SF Examiner: Six reasons to go to the San Francisco Silent F
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:53 pm
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4857 ... m-Festival
Six reasons to go to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
June 23, 4:39 PMLouise Brooks ExaminerThomas Gladysz
If you’re a silent film buff, and a fan of Louise Brooks, and have been thinking about attending the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and need just a few reasons to encourage you to purchase a ticket – then here are six.
Each, on its own, is reason enough.
1) The Festival, which is putting on its 15th annual event in July, will screen one of Brooks’ best films, Diary of a Lost Girl. As the Founder’s Pick film, this 1929 German movie has been designated the centerpiece work at this year’s event. It will be shown with live musical accompaniment provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Diary of a Lost Girl marks the second collaboration between the great Austrian-born director G.W. Pabst and the American-born actress whose reputation today looms larger than ever before. Their first collaboration was Pandora’s Box, also from 1929. That film is now considered one of the great works of the silent era. Diary of a Lost Girl lags not far behind in terms of artistic achievement.
According to the world renowned British film historian Kevin Brownlow, the collaboration between the director and actress helped establish Brooks as an “actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history.”
2) Brownlow will be in attendance! If you know Brooks’ life story (or you’ve read Barry Paris’ outstanding biography), then you’re aware of the importance of this film historian in the late 20th century revival of interest in the actress.
There is no more important film historian in the history of silent film. And, there is no more important book than Brownlow’s classic 1969 study, The Parade’s Gone By. Interestingly, the book carries an acknowledgement, “I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book’s publication.” Ther film historian lives in England, and doesn’t make all that many appearances in the United States. Brownlow will be signing books twice over the course of the Festival, as well as introducing a couple of films. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the man.
3) Another author who also knew the actress will also be attendance. Ira Resnick, a longtime collector and the founder of the Motion Picture Arts Gallery in New York City (the first gallery devoted exclusively to the art of the movies) will be signing copies of his new book, Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood (Abbeville). It features posters and lobby cards of Brooks’ films, including a one-of-a-kind poster for Diary of a Lost Girl for which the author once paid the near record setting sum of $60,000. Another illustration in the book is inscribed to Resnick from Brooks.
Resnick will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
4) Also signing books following Diary of a Lost Girl will be Hollywood screenwriter Samuel Bernstein, whose Lulu: A Novel, has recently been published by Walford Press. The subject of this “non-fiction” novel is Brooks and the period in her life when she went to work with Pabst in Germany. It’s an enjoyable read, and the latest in a shelf worth of works of fiction which have taken the silent film star as its muse.
Bernstein, who lives in Los Angeles, will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
5) The San Francisco Silent Film Festival takes place in the historic Castro Theater. Built in 1922, this grand theater is one of the last standing movie palaces in the San Francisco Bay Area. And what’s more, no theater in San Francisco can claim to have shown more Brooks films. As a neighborhood movie theater in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Castro showed just about every Brooks’ film on its second run in The City. And beginning with the late 1970’s revival of interest in Brooks, the Castro has regularly shown the actress’ surviving works. The two Pabst films, along with A Girl in Every Port (1928), Beggars of Life (1928), Prix de Beaute (1930) and the remaining fragments of The American Venus (1926) and Just Another Blonde (1926) have all been shown at the Castro in recent decades.
6) I will be there. Recently, I edited and wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Böhme’s 1905 book, The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press). Böhme’s book was the basis for the 1929 film of the same name. This just published illustrated book includes the original English-language translation of this once controversial and bestselling work. It has been out of print in the United States for a century.
The Diary of a Lost Girl is making its debut at the Festival. I will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
Hopefully, one of these six reasons should provide the tipping point in deciding to attend the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Please note, however, that when the Festival screened Pandora’s Box in 2006, it became the only film in the Festival’s now 15 year history to sell out in advance. The Castro Theater holds 1,400 people!
For more info: More about this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival can be found at http://www.silentfilm.org/ More about Diary of a Lost Girl can be found at its IMDb entry at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020475/.
Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and fan club devoted to the legendary silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television, and introduced her films around the country.
Six reasons to go to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
June 23, 4:39 PMLouise Brooks ExaminerThomas Gladysz
If you’re a silent film buff, and a fan of Louise Brooks, and have been thinking about attending the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and need just a few reasons to encourage you to purchase a ticket – then here are six.
Each, on its own, is reason enough.
1) The Festival, which is putting on its 15th annual event in July, will screen one of Brooks’ best films, Diary of a Lost Girl. As the Founder’s Pick film, this 1929 German movie has been designated the centerpiece work at this year’s event. It will be shown with live musical accompaniment provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
Diary of a Lost Girl marks the second collaboration between the great Austrian-born director G.W. Pabst and the American-born actress whose reputation today looms larger than ever before. Their first collaboration was Pandora’s Box, also from 1929. That film is now considered one of the great works of the silent era. Diary of a Lost Girl lags not far behind in terms of artistic achievement.
According to the world renowned British film historian Kevin Brownlow, the collaboration between the director and actress helped establish Brooks as an “actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history.”
2) Brownlow will be in attendance! If you know Brooks’ life story (or you’ve read Barry Paris’ outstanding biography), then you’re aware of the importance of this film historian in the late 20th century revival of interest in the actress.
There is no more important film historian in the history of silent film. And, there is no more important book than Brownlow’s classic 1969 study, The Parade’s Gone By. Interestingly, the book carries an acknowledgement, “I owe an especial debt to Louise Brooks for acting as a prime mover in this book’s publication.” Ther film historian lives in England, and doesn’t make all that many appearances in the United States. Brownlow will be signing books twice over the course of the Festival, as well as introducing a couple of films. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the man.
3) Another author who also knew the actress will also be attendance. Ira Resnick, a longtime collector and the founder of the Motion Picture Arts Gallery in New York City (the first gallery devoted exclusively to the art of the movies) will be signing copies of his new book, Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood (Abbeville). It features posters and lobby cards of Brooks’ films, including a one-of-a-kind poster for Diary of a Lost Girl for which the author once paid the near record setting sum of $60,000. Another illustration in the book is inscribed to Resnick from Brooks.
Resnick will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
4) Also signing books following Diary of a Lost Girl will be Hollywood screenwriter Samuel Bernstein, whose Lulu: A Novel, has recently been published by Walford Press. The subject of this “non-fiction” novel is Brooks and the period in her life when she went to work with Pabst in Germany. It’s an enjoyable read, and the latest in a shelf worth of works of fiction which have taken the silent film star as its muse.
Bernstein, who lives in Los Angeles, will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
5) The San Francisco Silent Film Festival takes place in the historic Castro Theater. Built in 1922, this grand theater is one of the last standing movie palaces in the San Francisco Bay Area. And what’s more, no theater in San Francisco can claim to have shown more Brooks films. As a neighborhood movie theater in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Castro showed just about every Brooks’ film on its second run in The City. And beginning with the late 1970’s revival of interest in Brooks, the Castro has regularly shown the actress’ surviving works. The two Pabst films, along with A Girl in Every Port (1928), Beggars of Life (1928), Prix de Beaute (1930) and the remaining fragments of The American Venus (1926) and Just Another Blonde (1926) have all been shown at the Castro in recent decades.
6) I will be there. Recently, I edited and wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Böhme’s 1905 book, The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press). Böhme’s book was the basis for the 1929 film of the same name. This just published illustrated book includes the original English-language translation of this once controversial and bestselling work. It has been out of print in the United States for a century.
The Diary of a Lost Girl is making its debut at the Festival. I will be meeting the public and signing books following the July 17th screening of Diary of a Lost Girl.
Hopefully, one of these six reasons should provide the tipping point in deciding to attend the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Please note, however, that when the Festival screened Pandora’s Box in 2006, it became the only film in the Festival’s now 15 year history to sell out in advance. The Castro Theater holds 1,400 people!
For more info: More about this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival can be found at http://www.silentfilm.org/ More about Diary of a Lost Girl can be found at its IMDb entry at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020475/.
Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and fan club devoted to the legendary silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television, and introduced her films around the country.
It certainly isn't Abel Gance's Napoleon.