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
For more than half a century, Cinephiles have gathered in over Labor Day Weekend to celebrate the movies at the annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival. As Hollywood's longest running classic film festival, Cinecon is where fans as well as archivists, authors, and collectors have come together to experience classic film screenings, special programs, celebrity guests, and the best movie memorabilia show in the nation.
I have attended Cinecon a few times in the past, most recently in 2016 to sign books in the memorabilia room. The first time I went, in the late 1990s, I had the chance to meet, ever so briefly, Francis Lederer, Louise Brooks' co-star in Pandora's Box. Lederer was on hand for a screening of The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna (1929). Afterword, Lederer, though very old, took questions from the audience about his career - including a couple about Brooks. I got his autograph on my Cinecon program, and had a snapshot taken with the both of us in it. I hope to return to Cinecon sometime soon, perhaps next year, when it plans to resume its in-person festival.
Covid-19 has temporarily derailed the festival from taking place in Hollywood, and instead, it has moved online. Just recently, the Cineconline 2021 schedule of streaming events was announced. While there is no Louise Brooks related material this year, there is a program of rare Colleen Moore trailers as well as a streaming screening of Moore's Ella Cinders (1926). I can't wait.
CINECONLINE SCHEDULE
NOTE: Friday streaming begins at 3PM PDT
Saturday, Sunday and Monday streaming begins at 12:00PM PDT
This is the order of appearance.
Exact Start Times to come
Each day will begin with a Ten Minutes to Showtime Clock
There will be five minute intermissions between features.
In addition to the films shown below, Cineconline will feature celebrity guests, Cinecon Memories and more.
Friday September 3rd.
COLLEEN MOORE TRAILERS
DYNAMITE DAN - introduced by Sara Karloff
MAKE MINE MONICA - introduced by Ms. Lang's Son Rocky Lang
RENDEZVOUS WITH ANNIE
ELLA CINDERS - introduced by Ms. Moore's niece Melinda Morrison
End Of Day One Approx 4 ½ hours
Saturday September 4th.
SILENT TRAILERS
ICE COLD COCOS
BLUE BLAZES RAWDEN
Cinecon Memories
KINECON AT CINECON #5 – 2 hours
WHEELER & WOOLSEY NRA SHORT five minutes
THE MISFIT
BUSTER'S MIX-UP
CONQUEST OF CANAAN
End DAY 2 Approx 5 ½ hours
Sunday September 5th.
SILENT TRAILERS
A CLOSE SHAVE
THE DELICATESSEN SHOP
HOOFBEATS OF VENGEANCE
COWBOY CRAZY
SLEEPY TIME GAL introduced by Juli Canova
MAX STEINER: MAESTRO OF MOVIE MUSIC
HELEN'S BABIES
END OF DAY 3 Approx 6 hrs.
Monday September 6th.
SILENT TRAILERS – 5minutes
JANE WITHERS TRIBUTE
SWING FEVER - introduced by Mr. Gilbert's great nephew Bryan Cooper
THIS IS FRANCIS X BUSHMAN
Cinecon Memories
THUNDERBEAN ANIMATION PROGRAM
LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT
COLLEGE QUEEN
KING OF THE KONGO - introduced by Sara Karloff
PENROD AND SAM
CLOSING REMARKS FOLLOWED BY POST FESTIVAL ZOOM PARTY
Recently, I received a CD in the mail from independent recording artist Rick Gallego. His latest record is titled Pandora's Box (Kool Kat Musik). Rick enclosed a brief note that read, "Hi Thomas, thought you might find this interesting, since this was inspired by Louise!" Rick is right. I liked it a lot.
Pandora's Box is a melodic joy ride whose retro power pop influences include the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Todd Rundgren, Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, early solo Paul McCartney, and latter-day XTC. Rick has been putting out music since 1996. In short, he has a number of recordings to his credit, either as a solo artist or as part of Jiffipop and/or Cloud Eleven. He and his bands have received rave reviews, and had his music featured in TV shows on ABC, NBC and elsewhere. For more on the songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Rick Gallego and Cloud Eleven, be sure and visit his website and / or his Facebook page.
Some of the linear notes, which are printed over an image of Louise Brooks, explain how this, his latest effort, came about: "Pandora’s Box isn’t so much a ‘new’ album than a collection of
previously unfinished song fragments that had been buried on old
cassette tapes, plus some outtakes from other albums, and a few covers.
During the lockdown of 2020, I would discover a stray chorus here, a
verse there, and commence to completing the songs, then record them. In
some ways, Pandora’s Box is Terrestrial Ballet part deux. Sometimes it
just feels good to clean out that old junk drawer."
I emailed Rick about his new CD, and he wrote back, saying "I already had the song called "Pandora's Box" (dedicated to Lulu), so I decided to name the album that too." I asked Rick the question I ask everyone. How did you first hears about Louise Brooks? Rick answered, "In January 2020 I was doing a YouTube search for anything 1920's, as I
have always been fascinated with that decade. I landed on a video (don't
really remember who posted it) that reviewed various cultural
attributes of the '20s, and it mentioned Louise Brooks as an icon of the
period. I had never heard of her before and was really taken by her
look, so did a Google search. It kind of snowballed from there into
wanting to know everything about her. After seeing a couple of her
movies (swoon!) and getting the Barry Paris book (the University of Minnesota Press 2000 paperback
version - I ended up buying the first edition hard cover from you later
on!), I was pretty much a big fan of hers by then. Since then, I joined
your LBS page on Facebook, bought all of her movies on DVD/Blu-ray, and
bought every book I could get my hands on, including of course, Lulu In
Hollywood.
There's a certain magical quality about Louise Brooks that just draws
you in, kind of like the movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, where
everyone is compelled with this 'thing' (Devil's Tower), but they don't
know why.
Louise Brooks is truly a fascinating person, not only beautiful, but
intelligent and witty too. So very happy I found her!
The first track on Rick's new CD is titled "Pandora's Box (Schöne Lulu)." The linear notes for this track read, "This song began as a sort of Rundgren-esque synth jam and evolved into what we have here. Basic tracks were recorded in 2018 and completed in 2020. At the time of completion, I was absorbed into all things 1920s, including art deco, silent films, and specifically actress/writer/icon Louise Brooks. Her most memorable role was that of Lulu, in the classic 1929 German film Pandora's Box. This, my first ever instrumental (silent!) track, is dedicated to the lovely Lulu." Here is the video for that track. Just turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream.
And here is the video of the CD's second track, "Row Row Row," Cloud Eleven's version of the children's nursery rhyme. I really like this gorgeous recording. The song features a homage to the Beatles, while this video features a homage to a couple of Kansas icons. You can likely guess which ones.
And lastly, here is the video for one of my very favorite tracks on Pandora's Box, a mock garage rock cover titled "I Can Do Anything I Want!" I think Kansas-born artist Bruce Conner, a Louise Brooks devotee, would have liked this.
I've just noticed that the 1928 film, Beggars of Life, has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray in Spain under the title Mendigos de Vida, which was the title the film was originally shown under in Spain and much of Latin America.
I don't know much about this release except for what I can gather from the backs of the DVD and Blu-ray version. Though released as both a silent and sound film in the late 1920s, this new Spanish release is a silent film. It runs 81 minutes, and includes both Castilian and English subtitles. (The Kino Lorber version, the best there is, also runs 81 minutes, while the Grapevine DVD is said to run 83 minutes.) There is no indication that there is any kind of musical accompaniment, though Karl Hajos, the original composer for the film, is credited on the back of the release. (Should anyone get a hold of this version, I would be interested to know if there is any sort of musical soundtrack.)
Pictured below are the front the backs for both the DVD and Blu-ray releases. I show them both because they are slightly different in layout. Another curiosity is the fact that Wallace Beery, the star of the film, has been eliminated from the packaging imagery (though he is listed in the credits and given top billing).
Here is a newspaper advertisement for the film dating from 1930 when it showed at the Palacio de la Musica in Madrid, Spain. Louise Brooks is given second billing, with Wallace Beery listed third. Richard Arlen, who shares a significant amount of screen time with Brooks and was likely considered better looking than Beery by the senoritas, is given top billing
Beggars of Life is the subject of a chapter in my forthcoming two volume work, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which looks at the way this and other of the actress' films were received all over the world. The acclaimed William Wellman film was also the subject of my 2017 book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, which can be purchased on amazon all around the world.
I was recently a guest on Cinematary, a podcast devoted to film history & film criticism. On episode #359, I spoke about Louise Brooks and her sensational 1929 film Diary of a Lost Girl. Check it out HERE or below.
Episode 359 - Diary of a Lost Girl (Young Critics Watch Old Movies v.7)
Part 1: Zach, Andrew and Jessica discuss movies they saw this week, including: Zola, No Sudden Move, Fear Street Part One: 1994 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Part 2 (40:25): The group continues their Young Critics Watch Old Movies series with a look at 1929's Diary of a Lost Girl with guest Thomas Gladysz.
Musical accompanist Stephen Horne is a longtime friend, not only to myself but also to Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. In fact, he has probably accompanied the screening of a Louise Brooks film as much as anyone.
I likely met him "over the internet" well more than 10 or 12 years ago when we did an email interview about Prix de beaute back when I was writing for examiner.com. In the years since, we have met a few times in person when Stephen came to San Francisco to accompany a film at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. He is a great guy and a great musician. As examiner.com no longer exists, HERE is a link to a later incarnation of the interview I did with Stephen about Prix de beaute.
The other day, Stephen was a guest blogger on Pamela Hutchinson's wonderfilled Silent London blog. (It is a blog well worth subscribing to, and supporting.) Stephen's thoughtful piece, which is titled "Silent Sirens: Stephen Horne on playing for the ghosts of silent film," begins with the musician's near mystical experience when he once accompanied a Louise Brooks film. There was nothing "new age" about Stephen's account. Instead, it has to do with the special experience so many of us experience when we view a silent film. We are transported.
Stephen wrote "At one point Louise was held in an extended close-up – her smiling,
enigmatic beauty framed by silver light. Then she started to speak and,
although there was no intertitle, it was very clear to me what she was
saying. In fact, just for a few seconds, I could actually hear her voice
speaking the words. At least, that’s how it seemed. In retrospect, I
realised that I had almost certainly been lip-reading. However,
something about the moment, as immersive as it was, made the words
transform into the sound of a voice within my head."
He continued, "I didn’t give it another thought until some time later, when I realised that there seemed to be something pleasantly haunting about silent films, particularly when accompanied by live music.
They can sometimes feel like a form of cultural séance: the audience
gathers in a darkened space, hoping to make contact with long departed
cinematic spirits. The musicians are almost like musical mediums and, at
its best the music they produce can be a form of channelling."
Readers may also want to know that Stephen's first CD, Silent Sirens, is to be released on July 9 on the Ulysses Arts label. Silent Sirens is an album of music composed and performed by Stephen Horne. And, it is something I am really looking forward to hearing.
The tracks on the album are intended to stand alone from
the films from which they were initially inspired. However, according to the artist, most of these
films have two things in common. "Firstly, they share a certain haunting
quality, leaving unanswered questions to reverberate in the viewer’s
mind long after ‘The End’. Secondly, at least for me, the strongest
impression is made by the films’ leading women – the actresses and their
roles. Combining these two elements suggested the theme of Silent Sirens."
More information on Stephen Horne's Silent Sirens, including purchase and streaming options, can be found HERE.
For more on this musician's approach to accompanying silent film, here is a video interview from 2009. Stephen Horne spoke to Marek Bogacki at the Killruddery Silent Film Festival about his career in silent film music.
