Thursday, June 9, 2016

Surrealist Love Goddesses: LOUISE BROOKS: DIARY OF A LOST GIRL plays in Austin, Texas

Later, today, the 1929 Louise Brooks' film Diary of a Lost Girl will be shown in Austin, Texas. The Austin Film Society screening is set to take place at 7:30 p.m. Here are the event details:

Surrealist Love Goddesses: LOUISE BROOKS: DIARY OF A LOST GIRL

Thu, 9 Jun, 2016 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Diary of a Lost GirlLouise Brooks, who a few short years ago had been a Kansas farm girl, took Europe by storm when she starred in two magnificent films for director G.W. Pabst. This is the second of these and in it Brooks, as described by author Angela Carter, “typifies the subversive violence inherent in beauty and a light heart.”
Location: AFS Cinema
(6226 Middle Fiskville Rd)

(Map)
Fees: $10 General Admission // $7 AFS Make & Watch Members // Free to AFS LOVE, LEARN & Premiere Circle Members
Contact: afs@austinfilm.org
Calendar: Austin Film Society Events
More Information

The Austin Statesman reported: “Diary of a Lost Girl.” Louise Brooks stars in this silent film from 1929, exemplifying “the subversive violence inherent in beauty and a light heart.” 7:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday. $7-$10. AFS at the Marchesa Hall and Theatre, 6226 Middle Fiskville Road. austinfilm.org.

See the movie, read the book. Both the book and the recently released DVD and Blu-ray are available through Amazon.com 


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Paramount ballyhoo for Louise Brooks in late 1925

Though Louise Brooks had only appeared in one uncredited bit part for Paramount by late 1925 (The Street of Forgotten Men), the studio had enough belief in the actress and her star potential that they included her in this late 1925 magazine add promoting its stock company of stars. Wow!






Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Pandora's Box screens in Yorkshire, England on July 10

As part of its crowdfunding campaign for its inaugural event, the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival has announced that it will be showing the 1929 Louise Brooks film Pandora's Box not once, but twice  during the course of its month long series of screenings. Lillian Henley will accompany the film on piano. The Festival is set to take place July 1 through July 30, with one of the Pandora's Box screenings set to take place on July 10 at 6 pm at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield.

More information HERE (Facebook) and HERE (website).


Monday, June 6, 2016

Louise Brooks in “Pandora’s Box” screens June 9 in NYC

Pandora’s Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be screened on June 9, 2016 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem in New York City.  More information HERE and HERE.
Pandora’s Box (1929), Dir. G. W. Pabst: In this acclaimed German silent film, Lulu (Louise Brooks) is a young woman so beautiful and alluring that few can resist her siren charms. The men drawn into her web include respectable newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner), his musical producer son Alwa (Franz Lederer), circus performer Rodrigo Quast (Krafft-Raschig) and Lulu’s seedy old friend, Schigolch (Carl Goetz). When Lulu’s charms inevitably lead to tragedy, the downward spiral encompasses them all.
Garden party at 6:30pm, silent film begins at 8pm. Endless refreshments (savory & sweet) available. Not just our famous popcorn, so come hungry! Your entire $20 donation goes to support St. Mary’s Church and its mission to fight homelessness and hunger in west Harlem. Ishmael Wallace will improvise the live organ accompaniment to the film on St. Mary’s historic church organ, which includes parts dating back to the nineteenth century.


Sunday, June 5, 2016

Those were the days . . .

Robert Birchard's death late last month led me to recall the event I put on with him some years ago. I was working at a bookstore at the time, and the event was to promote his then new release Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, published by the University Press of Kentucky. It was an excellent event. Because Birchard's book is similarly excellent; I recommend it as perhaps the best on this important director.

(Here is an article I wrote on Birchard and his books back in 2010.)

As someone interested in film, I was fortunate to work with numerous film industry personalities, everyone from Ray Harryhausen to Gloria Stuart, Michael Palin, Whit Stillman, Peter Coyote and Wes Craven. As someone seriously interested in early film, I was also fortunate in being able to select the biographers and film historians I wished to work with. Robert Birchard was always on my list.

At the time, the store where I worked issued author cards, baseball card like objects issued to promote the events series. I personally produced nearly 1000 events, and as many authors cards were issued. One of them was for Robert Birchard. He was more than a little amused by the card, which features a caricature of the film historian. I always made it a habit to get a few cards signed for my collection. The image posted here is a copy of my autographed card. And below are a few more examples of my cards.





When I helped bring the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks back into print, the University of Minnesota Press "thanked me" by flying the author out to San Francisco for a special celebratory event. That was a thrill.

I was also especially proud of having put on the first (and only?) bookstore event with Frederica Sagor Maas, the then 99-years old former Hollywood screenwriter whose memoir, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, was published by the University Press of Kentucky. I was drawn to the books because Maas penned the story for the 1927 Louise Brooks film Rolled Stockings, as well as scripts for Clara Bow and other silent era stars. Despite her obscurity these days, the event was a huge success, and we sold more than 100 books. In 2006, during the Louise Brooks centennial, I also put on an event with Peter Cowie, author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. He traveled from his home in Europe for the event.

Over the years, I put on successful events with Diana Serra Cary (aka silent film star Baby Peggy), as well as a handful of distinguished biographers and film historians such as Arthur Lennig (for his Stroheim bio), Emily Leider (for her Valentino bio), Steven Bach (for his Leni Riefenstahl bio), Mick Lasalle (for his two books on pre-code actors), Suzanne Lloyd (for her book on her grandfather Harold Lloyd), Matthew Kennedy (for his Edmund Goulding book), Mark Cotta Vaz (author of Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong) and many others, including Jeanine Basinger, David Stenn, John Baxter, Mark Vieira, and Donald Richie

The last event I put on was with David Thomson. It was my seventh event with David, and he and I and a few film friends all went out for drinks. 

Those were the days . . .

Back to Robert Birchard. His most recent book is Monty Banks 1920-1924 Filmography, published in May of last year through Amazon's CreateSpace. This inexpensive, 72 page, 8" x 11" book is a study of the once popular comedian with contributions from Rob Farr, Sam Gill, Robert James Kiss, Steve Massa, and Karl Thiede.

I just ordered a copy. And so, a publisher's description will have to suffice in leiu of a review: "Monty Banks may not be as well remembered as Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton, but he was one of the bread and butter comics who made audiences roar in the Golden Age of Comedy. Here for the first time is a comprehensive filmography of Monty Banks' 1920-1924 starring two reelers, well illustrated with stills from the films and behind-the-scenes photos that bring the comedian and his times to life."

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Some Snapshots from this Year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival

This year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival has been a lot of fun. I've gotten to see old friends (like film historians Donna Hill, John Bengston, Mary Mallory, and David Kiehn) and make new ones (like film historians Laura Horak and Shelley Stamp) and talk silent film with those who, like me, are passionate about the subject. I also got to speak with Jan-Christopher Horak  about Louise Brooks, whom he knew, and his days in Rochester, NY. And, I got to see a Louise Brooks' film on the BIG screen -- the William Wellman-directed  Beggars of Life (1928) with live musical accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. (Their score included the familiar theme song from the film.) Here are some snapshots from the Festival.

The marquee of the historic Castro Theater.
Some of the 1,000 attendees begin to line-up for Beggars of Life
One of the pre-show slides.
Another of the pre-show slides.
One of the pre-show slides about Beggars of Life.
One of the pre-show slides about Louise Brooks.
The swell new Beggars of Life poster by Wayne Shellabarger.
Copies of the 2016 program.
Me at the signing table, with Joan Craig (author of Theda Bara, My Mentor), and Paramount Pictures
executive Laura Thornburg

Some of Pola Negri's jewelry from A Woman of the World, directed by Malcom St. Clair.
By the way, A Woman of the World is a really terrific film. I hope someone releases it on DVD. It would be a sensation!

Louise Brooks and Beggars of Life on the big screen once again.

I was thrilled: a snapshot of David Robinson and I at this year's Silent Film Festival. Robinson is one of the world's great film historians. We spoke about Louise Brooks, who Robinson worked with when she began submitting articles to "Sight and Sound" in the late 1950's. He is also the author of many books, and was kind enough to sign 16 of them for me! (His bestselling "Chaplin: His Life and Art" from 1985 was source material for the 1992 Richard Attenborough film "Chaplin," starring Robert Downey, Jr.)
And a snapshot with the great David Shepard. I spoke with him about his valiant, long ago efforts to try and save
the now lost Louise Brooks film, The City Gone Wild.
It was a great pleasure to meet Laura Horak, author of Girls Will Be Boys


Louise Brooks in a storefront window.

Friday, June 3, 2016

The brilliant new Beggars of Life poster

Here is the silkscreen poster for this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It is by an old friend, the great Wayne Shellabarger, and measures 18" x 24" and sells for $50.00. There are only 100 signed and numbered copies. (I acquired copy # 28, because the film was released in 1928.) Any remaining copies will be available on the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website after the Festival.


Wayne Shellabarger's art is also used on the cover of the flier and the program (picture here left to right), as well as the black-and-white mini-poster also for sale at $10.00 (picture below).


Thursday, June 2, 2016

San Francisco's Eclectic & Lively Silent Film Festival

This year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival has something for everyone - whether it's the vamp allure in A Woman of the World, or the deliciously epic pie fight in Laurel and Hardy's The Battle of the Century, the gender-bending hi-jinks of I Don't Want to Be a Man, the topicality of the locally produced Mothers of Men, or the enchanting eye candy featured in "Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema."

The popular event, now in its 21st year, takes place June 2-5 at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Along with a lively, eclectic line-up of films in an appropriate setting, each film features live musical accompaniment and often a special introduction. All together, it's a film lover's dream. This local Festival is at the forefront of world festivals devoted to silent cinema.

If you've never been, a great introduction to what it's all about is opening night. This year, the featured film is Beggars of Life (1928), starring Oscar winner Wallace Beery and silent film legend Louise Brooks. In what is widely regarded as her best American film, Brooks is riveting as a freight-train hopping runaway who dresses as a boy to escape the police. Can Brooks, a renowned beauty, pull it off? William Wellman, whose Wings (1927) won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Picture, directs with aplomb. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. (Following the film, there is an opening night party at the nearby McRoskey Mattress Company.)

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Do clothes make the man? Ossi Oswalda (left) in I Don't Want to be a Man. Louise Brooks (right) in Beggars of Life. Courtesy of SFSFF

Speaking of gender bending, the Festival is presenting an intriguing program titled "Girls Will Be Boys." Inspired by a new book of the same name, this special program includes two delectable comedies that feature cross-dressing protagonists, Ernst Lubitsch's I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918), and the zany Hal Roach production, What's the World Coming To? (1926), which takes place in a future "one hundred years from now--when men have become more like women and women more like men." Former Bay Area resident Laura Horak, author of Girls Will Be Boys, will introduce.

Another not-to-be-missed program is "Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema." This program presents an equally delectable collection of films from the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam which show the ingenious techniques artists first used to create color cinema--long before the advent of Technicolor. Exquisite examples of hand painting, dyeing, and stencil coloring illuminate these early trick films and travelogues--each a virtuosic window into the imagination of early filmmakers.

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A scene from The Tulips (1907), one of 15 short color films in the "Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema" program. Courtesy of SFSFF

Discoveries, rediscoveries and restorations are always one of the highlights of the event. This year, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is jointly responsible for the restoration of five films screened at the event. They include two by the great French director Rene Clair, The Italian Straw Hat / Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (in partnership with Cinémathèque Française), which Pauline Kael called  "one of the funniest films ever made, and one of the most elegant as well," and Les Deux timides (also in partnership with Cinémathèque Française). Also on the schedule is the grim Behind the Door (in collaboration with Gosfilmofond and Library of Congress), starring Wallace Beery; the feminist themed Mothers of Men / Every Woman's Problem (in partnership with James Mockoski and BFI), which was shot in the Bay Area; and What's the World Coming To? (in collaboration with Carleton University and New York University). The latter is part of the "Girls Will Be Boys" program.

Speaking of restorations, be sure not to miss the free Friday presentation "Amazing Tales from the Archives." Among others, French filmmaker and restoration expert Georges Mourier will talk about his ongoing six-and-a-half-hour restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon for the Cinémathèque Française, in partnership with Francis Ford Coppola, and The Film Preserve Ltd. That program will be followed by A Woman of the World (1925), starring uber vamp Pola Negri. The latter has been recently restored by Paramount Pictures.

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The Polish-born actress Pola Negri stars in the Malcom St. Clair directed A Woman of the World. Courtesy of SFSFF

Another film worth taking-in is Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates (1920), the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director. The movie was a rebuttal to D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking, racist epic The Birth of a Nation (1915). This special presentation marks the San Francisco premiere of a new score for strings and voice performed by Oakland Symphony musicians and members of the Oakland Symphony Chorus.

The Festival's closing film is Victor Fleming's When the Clouds Roll By (1919). In one of his last "Coat and Tie" comedies before transforming himself into the screen's most dashing swashbuckler, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. plays the unwitting subject of a nefarious doctor's hypnosis experiment. Tracey Goessel, author of the recent stellar biography of Fairbanks, The First King of Hollywood, will introduce.

The 2016 Festival features a number of special guests, with none more illustrious than David Robinson, the recently retired Director of the Giornate del cinema muto silent film festival (commonly known as Pordenone). Robinson began writing for Sight and Sound and other publications in the 1950s, and was later film critic for The Times of London. He has authored a number of books, among them Hollywood in the Twenties (1968) and The History of World Cinema (1973). His bestselling Chaplin: His Life and Art, published in 1985, and was source material for the 1992 Richard Attenborough film Chaplin, starring Robert Downey, Jr.

Prior to the screening of the Anthony Asquith-directed behind-the-scenes look at British moviemaking, Shooting Stars (1928), the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival Award will be presented to Robinson for his commitment to the preservation of silent cinema.

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A scene from Fritz Lang's Destiny, which will be introduced by the popular contemporary actress Illeana Douglas. Courtesy of SFSFF

Other special guests include presenters Leonard Maltin, who will introduce The Battle of the Century and Other Comedy Restorations program, and actress Illeana Douglas, who will introduce Destiny (1921), an early spectacle by Fritz Lang. Douglas, the granddaughter of Hollywood great Melvyn Douglas, has been seen on Turner Classic Movies, where she hosts specials focused on unheralded women directors from film history. Recently, she penned a memoir, I Blame Dennis Hopper (2015), on her life in Hollywood.

For a complete schedule of films, visit the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website at www.silentfilm.org.  Here is the line-up of signings taking place at the Festival.

Friday, June 3
  • 2:15 pm (after A Woman of the World): Thomas Gladysz (Diary of a Lost Girl), Joan Craig (Theda Bara, My Mentor), and JC Garrett (limited-edition posters)
  • 5:40 pm (after Mothers of Men): Mary Mallory and Karie Bible (Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays), Cari Beauchamp (My First Time in Hollywood), and Shelley Stamp (Lois Weber in Early Hollywood and Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema)
Saturday, June 4
  • 1:50 pm (after The Strongest): William Wellman, Jr. (Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel)
  • 4:25 pm (after Shooting Stars): David Robinson (Chaplin: His Life and Art) and Bryony Dixon (100 Silent Films and Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema)
Sunday, June 5
  • 1:15 pm (after Girls Will Be Boys): Laura Horak (Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934)
  • 3:00 pm (after Nanook of the North): Illeana Douglas (I Blame Dennis Hopper, and Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies) and Tracey Goessel (The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks)
  • 5:30 pm (after Destiny): Wayne Shellabarger (SFSFF21 and other posters)

A variant on this article originally appeared on Huffington Post 

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Louise Brooks - Diary of a Lost Girl book and DVD signing on June 3rd

For those interested . . . . I've been asked to sign my Diary of a Lost Girl book (edited and with an intro by yours truly) and DVD (with my audio commentary) at the Castro Theater on Friday, June 3rd, following the San Francisco Silent Film Festival screening of A Woman of the World, starring the great Polish-born actress Pola Negri. . . .  I will have some Louise Brooks / Lulu pinback buttons to give away with purchase of both the book and DVD or Blu-ray. Hope to see you there!

Otherwise, both the book and DVD are available through amazon.com

Here is the line-up of signings. 

Friday, June 3
  • 2:15 pm (after A Woman of the World): Thomas Gladysz (Diary of a Lost Girl), Joan Craig (Theda Bara, My Mentor), and JC Garrett (limited-edition posters)
  • 5:40 pm (after Mothers of Men): Mary Mallory and Karie Bible (Hollywood Celebrates the Holidays), Cari Beauchamp (My First Time in Hollywood), and Shelley Stamp (Lois Weber in Early Hollywood and Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema)
Saturday, June 4
  • 1:50 pm (after The Strongest): William Wellman, Jr. (Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel)
  • 4:25 pm (after Shooting Stars): David Robinson (Chaplin: His Life and Art) and Bryony Dixon (100 Silent Films and Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema)
Sunday, June 5
  • 1:15 pm (after Girls Will Be Boys): Laura Horak (Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934)
  • 3:00 pm (after Nanook of the North): Illeana Douglas (I Blame Dennis Hopper, and Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies) and Tracey Goessel (The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks)
  • 5:30 pm (after Destiny): Wayne Shellabarger (SFSFF21 and other posters)
I'll be signing along with Joan Craig, along with Theda Bara, My Mentor, new from McFarland.

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