TODAY: Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens again in Istanbul, Turkey

The Kundura Cinema in Istanbul, Turkey will screen the internationally acclaimed Louise Brooks' film, Pandora's Box (1929). The film, titled locally as Pandora’nın Kutusu’nun, will be shown today, April 7th with live musical accompaniment by Yiğit Özatalay and Mustafa Kemal Emirel (Yürüyen Merdiven). This presentation is open to those 18 years and older. More information as well as ticket availability can be found HERE.

Pandora's Box was shown at this same location on March 10th and the 24th with great success. Here is the Turkish description of the event.

Almanya / 1929 135’ / Siyah & Beyaz
Sessiz*

*Yiğit Özatalay ve Mustafa Kemal Emirel’den oluşan Yürüyen Merdiven’in canlı müziği eşliğinde.

Yönetmen | Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Senaryo    | Frank Wedekind, Ladislaus Vajda
Oyuncular | Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer

Çekiciliği ile çevresindeki herkesi baştan çıkarıp onları büyük bir trajedinin içine sokan bir dansçının çevresinde gelişen olayları ele almaktadır. Film sinema tarihinde "femme fatale" örneklerinden biri olmuştur.

Back in March, the venue put a bit of a new twist on the film by describing it this way: "A free-loving, status-climbing dancer murders her rich paramour, then takes up with a succession of other lovers, gradually descending to the streets as a hooker. Pandora's Box is an acknowledged masterpiece and example of a 'femme fatale'."

The Kundura Cinema, housed in a former shoe and leather factory, began showing classic films late last year. The cinema is housed in the Beykoz Kundura building in an old industrial part of town that is fast becoming an artistic and cultural hub. (A film studio was also opened in the complex.) Kundura Cinema has transformed the building's boiler room, in the heart of the old factory, into a movie hall (seen below). Dating back to the 1800s, the Beykoz Kundura building was in use until the foundation of the Turkish Republic.

TODAY: Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks screens in Berlin Babylon location

The Metropolis Orchester Berlin in Berlin, Germany will screen the sensational 1929 Louise Brooks' film Pandora's Box at the Theater im Delphi (Gustav-Adolf-Str. 2) on April 6, 2019. This special cinema concert screening will feature live musical accompaniment as well as an introduction by actress Fritzi Haberlandt, who will talk about her relationship with the role of Lulu. Here is your opportunity to see a classic silent film in the city where it was made, as well as one of the shooting locations for the popular television series Berlin Babylon. More information as well as ticket availability about this event can be found HERE.

A few days ago,  Der Tagesspiegel ran a piece on this special event. That piece can be found HERE. [Unfortunately, their lead image is from another Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl. This German publication is not alone in running the wrong film stills, as it is a mistake other publications and venues have repeated.]

According to the event promoters, "BABYLON BERLIN actress Fritzi Haberlandt and the Metropolis Orchestra Berlin present the cinematic masterpiece by GEORG WILHELM PABST. Immerse yourself in a typical Berlin cinema evening in the year 1929!

1929 - a legendary year: The Golden Twenties come to an end and at the same time reach their peak before the world economic crisis comes abruptly. In this last great year of German silent film, known as "The Year Babylon", the former silent movie theater Delphi is opened at the Caligariplatz. In 1929, Louise Brooks becomes the first American actress to star in a German film production: THE BOX OF PANDORA by GW Pabst. Brooks embodies the role of Lulu completely and becomes an icon.

Under the direction of Burkhard Götze, the METROPOLIS ORCHESTRA BERLIN presents the masterpiece in authentic style of a cinema concert of the time, with the great score of Peer Raaben. Original flair is provided by BOHÈME SAUVAGE. The audience is invited to dress and decorate in the style of the time. In addition, you can take time travel to the locations of BABYLON BERLIN before the cinema concert."

Partner: Bohème Sauvage, Zeitreisen, European Film Philharmonic , German Cinematheque

Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box? Visit the Louise Brooks Society website as well as its Pandora's Box filmography page.

The Chaperone opens in Los Angeles and elsewhere on April 5th

The Louise Brooks inspired film The Chaperone opens in Los Angeles and elsewhere starting tomorrow. The film debuted in New York City on March 29th, and today opens in theaters in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Encino, and Irvine, California. For more information and ticket availability, including which other cities in California, New York and New Jersey where the film will be shown, visit thechaperonefilm.com and click on the "Theaters" tab. Unfortunately, this film is in limited release. So, if you want to see it on the big screen, visit the link above.

LA moviegoers can catch an exclusive Q&A with The Chaperone star Elizabeth McGovern on April 5th. Tickets and further information are available HERE.

A number of early reviews of The Chaperone have appeared in East Coast publications, like the New York Times. The film's best review so far comes from Rex Reed, who called The Chaperone "A film of uncommon rapture, albeit one with little of the noisy, fast-moving action contemporary audiences have come to expect." That is true, and to the point. Reed's Observer piece was headlined "The Chaperone Is a Sublime Account of Flapper Icon Louise Brooks’ Early Life."

In September of last year, The Chaperone played at the Los Angeles Film Festival; the film's producer and star, Elizabeth McGovern, was asked about the film. In the video below, she talks about what drew her to this project, and of course, mentions Louise Brooks along the way.

The Chaperone is the first theatrical release from PBS Masterpiece. They have updated their webpage, and had this to say: "Louise Brooks, the 1920s silver screen sensation who never met a rule she didn’t break, epitomized the restless, reckless spirit of the Jazz Age. But, just a few years earlier, she was a 15 year-old student in Wichita, Kansas for whom fame and fortune were only dreams. When the opportunity arises for her to go to New York to study with a leading dance troupe, her mother (Victoria Hill) insists there be a chaperone. Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern, Downton Abbey), a local society matron who never broke a rule in her life, impulsively volunteers to accompany Louise (Haley Lu Richardson) to New York for the summer.

Why does this utterly conventional woman do this? What happens to her when she lands in Manhattan with an unusually rebellious teenager as her ward?  And, which of the two women is stronger, the uptight wife-and-mother or the irrepressible free spirit?  It’s a story full of surprises—about who these women really are, and who they eventually become.

Based on Laura Moriarty’s beloved New York Times best-selling novel, MASTERPIECE FILMS’ first theatrical release The Chaperone reunites the writer (Academy Award®-winner Julian Fellowes), director (Michael Engler) and star (Academy Award® nominee Elizabeth McGovern) of Downton Abbey for an immersive and richly emotional period piece. The film also stars Campbell Scott, Géza Röhrig, Miranda Otto, Robert Fairchild, and Blythe Danner."

Courtesy of PBS Distribution

I've seen The Chaperone, and I like it. In fact, I've seen it three times and could imagine watching it again in the future when I want a dose of Haley Lu Richardson's perfect charm. Richardson is the young actress who plays a young Louise Brooks, and in a way, she steals the show. I think fans of Louise Brooks will also like this film. Except for a few historical gaffs (all of which are subtle, and only one of which is a bit egregious), it is faithful to what we know about Brooks and her times. And therefore, recommended!

Courtesy of PBS Distribution

Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks to screen at NY MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City will screen the 1929 Louise Brooks film Diary of a Lost Girl on Tuesday, April 9th at 7:00 p.m. The screening is part of a new film series and accompanying poster exhibition called "What Price Hollywood" which looks at the nature of sexual politics on the screen. More information about this screening can be found HERE.

The MoMA website describes the "What Price Hollywood" series this way: "During the studio system’s 'golden age,' subtle, empowered star turns by Barbara Stanwyck, Louise Brooks, Bette Davis, Gloria Grahame, and others simultaneously upheld gender norms and hinted at alternative models of sexual identity. Yet later players, like Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy, Marlene Clark and Duane Jones in Ganja & Hess, or Divine in Female Trouble, were given license to subvert gender limitations altogether."

While Diary of a Lost Girl speaks to the "nature of sexual politics on the screen," it is an odd fit, as it was neither a Hollywood film nor a film of the American "studio system’s 'golden age'," which most of the other films in the series are.... (It is also the only silent film included in the series.) Among the other films being shown in this worthwhile series are The Good Fairy (1935), directed by William Wyler, A Free Soul (1931), directed by Clarence Brown, The Scarlet Empress (1934), directed by Josef von Sternberg, and of course What Price Hollywood (1932), directed by George Cukor.

Of course, it is always good to see a Louise Brooks film on the big screen, even if it is shoe-horned into a film series it doesn't quite fit into. Nevertheless, I will give the MoMA writers credit for describing the film as few do, notably in its use of the word "rape"

Diary of a Lost Girl. 1929. Germany. Directed by G. W. Pabst. 35mm. Silent. 125 min.

"After a teenager (Louise Brooks) is raped and impregnated by her father’s colleague, she refuses to marry her attacker and is sent by her father to a hellish reformatory. Following 1928’s Beggars of Life, Diary of a Lost Girl marks a particularly powerful and socially minded period of Brooks’s brief but electric career."

I don't know if the exhibition part of "What Price Hollywood" contains any posters related to Louise Brooks. For those interested in learning more, check out the Louise Brooks Society website and its Diary of a Lost Girl filmography page. Also, the film is available on DVD / Blu-ray (with an audio commentary by your's truly, Thomas Gladysz). Also, back in 2010, I edited and wrote the introduction to the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl, the sensational / controversial book on which the film was based. Both can be found on amazon.

Silent Movie Matinee: LOUISE BROOKS: SOULS LOST and FOUND at Brooklyn Public Library on April 14

The folks at the Brooklyn Public Library love Louise Brooks and silent film. They have shown Brooks' films a number of times. Two weeks from today, on Sunday April 14, the library is presenting a matinee screening of Diary of a Lost Girl, the once controversial Brooks' film from 1929. For those just discovering Brooks through her portrayal in the new PBS Masterpiece film, The Chaperone, here's a great opportunity to one of her great films. More information may be found HERE.

LOUISE BROOKS: SOULS LOST AND FOUND

Sunday, April 14, 2019   12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Central Library, Dweck Center 

DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (1929) 112 minutes
Germany

Kansas-born Louise Brooks traveled to Germany to collaborate with director Georg Wilhelm Pabst on two movies, Pandora’s Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), which is based on Margarete Böhme’s controversial and best-selling novel. She plays Thymian, the teenage daughter of a middle-class pharmacist, whose swift fall and slow rise begins after she is molested by her father’s assistant, becomes pregnant, is sent to a reform-school, and escapes to find refuge in a brothel in this tragic look at self-righteous bourgeois-hypocrisy, and the price of sexual-freedom, in a male-privileged culture and society.


Directed by G.W. Pabst.
Image courtesy of Kino Lorber, Inc.

Live Piano Accompaniment by Bernie Anderson. Hosted & Curated by Ken Gordon.

All movie start times are 12:00 Noon. Central Library does not open until 1 pm, but patrons attending film screenings may enter the Dweck Center beginning at 11:45 am through the side entrance on Eastern Parkway. Introductions begin promptly at 12:00 Noon. 

Children under the age of six will not be admitted to these shows. Silent Movie Matinee is supported by Los Blancos.

Want to Learn more about Louise Brooks and Diary of a Lost Girl? Check out the Louise Brooks Society website and its Diary of a Lost Girl filmography page. Also, the film is available on DVD / Blu-ray (with an audio commentary by your's truly, Thomas Gladysz). Also, back in 2010, I edited and wrote the introduction to the "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl, the sensational / controversial book on which the film was based. Both can be found on amazon.

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks screens in Berlin, Babylon on April 6th

The Metropolis Orchester Berlin in Berlin, Germany will screen the sensational 1929 Louise Brooks' film Pandora's Box at the Theater im Delphi (Gustav-Adolf-Str. 2) on Saturday April 6, 2019. This special cinema concert screening will feature live musical accompaniment as well as an introduction by actress Fritzi Haberlandt, who will talk about her relationship with the role of Lulu. Here is your opportunity to see a classic silent film in the city where it was made, as well as one of the shooting locations for the popular television series Berlin Babylon. More information as well as ticket availability about this event can be found HERE.

According to the event promoters, "BABYLON BERLIN actress Fritzi Haberlandt and the Metropolis Orchestra Berlin present the cinematic masterpiece by GEORG WILHELM PABST. Immerse yourself in a typical Berlin cinema evening in the year 1929!

1929 - a legendary year: The Golden Twenties come to an end and at the same time reach their peak before the world economic crisis comes abruptly. In this last great year of German silent film, known as "The Year Babylon", the former silent movie theater Delphi is opened at the Caligariplatz. In 1929, Louise Brooks becomes the first American actress to star in a German film production: THE BOX OF PANDORA by GW Pabst. Brooks embodies the role of Lulu completely and becomes an icon.

Under the direction of Burkhard Götze, the METROPOLIS ORCHESTRA BERLIN presents the masterpiece in authentic style of a cinema concert of the time, with the great score of Peer Raaben. Original flair is provided by BOHÈME SAUVAGE. The audience is invited to dress and decorate in the style of the time. In addition, you can take time travel to the locations of BABYLON BERLIN before the cinema concert."

Partner: Bohème Sauvage, Zeitreisen, European Film Philharmonic , German Cinematheque

Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her role as Lulu in Pandora's Box? Visit the Louise Brooks Society website as well as its Pandora's Box filmography page.