A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
Listen-up! Any Ladle's Sweetis a podcast (out of Ireland) which I came across on SoundCloud. The show is a monthly film podcast discussing early and golden era Hollywood stories and themes focusing on the women who designed / acted / directed / wrote during this era. To date, there have been episodes devoted to Mary Astor, Carole Lombard, Joan Bennett, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanywck, Joan Blondell and Ginger Rodgers, and others.
The 20th episode of the hour-long, Dublin-based program is titled, "Louise Brooks - Naked on Her Goat." I listened to it and enjoyed it. It is thoughtful and insightful. I recommend it, and recommend you listen to it as well.
By the way, Megan McGurkis also the author of a book titled Sass Mouth Dames: 30 Essential Women’s Pictures 1929-1939. "When Hollywood made films for women, known by studio executives and the
people who made them as ‘woman’s pictures’, viewers could reliably find a
female point of view in the cinema. Films made for women covered a wide
range of topics from sex, employment, social mobility, female rivalry,
and above all, the importance of friendship with other women as a
ballast for life in a man’s world. Sass Mouth Dames presents 30 superior
films from 1929-1939 as a reminder that women in the movies did not
always play second fiddle to the leading man. Women were once the star
attraction, billed above the man with brilliantined hair. Women such as
Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell and Irene Dunne drew
women and men to the cinema see their latest challenge or adventure.
Sass Mouth Dames celebrates extraordinary films that maintain their
relevance for contemporary audiences. Films discussed include well known
classics such as Gold Diggers of 1933, Baby Face, Stage Door, The Women
and Love Affair as well as lesser-known gems such as Ladies of Leisure,
Merrily We Go to Hell, Private Worlds, Heat Lightning and Havana
Widows. Sass Mouth Dames highlights exceptional performances,
storytelling, and design.
As fans of Louise Brooks are likely well aware, Laura Moriarty's splendid 2012 novel, The Chaperone, has been made into a film with an expected release date in 2018. Set in the early 1920's, the film tells the story of Louise Brooks' journey from Kansas to New York City accompanied by a chaperone. The film, produced by PBS Masterpiece, is set to star Elizabeth McGovern as the chaperone and Haley Lu Richardson as Louise Brooks. The Chaperone has been scripted by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) and directed by Michael Engler. It will air on PBS stations nationwide after its initial theatrical run.
More information about the production can be found HERE. A full listing of the cast can be found on IMDb HERE.
Recently, a handful of images of Haley Lu Richardson as Louise Brooks turned up on HALEYLURICHARDSON.NET, a "fansite made by fans for fans in no way affiliated with Haley Lu, her family, friends or management." These unattributed images, taken on the set on August 8, 2017, are our first glimpse of the actress who plays Brooks. The entire set can be found HERE.
Rob Byrne sent me this snapshot of a recent Louise Brooks Society blog posted on the bulletin
board (along with other media coverage) at the Pordenone Silent Film
Festival in Italy. This made my day.
And here are a few more nifty images, gathered from the Pordenone / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto website and Facebook wall. (photos by Valerio Greco). [And while you are visiting the Pordenone website, don't fail to read Jay Weissberg's program essay on the film, which can be found HERE.]
Speaking of media coverage of the Festival, check out the following blogs and news articles -- all of which make mention of Louise Brooks and Now We're in the Air:
The
communist newspaper Il Manifesto also ran a piece, this one was titled "Scomode e indisciplinate, le «cattive ragazze» del muto" which stated (in rough translation) "...rediscovered by historian Robert Byrne, president of
the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, who found them in the Prague
archive. Precious because they include the magnificent and charismatic
presence of one of the most iconic stars of all movie history: Louise
Brooks, with her unmistakable haircut (inspired by Crepax's Valentine)
and a breathtaking black tutu. Its image resists time, always modern."
Luce Cinecitta ran a piece titled "Louise Brooks, prima di Lulù" Attendee Pamela Hutchinson, author of a forthcoming book on Pandora's Box, posted a piece to the Silent London site which started "Louise Brooks is everywhere this year, not least here at the Giornate,
where she adorns tote bags, mugs, programmes, T-shirts and even the
festival office." And the blog I Thank You Arthur also posted on the event.
In celebration of today's showing of Now We're in the Air at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, here is a reprise of my March 30th Huffington Post article about the film and its finding. Further information about this special screening can be found HERE. Also, don't fail to read Jay Weissberg's program essay on the film, which can be found HERE. (It mentions the LBS.) And for those who can't get enough, HERE are my program notes for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
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Long Missing Louise Brooks Film Found by Thomas Gladysz (3/30/2017)
Approximately 23 minutes of a long missing 1927 Louise Brooks film, Now We’re in the Air, has been found in an archive in the Czech Republic. The discovery is significant, not only because of Brooks’ widespread popularity,
but because it helps fill a gap in the legendary actress’ body of work.
Until now, each of the four films Brooks made in 1927—at the peak of
her American career—have been considered lost.
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival
revealed the existence of the film while announcing the lineup of works
to be shown at its upcoming event. The newly restored partial film will
be shown at the Festival, which is set to take place June 1 through June 4 at the Castro Theater in San Francisco.
Now We’re in the Air will be paired with Get Your Man (1927), a Dorothy Arzner directed film starring Clara Bow. The Library of Congress has reconstructed Get Your Man from
recovered materials, filling in missing sequences with stills and
intertitles. Festival Executive Director Stacey Wisnia noted that the
pairing brings together not only two recovered films, but also the era’s
two “It” girls, Bow and Brooks.
The discovery of Now We’re in the Air came about, in part, through the efforts of film preservationist Robert Byrne,
president of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Silent Film
Festival. Byrne has made a name for himself of late, having helped in
the recovery and restoration of a handful of important films over the
last few years. Prominent among his discoveries were two films
identified in the collection of Cinematheque Francaise, Sherlock Holmes (1916), andSilence(1926).
The latter, a Cecil B. DeMille production directed by Rupert Julian,
will also debut at the June event. Another of Byrne’s efforts,Behind the Door(1919), is due out on DVD / Blu-ray from Flicker Alley.
In a recent interview, Byrne related how he mentioned to English film historian and Academy Award honoreeKevin Brownlow that he would be going to Prague to visit the Czech Národní filmový archiv
(the Czech Republic’s National Film Archive). It’s known they have an
extensive collection of silent era material, including the only
remaining nitrate copies of a number of American silent films. Unsure as
to what might be found, Brownlow provided Byrne with a list of about a
dozen titles he should ask to see. That list included Now We’re in the Air.
Though popular in its time, the 1927 film is little known today except
for the fact it includes Brooks in an important supporting role.
When Byrne inspected the elements for Rif a Raf, Piloti (the Czech title for Now We’re in the Air),
he found the film had only partially survived in a state which also
showed nitrate decomposition. Additionally, the surviving scenes were
found to be out of order, and there were Czech-language titles in place
of the original American titles. Byrne spent more than eight months
reconstructing the surviving material, including restoring the film’s
original English-language inter-titles and original tinting.
“As
is often the case, the most challenging aspect was not the technical
work of cleaning up the image,” Byrne stated, “but rather the research
that ensured we were making a faithful restoration, especially when it
came to replacing the Czech language inter-titles with the original
English versions.”
Byrne
was especially appreciative of the help given by the Národní filmový
archive. “They were incredibly gracious and generous with their time and
resources; in addition to granting access to their nitrate print, they
are responsible for the color-dye tinting of our new 35mm print. This is
the first San Francisco Silent Film Festival restoration where we have
used the traditional dye-tinting process to restore a film’s original
color. In prior projects, we have used a modern method that utilizes
color film stock.” Byrne added, “This is what an American audience would
have seen when the film was released in 1927.”
Byrne said he was “thrilled” to find a missing Brooks film. “The shame is that so many of her American films are lost. Seeing Now We’re in the Air
projected for the first time was pretty amazing. I have seen stills of
her in the black tutu a million times, but actually seeing the sequence
where she is wearing it was like watching a still photograph magically
come to life.” Byrne’s excitement for the newly found Brooks’ film was
matched by Judy Wyler Sheldon, a longtime Brooks’ fan and the daughter
of legendary director William Wyler. Festival Artistic Director Anita
Monga was likewise excited, and thought the fragment was “revelatory.”
Directed by Frank Strayer, Now We’re in the Air
is a World War One comedy starring future Oscar winner Wallace Beery
and the once popular character actor Raymond Hatton. The film, released
by Paramount, also features Brooks in two supporting roles. The actress
plays twins, one raised French, one raised German, who are the love
interest of two goofy fliers. The surviving footage of Brooks only
includes her in the role of the French twin, a carnival worker dressed
in a short, dark tutu.
In the 1920s, Beery and Hatton were teamed in a number of popular Dumb and Dumber-like comedies. With its aviation-theme, Now We’re in the Air was one of the pair’s “service comedies,” following similar themed movies like Behind the Front (1926) and We’re in the Navy Now (1926).
Notably, the film’s cinematographer is Harry Perry, who worked on two other significant aviation pictures, Wings (1927), and Hell’s Angels (1930). Perry was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the latter. Interestingly, a notation in the script for Now We’re in the Air uncovered during its restoration calls for the use of left-over footage from the William Wellman-directed Wings,
another WWI movie, and the first film to win an Academy Award for Best
Picture. That footage can be seen during the Armistice scene in Now We’re in the Air, near the end of the surviving footage.
Though
some winced at its crude humor (not evident in the surviving material),
the Beery-Hatton film proved to be one of the more popular comedies of
1927. Generally liked by the critics, the film did big box office where
ever it showed. In New York City, it enjoyed an extended run, as it did
in San Francisco, where it proved to be one of the year’s biggest hits.
At a time when most new releases played only one week, Now We’re in the Air
ran for a month in San Francisco, according to local newspaper
listings. In Boston, the film also did well, opening simultaneously in
five theaters. At the time, the Boston Evening Transcript noted the audience at one screening “was so moved by mirth that they were close to tears.”
The recovery of Now We’re in the Air
comes 90 years after its first release, and 100 years after the United
States formally entered what became known as the First World War, on
April 6, 1917. Though a comedy, Now We’re in the Air was one of a number of silent films from the time—including Behind the Door (1919), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), The Big Parade (1925), What Price Glory? (1926), and Wings (1927), which depict the international conflict.
Byrne and others involved in the restoration of Now We’re in the Air
believe the surviving footage lives up to the promise of its original
reviews. In June, Festival goers and Louise Brooks fans will have the
chance to see for themselves. More about the lineup of films at the San
Francisco Silent Film Festival can be found at www.silentfilm.org.
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My wife and I had a small hand in helping bring this film back to the screen, and we and the Louise Brooks Society are thanked in the credits which follow the restored fragment. It was an honor and a pleasure to be asked to help work on the project. It was also exciting! I got to see raw footage of the surviving material (still with Czech intertitles), and helped put the fragmented pieces back into proper order and with correct English-language intertitles. The story of this film will be told in a new book, which is forthcoming later this year.
After the above article was published and before the film debuted in San Francisco, I was given a Louise Brooks / Now We're in the Air giphoscope to honor my contribution to bringing this once lost film back into circulation -- 90 years after it was first shown.
What's a giphoscope? Simply put, it's an analog GIF player. And this model displays a 24 frame animated GIF excerpted from Now We're in the Air. Only a few copies of these handmade, Italian objects were produced. Here is one in action, followed by a snapshot of Robert Byrne and myself (right) holding my player.
As Louise Brooks fans hopefully know by now, the once lost 1927 Brooks' film Now We're in the Air has been found -- or at least 23 minutes of it. That surviving material was restored by film preservationist Robert Byrne (with the assistance of Thomas Gladysz / Louise Brooks Society), and will be shown tomorrow, Monday October 2, at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy. Live piano accompaniment will be given by John Sweeney.
Further information about this special screening can be found HERE. Also, don't fail to read Jay Weissberg's program essay on the film, which can be found HERE. (It mentions the LBS.)
Excitement is building at the Festival, and a few snapshots have been sent to me evidencing Louise Brooks "presence" at the event. Pamela Hutchinson (author of the forthcoming book on Pandora's Box from the BFI) sent this snapshot of the book / merchandise table, where copies of my new book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film are on sale next to some rather nifty Pordenone mugs.
And that's not the only Louise Brooks merchandise from this year's Pordenone Silent Film Festival (also known as the Giornate del Cinema Muto.) Rob Byrne, who sent the above image of the information table with the Louise Brooks background, also sent me this image of the Festival tote bag, which is also pretty nifty.
I have heard from Jordon Young that Louise Brooks also appears on the cover of the program, which I have yet to see. (The programs were late to arrive to the Festival because the schedule was onbly closed a few days ago.) I wish I could have been there. To close this entry, I'll add this image of a poster for the Festival. As best I know, this was not printed, but can be found floating around online.
The Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Massachusetts has just announced it will be hosting a major retrospective of the films of director William Wellman. The retrospective, "The Legends of William Wellman," runs October 27th through November 26th. The series will include all of the acclaimed director's greatest films, from Wings (1927) to The Public Enemy (1931), A Star is Born (1937), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), as well as lesser known gems like Night Nurse (1931) and Wild Boys of the Road (1933). More information about the series, including a complete line-up of films, can be found HERE.
The first film to be shown in the series is Beggars of Life (1928), starring Louise Brooks. The silent classic will be shown on Friday October 27 at 7pm, with live musical accompaniment. The Harvard Film Archive description follows.
Beggars of Life
Directed by William Wellman. With Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen
US 1928, 35mm, b/w, silent, 91 min
A gruesome discovery followed by a sordid tale of sexual abuse—recounted through an ingenious double-exposed montage sequence—introduces Richard Arlen’s hungry tramp to Louise Brooks’ fugitive disguised as a boy. From that dramatic opener, the couple steals off into a blue-tinted night and reluctantly joins a band of vagabonds. Immediately, the presence of a woman in the midst of a group of desperate men adds an unsettling disturbance to the film and to their tenuous coalition. Wellman steadily maintains this air of horror and humor as the motley, volatile crew travels from land to train with the lord of the hoboes, Wallace Beery’s unpredictable Oklahoma Red, who revels in intimidation as a means of entertainment—even holding an absurdly elaborate “kangaroo court” to decide the fate of the interlopers. In this hardscrabble atmosphere, the appearance of love is so unusual that it acts as a kind of deus ex machina, stunning the plot and sending it off and away down Wellman’s mysterious, dark tracks.
And that's not all the news.... Beggars of Life was the focus of a radio program hosted by Hollywood personality Dick Dinman. Follow THIS LINK to Turner Classic Movies "TCM Movie News" to listen, or tune in to WMPG in Portland, Maine.
Dick Dinman & William Wellman Jr. Salute the BEGGARS OF LIFE!
DICK DINMAN & WILLIAM WELLMAN JR. SALUTE THE "BEGGARS OF LIFE": Popular author, actor, producer and raconteur William Wellman Jr. and producer/host Dick Dinman rave about Kino Lorber's marvelous Blu-ray release of legendary director William Wellman's favorite of his silent films BEGGARS OF LIFE in which the notorious Louise Brooks plays a train-hopping hobo who dresses like a boy to escape the law and discourage the lecherous advances of Wallace Beery and his rambunctious band of hoboes.
The award-winning DICK DINMAN'S DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR is the only show devoted to Golden Age Movie Classics as they become available on DVD and Blu-ray. Your producer/host Dick Dinman includes a generous selection of classic scenes, classic film music and one-on-one interviews with stars, producers, and directors. To hear these as well as other DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR shows please go to www.dvdclassicscorner.com or www.dvdclassicscorner.net.
A six minute sneak peak at Charlotte Siller's forthcoming Documentary of a Lost Girl will be shown at the 15th annual Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kansas. The six minute excerpt will be shown at 11:30 and 12:30 each day of the Festival, which runs October 18 - 22. More information about the festival and its many screenings can be found HERE.
I have seen the six minute piece, and I can state that is it OUTSTANDING! Charlotte Siller has made something truly fine: as someone interested in film history, I have watched a lot of documentaries--I expect this will rank among the best. I can't wait to see more. Documentary of a Lost Girl is scheduled for release in 2018. More information about the documentary can be found HERE.
Documentary of a Lost Girl is a film that uses archival
materials and interviews from various witnesses to uncover the life of
Louise Brooks away from the cameras. While many know Miss Brooks as
being a silent film star and siren, not many know of her incredibly
intellectual abilities and her extensive research into her era of
cinematic pursuits. She stands out as a shining example of a woman
ahead of her era who dared to shirk the usual demands made of women of
that time and live her life the way she wanted to. Although the
historical truth is always unclear from our point of view, we will
provide the audience with opinions from all sides; from friends, to
researchers, to relatives. Everyone has a different story to tell, and
we are collecting all that we can muster. It is important for us to
collect every scrap of archival material for, if they are not
documented, then they may fade out of the picture as quickly as
unpreserved film.
The silent film and Louise Brooks communities have lost a friend in the passing of Hugh Hefner. Best known as the founder of Playboy magazine, Hefner was also an ally of film preservation and film history.
I met him once, briefly, at a bookseller's convention. He was there to sign copies of his latest book. I got in line in order to introduce myself, and we chatted for a few minutes about Louise Brooks. It was loud inside the convention hall, but we both understood each's devotion to the silent film star.
Hefner was a devotee of a number of early films stars, among them Louise Brooks. He served as executive producer of the exceptional 1998 documentary, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, as well as for documentaries about Clara Bow, Marion Davies, Theda Bara, Olive Thomas and others. Both of us appeared on the E! Entertainment show, Mysteries and Scandals, in the episode devoted to Brooks.
Now We're in the Air(1927) will be shown in Italy at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. In what is being billed as its international premiere, the fragmentary, 23 minute, once-lost film will be shown on Monday, October 2 as part of the series "Rediscoveries and Restorations."
Learn more about the film and its rediscovery HERE.
8:30 pm - Rediscoveries and Restorations NOW WE’RE IN THE AIR (US 1927; fragment 23’) | International Premiere by Frank R. Strayer with Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton Pianoforte: John Sweeney
Thanks
to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and to the Prague
Cinematheque, where the film fragment was rediscovered by Robert Byrne
in 2016, Louise Brooks comes back to us in all her stunning beauty. Even
though for a few minutes only, we shall see her move in that same black
tutu in which she was captured, gorgeous yet still, in the famous
portraits by Eugene Robert Richee.
Earlier, the festival posted this:
The 36th Pordenone Silent Film Festival will host the international
premiere of the recently rediscovered 22 minutes of the long missing
comedy Now We’re in the Air (US 1927), featuring Louise Brooks.
In
the film, set in World War I, Brooks plays twins, one raised in France,
the other one in Germany. The surviving footage includes only scenes
with the actress in the role of the French twin, wearing the same black
tutu she wears in the famous portraits by Eugene Robert Richee.
The
fragment was rediscovered in 2016 at the Národní filmový archiv,
Prague, by Rob Byrne, film historian and president of the Board of
Directors of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The restoration was
completed in 2017 as a partnership between San Francisco SFF and the
Czech archive.
Until now, all four films Brooks made in 1927 have been considered lost.