in Polish a charming, witty text of one of the finest cabaret writers of the inter-war Poland, Konrad Tom. He tells us a heartbreaking story of Madame Loulou, who is so pretty, so charming, so friendly, and who lives alone "without any storm around her" - that she must be "a victim of a gossip" made about her by people jealous of her parfumes, her gowns and those men, who "only sometimes" visit her in her elegant apartment in a Alee of the Roses...

The great text and many first-class performers (among the best is Adam Aston, who relly touches the very fin-de-siecle core of this tune's style)made this song an evergreen - one of the classics of the Polish cabaret.

Adam Aston - Madame Loulou (Konrad Tom/Harry Waldau), Syrena Electro 1934.


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Homage to George W. Lighton of Kentucky, idealistic silent film buff who perished in the Spanish Civil War


I continue to find fascinating bits about Louise Brooks and her times. . . . Earlier today, for example, I came across a letter to the editor published on January 2, 1931 in a Louisville, Kentucky newspaper. The letter, of all things, mentions the 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Pandora's Box. To me that is fascinating--because the film was then little known in the United States. Its only recording showing prior to 1931 was a two week, December 1929 run at an art house in New York City which was reviewed in the local newspapers and nationally in a handful of trade publications. One wonders how a movie goer outside of NYC might have known of the film?

The letter to the editor was penned by George W. Lighton, a 20 year old Louisville resident and obvious film buff with a subtle preference for the silent cinema. Lighton wrote his letter in response to a December 21, 1930 piece by Louisville film critic Boyd Martin naming what he considered some of the best films of the year. Martin's piece is copied below.

Boyd was a thoughtful and prolific newspaper critic for the Louisville Courier Journal. (His reviews of earlier Brooks' films are in the Louise Brooks Society archive.) And Lighton, one would guess, was a regular reader. Within just a few days, the young film buff mailed his response to Boyd's column. It is copied here.


In his letter, Lighton all but admits to having not seen most of the films he sets out to call to the public's attention. Perhaps he was just showing off his knowledge of foreign cinema, or perhaps he was hoping an exhibitor might take notice and screen these films in Louisville. It's hard to say. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable list--full of German and Soviet classics, and one which holds up to the test of time.

About Pandora's Box, Lighton wrote: "German silent film, directed by G.W. Pabst. Cinema at its most naturalistic. From Frank Wedekind's story. The film reaches its most adult stage." Lighton considers it a mature film on a mature subject, and ranks it ahead of the similarly themed Blue Angel.

Lighton's letter begs the question, how could a bright kid in Louisville, Kentucky have heard of these films, enough to make pithy comments on each. Again, its hard to say. But if I were guess, I would suppose Lighton had gotten a hold of the intellectual English film journal, Close-Up. These were just the sort of films it was writing about and praising at the time.

Who was George W. Lighton? I haven't been able to find out much about him except that he was born in 1911 and was a bright kid who seemed to be reader and film buff and someone very curious about the world. In 1933, a couple years after his letter was published, he was lecturing in Louisville on the subject of "The Movies--Our Newest Art." His talk, which followed one by Boyd on the subject of "Current Plays on Broadway," was sponsored by the Division of Adult Education at the University of Louisville.

Lighton, I think, was also an idealist and a wanderer. According to a 1938 article depicted below, when money ran out after his first year in college, Lighton took "hobo trips" around the country, venturing as far as Canada and Mexico. In the midst of the Depression, he spent five years bumming around and recording his observations in a notebook. "He kept an extensive journal of his experiences, his impressions of cities and people and his reactions to works of art in museums all over the country. He wrote about being robbed by a one-legged man in Chicago anfd about the plight of the Harlan County miners and about being stranded when a 'too cheap' bus abandoned its passengers enroute to California." "He looked up people who interested him and recounted conversations he had with Theodore Dreiser, John dos Passos, and Eisenstein and others. He had an article published in Cinema and hoped to take up a literary career."

Lighton rambled around until he was convinced by the head of the University of Louisville English department to return to school and get his degree. He did so, and graduated in June 1937 from the University of Louisville, where he was the only student to ever be awarded honors in both sociology and humanities. Discouraged by not being able to find a job, he took off for Chicago in August of that year.

In September 1937, his Mother received a letter from her son, who was then in Paris, mentioning that he would be going to Spain to fight against Fascism. Another letter followed. "I am now in Spain as a member of the International Brigade of the Loyalist Army. I had not been in Paris more than two days when I enlisted as a volunteer." Many more letters followed, detailing daily life and his movements around Spain. Lighton's last letter was sent on Christmas day, 1937.


Despite no additional letters, and despite reports of the deaths of American volunteers in Spain, Lighton's mother continued to believe he was still alive. She held onto her belief until one of her son's friends in Spain wrote to say he had been killed, but where and when was uncertain. Also lost was the journal Lighton kept in Spain. Lighton's friend wrote"telling of the pact he had had with George to recover his note book in the event of his death." "On my return to the company I tried, but failed to obtain possession of George's journal," the friend wrote.

There is little found online except for the few clippings mentioned above, and this page on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. There are also passing mentions in a couple of contemporary books, Letters from Barcelona: An American Woman in Revolution and Civil War (2009), and A History of Education in Kentucky (2011). In the former, Lighton is described as a "idle dreamer and griper" by the subject of the book, who appears to have been acquainted with many participants in the Spanish Civil War, including George Orwell. In the latter, Lighton is made out to be an internationalist (read leftist) apart from his fellow students, most all of whom were then staunch isolationists.

I would be interested in reading Lighton's contribution to Cinema. There was one journal by that name published in New York, and one in London, during the early 1930's. Anyone have access to any sort of index for either periodical?
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