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
The Toronto Silent Film Festival has announced that it will screen the 1929 classic, Pandora's Box, as its opening film at its upcoming Festival, which is set to take place April 12-14, 2024. More information may be found HERE.
The event description reads "Today, Pandora’s Box is rightly celebrated as one of silent cinema’s
greatest masterpieces. Brilliantly directed by G. W. Pabst, it's a dark,
beautiful film filled with meticulous attention to details, fluid
camera work, expressive lighting and, of course, the potent performance
by Louise Brooks as Lulu. Lulu is a woman who is driven by her desires
and in her wake she leaves a trail of destruction and even death.
For many, this is the only performance by Louise Brooks that they've
ever seen, and now, with the latest restoration, her beauty, power and
presence makes it even more memorable.
133 minutes / Live accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner."
This screening will be held at the 150 seat Revue Theater in Toronto, Canada. The Festival describes the event as a "Toronto Restoration Premiere-A TSFF exclusive screening." I've sent them an email for clarification as to the nature of this restoration. I will post-edit an update here when I hear back.
A volunteer run not-for-profit, Toronto Silent Film Festival screens the
Silent Film era's most compelling films and pairs them with talented
silent film accompanists. Other films set to screened at this year's Toronto Silent Film Festival include The Mark of Zorro (1920), West of Zanzibar (1928), So This is Paris (1926), and Sherlock Jr. (1924).
It seems Toronto, Canada is the place to be if you are a Louise Brooks fan.
Following the announcement that the rarely shown silent version of Prix de beauté will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto comes word that another great Louise Brooks film, Beggars of Life, will be shown Toronto's Revue Cinema. More information about this Sunday, January 29, 2023 screening can be found HERE.
Beggars of Life was released in 1928, and this special afternoon event at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto) is being billed as a 95th anniversary screening. The Revue Cinema's series of silent films, Silent Revue, is curated by Alicia Fletcher (who introduced Prix de beauté at the Bell Lightbox). And notably, the Beggars of Life screening will feature live musical accompaniment byMarilyn Lerner (who accompanied Prix de beauté at the Bell Lightbox). Evidently, Louise Brooks has at least a few fans in Toronto.
According to the Silent Revue event page, "Our season-long look at Planes, Trains and Automobiles continues with
the rail-hopping thriller BEGGARS OF LIFE, starring the irresistible
Louise Brooks. Co-starring Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen, BEGGARS OF
LIFE is frequently cited as Brooks’ best American film, and under the
direction of "Wild Bill" Wellman (of WINGS fame, which kicked off the
current Silent Revue season), it is no wonder.
Brooks plays Nancy,
who, on the lam after killing her abusive guardian, disguises her
identity in hope of escaping to Canada. Tucking those signature bangs
under a cap (don't worry -- they fall out from time to time) she passes
as a boy among a gang of rail-riding hobos, where the threat of being
revealed a killer takes a back seat to a more pressing danger: being
exposed as a woman! Prefiguring many future Hollywood films’ treatment
of hobo culture in the Great Depression, BEGGARS OF LIFE is a late
silent-era masterpiece." It's true. Brooks' character, Nancy, does hope to escape to Canada!
To celebrate the film's 95th anniversary, here is an advertisement and a short review of the film from the time it first showed in Toronto, back in October, 1928, at the Pantages. In case you are wondering, the Revue theater was showing Frank Capra's The Matinee Idol, starring Bessie Love, paired with The Sporting Age, starring Belle Bennett.
The Revue Cinema dates to 1912. It is a charming neighborhood theater with a notable history. (It is also home to the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Canada's only such festival.) But what's more, the Revue Cinema and Louise Brooks have a history. Over the last few years, the theater has shown a couple of Brooks' other films, including Pandora's Box in 2014, Beggars of Life in 2015 as part of their IT girl series, and most recently, Diary of a Lost Girl in early 2022. Evidently, Louise Brooks has at least a few fans in Toronto. Did I already say that ?
Beggars of Life -- a film the Cleveland
Plain Dealer once described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life” -- is widely regarded as Louise Brooks' best American silent, as well as the film
Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. The Revue Cinema screening is an event not to be missed.
Want to learn more? Allow me to recommend Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, by yours truly, Thomas Gladysz. This first ever study of the filmfeatures more than 50 little seen images, as well as a foreword by actor William Wellman,
Jr., son of the legendary director. The book is available on amazon.com (in Canada) and amazon.com (in the United States).
The rarely screened silent version of the 1930 Louise Brooks film, Prix de beauté, will be shown on Saturday, December 3 at the Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Canada. This special screening will feature a print, courtesy of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in Italy, of the restored original silent version. And what's more, the film will be introduced by series curator Alicia Fletcher and will feature live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this event can be found HERE.
According to the Toronto International Film Festival website, "Weimar-era icon and prototypical Hollywood iconoclast Louise Brooks stars in Prix de beauté
as Lucienne, a typist who enters a newspaper beauty contest and wins a
chance to compete for the Miss Europe title in Spain. A tale of morbid
jealousy and revenge co-scripted by G.W. Pabst and René Clair (the
latter was intended to direct before Italian expat Augusto Genina was
brought in), Prix de beauté had the unfortunate distinction of
being filmed as a late-era silent, only to be hastily re-edited and
released as a sound film (with Brooks dubbed by a French actress). The
end result was a film out of step with the times in its format, yet one
which was distinctly modern in its fashion sense, with Jean Patou of the
famed House of Patou outfitting Brooks for her final starring role. The
sophisticated originator of women’s sportswear who eradicated the
flapper style of the ’20s and ushered in the dropped hemlines and
elegance of the ’30s, Patou was the perfect outfitter for the
rebellious, singularly fashion-forward actor. And, as the inventor of
ladies’ knitted swimwear, he was also the perfect match for the film’s
bathing-beauty sequence."
The
internationalism of Prix de beauté is suggested in this vintage poster, which
names the film’s American star, French actors, and Italian director, and
also shows the flags of the four nations whose languages the film would
be dubbed – Italy, France, England, and Germany.
Despite its delayed, problematic release (having to be converted from a silent to a sound feature), Prix de beauté was a considerable hit at the time of its release. It played continuously for a couple of months -- at a time most films only played a week -- following its May 9, 1930 debut at the Max Linder-Pathe in Paris, France. And soon thereafter, the film was shown all over Europe, in Northern Africa, parts of Asia, and in South America and the Caribbean well into the mid-1930s. In fact, the film remained in circulation for some six years. It was often revived in France. And, it played in present day Algeria, Brazil, Iceland, Japan, Madagascar, Turkey and the former USSR. And speaking of former nation states, the film even played in the one-time city-state of Danzig. Prix de beauté had legs(pun intended).
For example, records show that the film played in Havana, Cuba in March 1932, and then debuted at the Haitiana theatre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti later that year, in December 1932. Ever green, Prix de beauté returned to the Haitiana theatre in October 1933, April 1935, and July 1936 - that's six years after is debut. Truth be told, the film played just about everywhere, except for the United States and Canada.
Louise Brooks had long had a connection to Toronto, Canada. She first visited the city in April, 1924 as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company, performing for two nights at the historic Massey Music Hall. And of course, her various films played in various theatres in Toronto throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
After Brooks moved to Rochester, New York in the late 1950s, she spent many an evening listening to radio broadcast out of Toronto, notably the CBC. She also gained friends and followers among Canada's film historians, and herself became a patron of the Toronto Film Society. Brooks even penned some film notes for screenings put on by the group. (An entire chapter devoted to Canada will be included in volume one of my forthcoming, two volume work, Around the World with Louise Brooks.)
I mention all this as a prelude to mentioning that the Toronto Silent Film Festival, Canada’s only silent film festival, is set to take place November 11-13, 2022 at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave.). If you live in Toronto and have never been, why not check it out. More information may be found HERE or at www.torontosilentfilmfestival.com
Though this year's festival is not showing any Louise Brooks films (maybe next year? maybe The Street of Forgotten Men ?), but they are showing films by and featuring individuals with whom Brooks worked, namely Herbert Brenon, Wallace Beery, Adolphe Menjou and Thomas Meighan. They are also showing films starring Brooks contemporaries, namely Gloria Swanson, Pola Negri, and Lya de Putti. I wish I could be there! This year's five film program includes a gripping real life adventure, a bunch of wild comedy shorts, screen divas, and a noirish thrillers -- each film paired with talented accompanists to make each film screening a one-of-a-kind experience.
SOUTH 1919 UK NEW 2K REMASTER B/W WITH TINTING AND TONING, 88 MIN DIRECTOR: FRANK HURLEY ACCOMPANIST: MORGAN-PAIGE MELBOURNE
1000 LAFFS: MACK & MAYHEM 120 MIN WITH INTRODUCTION ACCOMPANIST: JORDAN KLAPMAN
THE SPANISH DANCER 1923 USA 96 MIN RESTORED B/W WITH TINTING DIRECTOR: HERBERT BRENON CAST: POLA NEGRI, ANTONIO MORENO, ADOLPHE MENJOU, WALLACE BERRY ACCOMPANIST: MARILYN LERNER
WHY CHANGE YOUR WIFE? 1920 USA 90 MIN DIRECTOR: CECIL B. DEMILLE CAST: GLORIA SWANSON, THOMAS MEIGHAN, BEBE DANIELS ACCOMPANIST: TANIA GILL
THE INFORMER 1929 UK 99 MIN B/W, TINTED DIRECTOR: ARTHUR ROBISON CAST: LARS HANSON, LYA DE PUTTI, WARWICK WARD, CARL HARBORD ACCOMPANIST: BILL O'MEARA
The 1929 Louise Brooks' film, Diary of a Lost Girl, will be shown in Toronto, Canada on February 27 at the recently reopened Revue Cinema, Ontario's favourite independent cinema. And what's more, the film will be shown on the big screen with love musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner. More information about this special event, along with ticket availability, can be found HERE.
Diary of A Lost Girl
GERMANY | 1929 | 112 mins | NR
“Louise Brooks is the only woman who had the ability to transfigure
no matter what filmi nto a masterpiece…She is much more than a myth, she
is a magical presence, a real phantom, the magnetism of the cinema.” – Ado Kyrou, Amour-eroticisme et cinema
Based on Margarethe Böhme’s scandalous novel, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is
Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst’s follow-up to the iconic
PANDORA’S BOX. No less sensuous, controversial, or provocative, DIARY
showcases Brooks at her most transfixing.
The story of an innocent young girl disowned and sent away by her
family after she is seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant,
Pabst’s film never succumbs to melodrama, but rather turns the table on
the tormentors of women.
With showers of champagne set in the high-class brothels of Berlin,
DIARY is Weimar at its most powerful. DIARY is a silent masterwork
released at the era’s death knell and a film that further reinforced
Brooks’ status as an icon, even if it ended up being her last major work
and final silent film. – ALICIA FLETCHER
Digital Restoration Courtesy of Kino Lorber
Director: G.W. Pabst Cast: Louise Brooks; Fritz Rasp; Valeska Gert
DETAILS
Doors Open 30 minutes before showtime.
PRICING
General Admission: $17 Bronze/Loyalty Members, Students & Seniors: $14 Silver Members: $13 Gold/Individual/Family Members: FREE
For INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIPS ($350) and FAMILY MEMBERSHIPS, please email us at info@revuecinema.ca to get your ticket!
Prices include taxes. All membership benefits are available.
Want to learn more about Diary of a Lost Girl and the book that was the basis for the film? Check out the 2010 Louise Brooks Society publication, the Louise Brooks edition of Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl, edited and with a long introduction by Thomas Gladysz.
The 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl,
is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in
Germany in 1905. Though little known today, it was a literary sensation
at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1920s, it had
been translated into 14 languages and sold more than 1,200,000 copies -
ranking it among the bestselling books of its time.
Was it - as
many believed - the real-life diary of a young woman forced by
circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever
fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work - a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication
- inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two
silent films. The best remembered of these is the oft revived G.W. Pabst
film starring Louise Brooks.
This corrected and annotated
edition of the original English language translation brings this
important book back into print after more than 100 years. It includes an
introduction by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society,
detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the 1929
silent film. This special "Louise Brooks Edition" also includes more
than three dozen vintage illustrations.
"Long relegated to the shadows, Margarete Böhme's 1905 novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl
has at last made a triumphant return. In reissuing the rare 1907
English translation of Böhme's German text, Thomas Gladysz makes an
important contribution to film history, literature, and, in as much as
Böhme told her tale with much detail and background contemporary to the
day, sociology and history. He gives us the original novel, his
informative introduction, and many beautiful and rare illustrations.
This reissue is long overdue, and in all ways it is a volume of uncommon
merit." - Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran
Read
today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains
compelling. As a bonus, Gladysz richly illustrates the text with stills
of Brooks from the famous film. - Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
In
today's parlance this would be called a movie tie-in edition, but that
seems a rather glib way to describe yet another privately published work
that reveals an enormous amount of research and passion. - Leonard
Maltin Thomas
Gladysz is the leading authority on all matters pertaining to the
legendary Louise Brooks. We owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing the
groundbreaking novel, The Diary of a Lost Girl, back from obscurity. --Lon Davis, author of Silent Lives
It
was such a pleasure to come upon your well documented and beautifully
presented edition. -- Elizabeth Boa, University of Nottingham (UK)
On April 9th, the Toronto Silent Film Festival will screen Diary of a Lost Girl at 7:00 pm. at the Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This special screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Bill O'Meara.
And what's more, copies of the Louise Brooks edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl by Margarete Bohme (the book that was the basis for the film) will be for sale at the event.
Directed by G.W. Pabst, the 113 minute, 1929 film stars Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp, Valeska Gert and Andre Roanne. It is a worthy follow-up to the prior Pabst-Brooks effort, Pandora's Box (1929). And like that legendary film, it was heavily censored in its day and generally disregarded, only to be rediscovered decades later and now widely acclaimed.
Pandora's Box is a silent film that just won't go away.
Largely
panned when it debuted in 1929, this German-made film starring Louise
Brooks has experienced a decades-long comeback and is now considered one
of great films of the silent era. These days, its shown more often than
many of the more acclaimed films of its time.
Two screenings of Pandora's Box will take place in the coming days. The film will shown in Toronto, Canada on Sunday, January 26th at the Revue Cinema. And on Monday, January 27th, Pandora's Box will be screened at The Paramount Theater in Seattle.
Directed by G.W. Pabst, Pandora’s Box
tells the story of Lulu (played by Brooks), a lovely and somewhat
petulant show-girl whose flirtations with members of each sex lead to
tragic results. Despite having appeared in 23 other films – some of them quite good, Lulu is the role for which Brooks is best known today.
Others in the 109 minute film include acclaimed German stage star Fritz Kortner, as Dr. Schon, a respected businessman, and Francis Lederer, a dashing young actor who plays Schon's son. Both Schon's fall under Lulu's spell.
Lulu,
a iconic character brought into the world by the German dramatist Frank
Wedekind, has been described as a femme fatale, but in fact, she is a
kind of innocent. As Brooks' biographer Barry Paris put it, her “sinless
sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” . .
. And not just men. Lulu’s sexual magnetism knows few bounds, and this
once controversial and censored film features what is described as the
cinema's first lesbian. The Countess Geschwitz, covertly in love with
Lulu, is played by Alice Roberts.
Coiffed in her signature
black bob, Brooks inhabited her character thoroughly and effectively.
Some say she lived it. The resulting performance in Pandora's Box, called "devastating" by contemporary critics, has become the stuff of legend.
The Toronto screening is part of Silent Sundays series, now in its fifth season; founded by journalist Eric Veillette, the Canadian series is curated by media archivist Alicia Fletcher. In Toronto, Pandora's Box will feature live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.
The Seattle screening is part of the Seattle Theater Group's series Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays. The film is a special pick by the Seattle International Film Festival and their Women in Cinema Festival. In Seattle, Pandora's Box will feature Jim Riggs on the Paramount's Mighty Wurlitzer Organ. A CineClub discussion led by Beth Barrett, SIFF's Director of Programming, follows the screening.
Why these screenings, and why now?
It may be the growing public and media interest in the silent film era in the wake of the acclaim given The Artist and Hugo (the latter contains a shout-out to Brooks). Brooks herself was the subject of a recent best selling novel by Laura Moriarty, The Chaperone. It is in development as a major motion picture.
Or,
it may be the actress' own story – the story of her rise and fall and
reemergence – not only within the annals of film history but within
popular culture and the even larger realm of public awareness. When
Barry Paris wrote his outstanding 1989 biography of the actress, he
originally titled it Louise Brooks: Her Life, Death and Resurrection. That title suggests something extraordinary, something even mythic.
If you attend either of these events, please leave your impressions in the comments field....
Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will screen in Toronto, Canada on Sunday January 26th at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue). More info here. Event Time(s):4:15 p.m. Website: www.revuecineama.ca
Costs: Range:$10 - $19
Pandora’s Box
Dir. G.W. Pabst (1929)
Starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer
109 mins.
It doesn’t really get better than Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box,
does it? Brooks fled Hollywood and escaped to the German film industry
to seal her fate as an indelible force in silent film, forever to be
remembered as the sensual, yet naïve; unintentionally vampish and
victimized Lulu. Under the direction of master G.W. Pabst, the film’s
cinematography, costumes, and narration are almost unparalleled in the
medium. In short: Pandora’s Box is a masterpiece and Louise Brooks is a
legend here - visually, as well as in her acting style. Her realism was
so ahead of her time that audiences and critics rejected her; a
dismissal that history has, luckily for us, rectified. Flappers at heart
unite; this is a Silent Sundays not to be missed!
Featuring live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.
Silent Sundays, now in its fifth season, is curated by media
archivist Alicia Fletcher and was founded by journalist Eric Veillette.
It’s the Old Army Game will be shown on Wednesday April 6 at 8:30 pm at the Fox Theater, 236 Queen Street East, in Toronto, Canada.
My short history of Toronto's long love affair with Louise Brooks can be found at "Louise Brooks film featured at Toronto Silent Film Festival" on examiner.com. Be sure and check it out, including the accompanying photo gallery, links and video.
I would love to hear from anyone who attends this historic event. Please post your observations in the comments field.
The Toronto Silent Film Festival has announced it will screen the celebrated 1926 silent comedy, It’s the Old Army Game, at next year’s event. The film stars Louise Brooks and screen legend W.C. Fields. It’s the Old Army Game will be shown on Wednesday April 6 at 8:30 pm at the Fox Theater, 236 Queen Street East, in Toronto. The film will be accompanied by Toronto organist Andrei Streliaev. More at examiner.com
Two films featuring Louise Brooks will be shown in Toronto at the Goethe-Institut. Pandora's Box will be shown on Thursday, April 19th and Diary of a Lost Girl will be shown on May 24th. Both screenings are set for 7 pm. Further information here.
FILMS AT THE GOETHE-INSTITUT TORONTO Kinowelt Hall 163 King St. W. (St. Andrew subway), 416/593-5257 -admission $5., reservations possible, 18 yrs. + Silent Films with live accompaniment by some of Toronto’s most innovative contemporary musicians!
Thu, Apr 19, 7pm Pandora’s Box (“Die Büchse der Pandora”),1929, large screen projection, 131 min, by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, with Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner - Five Stars/Now Magazine With live music accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner (piano) and Mark Duggan (marimba/percussion).
Pandora’s Box is the story of Lulu, a femme fatale, whose innocent sexuality destroys the men around her. The best known of G.W. Pabst’s works, and the most famous masterwork of eroticism and desire in German silent film!
Thu, May 10, 7pm Madame Dubarry,1919, 16mm, 92 min, by Ernst Lubitsch, with Pola Negri, Emil Jannings. With live music accompaniment by Susanna Hood (voice) and Debashi Sinha (percussion).
Lubitsch’s first historical film and the best of his early silent films, Madame Dubarry is the story of a poor French seamstress who sleeps her way to the top in the court of King Louis XV and ultimately suffers the consequences. Legendary screen actress Pola Negri plays the courtesan, and the inimitable Emil Jannings plays the king. This film was a big audience success at its time! Rare screening!
Thu, May 24, 7pm Diary of a Lost Girl (“Tagebuch einer Verlorenen”), 1929, 16mm, 100 min, by Wilhelm Pabst, with Siegfried Arno, Louise Brooks. With live music accompaniment by Kathleen Kajioka (violin) and Rich Brown (electric bass).
As in Pandora's Box, Brooks plays an outcast, but when the film begins, Thymiane is a world away from Pandora's Lulu. Whereas Lulu had men eating out of her hand, Thymiane is an innocent cast adrift in a hostile world. Thymiane is less in control of the men around her and much more dependent on them than they are on her. After enduring many hardships in the first half of the film, the second half sees Thymiane gain the strength to reassert herself and take back control of her life.