Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Louise Brooks and Denis Marion: a correspondence

Just recently, I acquired a French-language book, Denis Marion; pleins feux sur un homme de l'ombre (LE CRI). It is about the French-speaking Belgian writer, lawyer, journalist, chess player, literary critic, film critic, playwright, and university professor Denis Marion. I did so because the book contains a 17-page chapter about Marion's long correspondence with Louise Brooks. And though I don't read French, I was able to pick through the chapter (by Muriel Andrin and Caroline Pirotte) and gleam some fascinating material. Happily, for me, bits of some of their letters are presented in their original English.

Marion is only mention in passing in the Barry Paris biography, but from what I was able to find out, Marion (whose real name is Marcel Defosse) was born in 1906, the same year as Brooks. He began a career as a lawyer while indulging in his passion for chess (he participated in six championships in Belgium). In 1928, he published a laudatory article on a novel by André Malraux, which earned him the friendship of the famed author. In the early 1930s, he was one of the founders of the Screen Club (the precursor of the Belgian Royal Cinematheque ), and was involved in the making of various documentary films. In 1945, he left his law firm to become the correspondent in Paris of the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir. He signed his articles under the pseudonym Denis Marion. As such, he wrote books on literature (on Daniel Defoe, Edgar Allen Poe), and the cinema (including titles on Erich von Stroheim, and Igmar Bergman), a novel published by Gallimard, two plays, a couple of screenplays (both films were directed by Albert Valentin), and gave classes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on the history of cinema.

Denis Marion
Marion knew many cultural personalities in France, as well as in the post-WWII film world. I don't think Marion and Brooks ever met. But, they did strike up a seven-year correspondence with Brooks that began in 1962 and lasted until 1969.

Chapter VII of Denis Marion; pleins feux sur un homme de l'ombre, titled "Louise Brooks/Denis Marion, fragments d'une correspondence (1962-1968)" offers a glimpse of what I gather to have been a vigorous meeting of minds. At one point in the exchange of letters, there was much discussion regarding Erich von Stroheim. Marion was writing a book on the director, and was pleased to be in contact with someone who had met him.

According to a Brooks’ letter from 1964, the actress met von Stroheim at G.W. Pabst’s Hollywood apartment in 1935. “I shall never forget him sitting tense, separate, flashing me a quick, ugly look and saying not a word as we were introduced. He made not even a gesture of rising. In that look, we knew each other — why pretend?” Brooks goes on to discuss silent era actors who made up a past.

In 1966, the French film journal Etudes Cinematographiques published its "von Stroheim" issue, edited by Denis Marion (and dedicated to Brooks). The actress contributed one page of notes about the director excerpted from her 1964 contribution to the Montreal journal Objectif. Brooks' name also appears on the cover alongside Rene Clair, Lillian Gish, Jean Renoir and others.




Here are some highlights which I gathered from "Louise Brooks/Denis Marion, fragments d'une correspondence (1962-1968)," which only quotes snippets from their correspondence. All together, this is fascinating material, and well worth publishing in its entirety.

August 27, 1962
Begins corresponding with French writer Denis Marion.

August 28, 1962
Writes to Marion, "Yesterday when I wrote to you I was so busy -- reading your article, feeding the cat, checking my notebook, making a cake, writing to Lotte [Eisner], clipping the ivy and reading a letter from William Inge." 

November 20, 1962
Marion writes to Brooks offering to translate her book Women in Film into French and to help find a publisher in France.

November 25, 1962
Writes a letter to Marion in which Brooks states her reluctant admiration for Mae Murray.

December 8, 1962
Writes a letter to Marion offering to help research Erich von Stroheim. Brooks also writes that she will acquire a copy of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders, which she plans to read again.

August 26, 1963
Writes a letter to Denis Marion, who notes she often spent nights in Chez Florence in Montmartre while in Paris.

September 18, 1963
Writes a letter to Marion in which Brooks says "Perhaps I never would have had courage to write had you not told me to read novels."

October 3, 1963
Writes a letter to Marion asking which Balzac novels he suggests she read. "I reread Manon Lescaut. It is just as silly to me now as 35 years ago.... Another book I read again was [Flaubert's] Madame Bovary."

March 27, 1967
Writes a letter to Marion stating she gave up sex in 1958. "But right up to my retirement from sex in 1958, I always had some pretty lesbians on a string -- flattering and fun. So if I am known as a lesbian it is my own doing, and I don't mind, I like it."

May 10, 1967
Writes a letter to Marion which states she has "fallen in love with Stroheim -- as a person now."

November 13, 1967
Writes a letter to Marion, "Tomorrow I shall be 61, knowing no more about myself or why I do anything then I did at 6. Except this -- all my life I have been a learner. That is why I write. As Dylan Thomas put it... 'My poetry is the record of my struggles from darkness to some measure of light'."

July 10, 1969
Correspondence with the French writer Denis Marion ends.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Film fragment discovered: Louise Brooks like you've never seen her before

Pamela Hutchinson / Silent London helped break the news that a previously unknown, 3 second fragment of technicolor film featuring Louise Brooks has been discovered at the BFI National Archive (British Film Institute). The all-to-brief piece is from The American Venus (1926), one of the earlier examples of the use of Technicolor. Hutchinson wrote up the discovery on her wonder-filled Silent London blog. The news was also covered by the BBC, which ran this story "BFI finds movie gold of silent era star Louise Brooks." The June 2018 issue of Sight & Sound (out next week) will contain the full story of the fragments’ discovery.

(The use of Technicolor in The American Venus was considerable: there are three scenes which utilize the process. One is of the boardwalk parade of beauty contestants at the Atlantic City beauty pageant, the second is of series of artistic tableaux, and the last is of a fashion revue.)

Via YouTube, here is a 8:17 compilation of the various newly discovered fragments, many of which are repeated because they are so brief. Louise Brooks enters the fray around 1:00 minute in. (But do watch the entire video. It is fabulous.)



In The American Venus, Brooks plays Miss Bayport, a beauty contestant and mannequin (then a term for a fashion model). The film -- which was sometimes screened in the UK under the title The Modern Venus -- includes a few tableau, which amount to a kind of still-life fashion show. This fragment may be from one of those tableau (notice the pole at Brooks' feet, used to position and steady the model), or it may be a screen test/color test, as BFI curator Bryony Dixon suggests in her narration over the YouTube video.

It might be a test, or it might be a censored cut from the Frank Tuttle directed film.

At the time of the film's release, newspapers and local censorship boards complained about the skimpy outfits worn by many of the women in the film. To our eyes today, this is pretty tame stuff. But back then, such skimpy outfits amounted to nudity. (The term "nudity" was in fact used in a few critiques of the film.) As is evident in the above clip, Brooks' belly button and midriff are clearly visible. At the time, such exposure was pushing the boundaries of decorum.

The American Venus was a big success, and was widely reviewed. Rose Pelswick, writing in the New York Evening Journal, stated “Famous Players-Lasky tied up with the recent beauty contest, and the result is a bewildering succession of events that range from artistic tableaux to a Keystone comedy chase.” However, Quinn Martin, writing in the New York World, called the film “A glittering piece of dramatic trash, as cheap a thing and still as expensive looking as anything I have seen from the Paramount studio…. It presents a raw and effortful desire to photograph scantily attired women without any sensible or appreciable tendency to tell a reasonably alive or plausible story. Any nervous high school boy might have done the plot and there isn’t a director in captivity who could not have told the cameraman when and where and how to shoot.”



Soon-to-be famous poet Carl Sandburg liked it, calling the film a "a smart takeoff on our national custom." The film also found favor with playwright Robert E. Sherwood. Writing in Life magazine, Sherwood call the film “The primmest bit of box-office bait ever cast into the sea of commercialism…. The American Venus is to cinematographic art what the tabloid newspaper is to journalism. It is designed to appeal to those charming people who fill out the coupons and enclose their dollars for ‘Twelve Beautiful Photographic Studies of Parisian Models in Nature’s Garb’. Not that it is the least bit immoral. On the contrary, it is flamingly virtuous and teeming with the highest principles of 100 per cent American go-gettery.”

The American Venus had enough eye candy appeal that it remained in circulation for nearly two years. In one of its last recorded theatrical screenings, The American Venus is shown at the Ramona theater in Phoenix, Arizona on December 30, 1927.

The American Venus is considered a lost film. That's a shame, because it pictures Brooks in all her youthful beauty. (The film was shot in the Fall of 1925, and officially released in early 1926.) In the late 1990’s, a few minutes of material was found in Australia. The surviving material includes fragments, variously in black and white, tinted and in Technicolor, from two theatrical trailers. These surviving trailers, each about 180 feet in length, are housed at the Library of Congress and at the Pacific Film Archive. The two trailers were screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2002, and can be found on the DVD box set, More Treasures from American Film Archives 1894 – 1931. Via YouTube, here is a technicolor trailer.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Louise Brooks films throughout May in Yorkshire, UK

The Yorkshire Silent Film Festival in Yorkshire, England will be screening two Louise Brooks films throughout the month of May, as part of their regular series of silent film programming. More information HERE. Each screening will feature live musical accompaniment!



Beggars of Life will be shown on May 12, 16, 18, and 22

Dir. William Wellman. USA, 1928, 81 mins, certificate U
After escaping her violent stepfather, Nancy (Louise Brooks) disguises herself as a  boy and goes on the run. She meets a kindly drifter and together they ride the rails through stunning American landscapes. Alternately action-packed and lyrical, and with a nail-biting final scene set atop a speeding train, Beggars of Life is an American classic. [Here is a link to Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film on amazon.co.uk -- which is described as "A great companion to go with the film" and "a very fine and informative small book."]

On May 12 and 16, the film will be accompanied by Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (harp)

On May 18 and 22, the film will be accompanied by Jonny Best (piano), Jacqui Wicks (ukeleke/voice), Seonaid Mathieson (violin)


AND, the rarely seen silent version of Prix de beaute will be shown on May 26 (with musical accompaniment to be announced)

Dir: Augusto Genino, Italy, 1929/1930, 1hr 53m
The luminous Louise Brooks stars as a French typist whose life is turned upside down when she wins a beauty contest in San Sebastián. If you’ve loved Brooks in Pandora’s Box or Beggars of Life, this is a rare opportunity to see Cineteca Bologna's beautiful restoration of this unusual and beguiling film.  

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Louise Brooks shout out in new John Malkovich film, 'Supercon'

There's a Louise Brooks shout out in new John Malkovich film, Supercon.



In the Zak Knutson directed film, a ragtag group of friends hope to pull off a heist at a comic book convention. "Love this disguise. It's like Louise Brooks-goth nerd," the Malkovich character, Sid, says to Allison Sweeney, played by a bobbed Maggie Grace, who responds in the affirmative, "It's Louise Brooks-ish." See the video clip below.


Interestingly, Maggie Grace starred on Lost (2004), the acclaimed TV series which had it's own connection to Louise Brooks via material which inspired its story line. Wheels within wheels keep on turning.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Louise Brooks around the world in the United States

In the 1920s and 1930s, there were numerous non-English (ethnic) newspapers in the United States. Usually, these papers were based in cities or large metropolitan areas where large numbers of people from a particular country or region settled. For example, there were Polish-language papers based in Detroit and Chicago which served readers in the Midwest.

I am always researching Louise Brooks, and am always on the look-out for unusual articles and publications. So far, I have turned up articles about or mentions of the actress in German, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese-language newspapers based in the United States. The German and Russian papers were based in New York City, the Spanish publications in Los Angeles, and the Portuguese paper in Massachusetts. (Besides Polish-language publications, I have also looked through Swedish and Czech-language papers, but was not able to find any mention of Brooks nor advertisements for her films.)

Recently, I turned up my first Danish-American article! This June, 1928 piece about Hollywood was published in Bien, a weekly Danish language newspaper published California. The article is, I think, about news from Hollywood. Brooks's name shows up twice, and can be found at the end of the first paragraph and at the end of the article.


Saturday, April 21, 2018

New silent film festival in Vallejo, California

Word has come that a new silent film festival is being set up in Vallejo, California (that's in the greater San Francisco Bay Area). The 2018 Silent Film Festival, presented by the Empress Film Club, will take place May 4th, 5th, and 6th.


Here is the line-up of films and events for the inaugural event:

Friday evening, May 4th

7PM – Film – Paul Wegener’s Golem with live musical score by Members of the Club Foot Orchestra

Saturday afternoon, May 5th

3PM – Films & Music by the VCS Radio Symphony
Music: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – movement one
Talk:  Ralph Martin, VCS Radio Conservatory
Film: Georges Melies’ Trip to the Moon
intermission
Music: Raymond Scott’s Bumpy Weather over Newark
Talk: David Kiehn, Niles Essanay Film Museum
Film: David Kiehn’s Broncho Billy and the Bandit’s Secret

Saturday evening, May 5th

7:30PM – Films: Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. & comedy shorts.
10PM – Films: Sexy Silents & Flaming Flappers (Adult only, private access from the speakeasy bar)

Sunday afternoon, May 6th

12PM – Brunch included – Bagels & Champagne
1pm – Film: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Master of the House with live musical score by Nitrate Blaze Chamber Ensemble

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Catalina Island Museum Silent Film Benefit set for May 19

This year's annual Catalina Island Museum Silent Film Benefit is set for May 19th. For more information click HERE.

31st Annual Silent Film Benefit & Art Auction
Saturday, May 19
1:00 pm, Avalon Casino Theatre

One day each year, the Catalina Island Museum Silent Film Benefit offers a rare and authentic 1920s cinema experience in the historic Avalon Casino Theatre. This year's film is Terror Island (1920).



Harry Houdini stars as an inventor who travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl. The girl's father is being held captive by cannibals until she returns a pearl that belongs to one of their idols. Terror Island was filmed on Santa Catalina Island.

Live Musical Accompaniment
by Michael Mortilla and The Accompanists

Award-winning composer, sound designer, and friend of the Louise Brooks Society, Michael Mortilla, and a group of the very best musicians in the nation will provide the live orchestral accompaniment. The group will perform an original score written by Mortilla.


​This year's event also features an art auction and a member's only pre-performance magic show. More details to come. Period dress is encouraged.

Make it a Roaring Twenties Weekend: The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles hosts the annual Avalon Ball on Saturday, May 19th at 6:00 pm in the historic Casino Ballroom. Attend our Silent Film Benefit in the afternoon and then dance the night away to Big Band music! Click HERE for more info.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks screens in Warsaw on April 21

The 1929 Louise Brooks film Pandora's Box (in Polish Puszka Pandory) will screen in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday, April 21 at the Kino Iluzjon. More information on this event, with live musical accompaniment, can be found HERE. (This page link includes notes in Polish on the film by the 8th Doctor Who, actor Paul McGann, the star of Withnail & I and other films.)

What follows are notes in Polish from the Polish venue.

W sobotę 21 kwietnia w ramach 15. Święto Niemego Kina zapraszamy na pokaz filmu „Puszka Pandory” z muzyką na żywo w wykonaniu Resiny & Mirona Grzegorkiewicza.

W programie:
„Puszka Pandory” / „Pandora’s Box”, reż. Georg W. Pabst, Niemcy 1929 r., 133’
Muzyka: Resina & Miron Grzegorkiewicz

FILM:
W 1926 roku w Berlinie reżyser Georg Wilhelm Pabst rozpoczął obsesyjne poszukiwania aktorki, która zagra główną rolę w „Puszce Pandory”, historii uwodzicielskiej Lulu, której niemoralne zachowanie doprowadza do upadku kilku zakochanych w niej mężczyzn. Trwały one dwa lata. Przesłuchano dwa tysiące kandydatek, kilkaset poddano próbom przed kamerą. Wszystkie zostały jednak odrzucone – jedne nie miały odpowiednich warunków fizycznych, inne – talentu. Historię śledziły gazety i czasopisma. Wybór aktorki stał się wkrótce sprawą narodową.
We wrześniu 1928 roku 21-letnia Louise Brooks, niezwykle piękna i wyzywająco seksualna, opuściła Hollywood, by stać się nieśmiertelną. Pierwszy raz zwróciła na siebie uwagę Pabsta występem w „A kochanek miał sto” („A Girl in Every Port”) Howarda Hawksa, gdzie grała wyrachowanego drapieżnika. Reżyser poprosił o możliwość współpracy z aktorką, ale studio Paramount, z którym była związana kontraktem odmówiło. Legenda głosi, że w momencie, gdy Brooks odmawiała podpisania nowego kontraktu z Paramountem, młoda Marlena Dietrich stała właśnie pod drzwiami Pabsta w Berlinie, umówiona na spotkanie w sprawie głównej roli w „Puszce Pandory”. Reżyser dowiedział jednak się, że Brooks jest wolna i z miejsca ofiarował jej rolę w swoim nowym filmie. W czasach, gdy Ameryka kusiła wiele talentów z Niemiec, Brooks postanowiła wyjechać w przeciwnym kierunku i w ciągu zaledwie dziesięciu miesięcy, pod kierunkiem Pabsta na nowo zdefiniowała sztukę gry aktorskiej i zajęła ważne miejsce w historii kina.
Więcej o filmie: bit.ly/2q4gqKX


MUZYKA:
Wyjątkowe spotkanie muzyczne, którego rezultatów nie sposób przewidzieć. W duecie wystąpią wiolonczelistka i kompozytorka Karolina Rec oraz gitarzysta, twórca muzyki elektronicznej Miron Grzegorkiewicz. Artystka znana szerzej pod pseudonimem Resina ma duże doświadczenie w graniu do filmu, które zdobywała między innymi na kilku poprzednich edycjach Święta Niemego Kina. Przeważnie wykonuje jednak materiał autorski łączący brzmienie wiolonczeli z prostymi narzędziami elektronicznymi. Wśród nich centralną rolę odgrywa looper, który sprawia, że budowane z kolejnych pętli utwory Resiny gęstnieją i rozbudowują się w czasie. Poszukiwania artystki czasem prowadzą w stronę zaskakująco piosenkowych kompozycji, innym razem przybierają formę bardziej abstrakcyjnych impresji. Można je usłyszeć na albumie „Resina”, który ukazał się w 2016 roku nakładem 130701 – neoklasycznego oddziału popularnej brytyjskiej wytwórni FatCat.
Więcej o muzykach: bit.ly/2GBpnXa

Bilety do nabycia on-line i w kasie kina Iluzjon.
Kasa kina: (22) 848 33 33; iluzjon.rezerwacje@fn.org.pl.
http://www.iluzjon.fn.org.pl/cykle/info/852/15-swieto-niemego-kina.html

Pełen program wydarzenia: www.swietoniemegokina.pl



Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks shows in Greece on May 3

Pandora's Box, the 1929 German film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Greece on May 3. This screening is part of a series of films to be shown in late April and early May under the sponsorship of the local Goethe Institute. The film was based on a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind; the title of Wedekind's work was in turn suggested by a Greek myth. More information on the event can be found HERE (near the bottom of the page).

Πέμπτη 3/5
11:00 – 20:00  Σε λούπα στο κάτω φουαγιέ
Ο Κάφκα πάει σινεμά/Kafka goes to the Movies (2002, 55´)
Ντοκιμαντέρ του Hanns Zischler

20:30 Αίθουσα Εκδηλώσεων
Το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Die Büchse der Pandora) (1929, 131´)
του Georg Wilhelm Pabst με μεγάλα ονόματα της εποχής Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer κ.ά.

Βασισμένη στα έργα «Το πνεύμα της γης» και «Το κουτί της Πανδώρας» του Φρανκ Βέντεκιντ
Ζωντανή μουσική: Someone Who Isn’t Me (S.W.I.M.)


Follow this unrelated page for MORE information on Brooks and Pabst. A Google search using the Greek title for Pandora's Box ( Το κουτί της Πανδώρας  1929) along with the date of it's release will turn up a number of Greek-language pages about the film.


«Ένα tour de force κινηματογραφικού ερωτισμού», New York Times.

«Δεν υπήρξε, ούτε θα υπάρξει ξανά άλλη Λούλου», Village Voice.

«H Μπρουκς ως Λούλου είναι κάποια που μόλις τη δει κανείς, δε μπορεί να την ξεχάσει»,
Henri Langlois
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