Monday, April 30, 2007

Lulu in Göttingen

Pandora's Box will be screened on May 3rd, with live music performed by "Ensemble Werner Küspert," as part of the 2nd Göttingen Silent Film Festival. For more information, please visitwww.stummfilm.info/festival/goettingen/2007/index.html

Saturday, April 28, 2007

RadioLulu in danger

For the last few years, I have paid to have RadioLulu broadcast over the internet. I figured it was a great way for fans of Louise Brooks and the silent film era to hear related music - most of which is rarely broadcast anywhere else. Where else, for example, can one hear the theme song to such Louise Brooks films as Beggars of Life or Prix de Beaute ? To broadcast over the internet via Live365.com, it costs me more than $100.00 per year. Some of that money goes to pay artist royalties. Now, things might change. . . . 

Recently, a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) - which governs broadcast and internet radio - announced catastrophically high new royalty rates (higher for internet broadcasters than over-the-air broadcasters) as well as a $500 / year minimum per station. Despite the outcry of nearly all webcasters, the CRB denied the request for a rehearing and has proceeded with their ruling.

In response to these new and unfair fees, Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060). This bill will provide immediate relief from the proposed new rates and can save thousands of Internet radio stations from going off the air, including RadioLulu!

RadioLulu, Live365, and the other members of the SaveNetRadio Coalition fully support this proposal and are working diligently to see it turned into law. The next step is to line up cosponsors for HR 2060, but time is running short.

We ask that you IMMEDIATELY:

CALL your Representative and ask them to cosponsor HR 2060 -- the Internet Radio Equality Act. Click here to find your Representative's number. And, notify others and have them call THEIR Representatives with the same request to cosponsor HR 2060. Without your help, RadioLulu and other stations that play music of the 1920's and 1930's over the internet may cease to exist.

Thank you for your support! And let's keep the music playing.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Speaking of Evolution

Evolution was a controversial topic back in the 1920's - as it still is today (sadly enough). This amusing editorial cartoon plays off to controversy to comment on changes in social behavior.



I came across this cartoon while researching and though I would share it with my hotsy totsy readers.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Quick, quick

Attention New York City fans of Louise Brooks, go see Louise Brooks and the 'New Woman' in Weimar Cinema at the International Center of Photography before it closes on Sunday.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Kevin Brownlow booksigning!

I have just learned that Kevin Brownlow will be signing books following the screening of his restored version of The Iron Mask at the Castro Theater in San Francisco this Saturday afternoon. If you love Louise Brooks, if you love silent film, this is a booksigning not to miss! Copies of Brownlow's classic book on early cinema, The Parade's Gone By, will be for sale in the Castro lobby.

Monday, April 23, 2007

W.C. Fields exhibit

I just received my copy of the Lompoc Picayune-Intelligencer, the official newsletter of the W.C. Fields Fan Club. In it, there is an article about a large W. C. Fields exhibit currently on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. The exhibit - “The Peregrinations & Pettifoggery of W.C. Fields” - runs through Sunday, May 13. Click through to the on-line press release for further information and details about a special May 11th event. Pictures of the exhibit in the newsletter didn't include any images of Louise Brooks (who performed with Fields in the 1925 Ziegfeld Follies, as well as the 1926 film It's the Old Army Game, but I am sure it is well worth checking out for anyone who lives in Southern California.)

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pandora's Box in Minneapolis / St. Paul

Pandora's Box will be shown this coming Tuesday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Interestingly, the film will be musically accompanied by students Bri'Ann Wright and Adrian Moravec, who will play their own cabaret-inspired score for the silent film on two grand pianos simultaneously. Are any readers of this blog planning to attend ?

This short article, along with a still from the film, appeared in yesterday's Star Tribune

Art house spotlight: 'Pandora's Box'

German director G.W. Pabst's scandalous, sensual "Pandora's Box" is mostly famous for the devastatingly beautiful Louise Brooks. She indelibly personifies the depravity of Weimar Berlin as Lola, a provocative dancer and irresistible seductress. Neither a vamp nor an innocent, Lola's amoral sexuality unleashes a vortex of lust, gambling, promiscuity, suicide, blackmail, prostitution and murder on those around her. Even in the free-swinging Jazz Age of 1929, the film provoked outrage. Lola chooses her lovers freely (the film contains what is reportedly the first overt lesbian subplot in cinema) and indiscriminately, given that she dies in the arms of Jack the Ripper. The film will be screened Tuesday, musically accompanied by Augsburg College students Bri'Ann Wright and Adrian Moravec. They will play their own cabaret-inspired score for the silent film on two grand pianos simultaneously. (8 p.m. Tuesday, Sateren Auditorium, Augsburg College, at Riverside Av. and 22nd Av. S., Mpls. Free and open to the public.)
COLIN COVERT

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Leni Riefenstahl

In two weeks time, I'll be hosting Steven Bach - the noted film biographer and author of the recently published book on filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Steven Bach will be appearing at The Booksmith in San Francisco - where I work as the events coordinator - to talk about his widely reviewed new book. Bach will give a short talk, show some brief film clips, answer questions from the audience, and then sign books. I hope anyone interested would attend.

Like Louise Brooks, Riefenstahl worked with director G.W. Pabst and made both silent and sound films. Brooks figures in this new book. I am really looking forward to this special event. Here is some descriptive material about it from the Booksmith.

STEVEN BACH - talk & booksigning for "Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl"
Thursday, May 3rd at 7 pm
at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street in San Francisco) 
"Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl" is the definitive biography of the woman known as "Hitler's filmmaker" - one of the most controversial personalities of the 20th century. Relying on new sources,­ Steven Bach has produced an exceptional work of historical investigation which both untangles the past and is an objective and unsparing appraisal of a woman of spectacular gifts corrupted by ruthless personal ambition. 
Steven Bach is the author of two previous biographies, "Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend" and "Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart." He was in charge of worldwide production for United Artists, where he was involved in such films as Raging BullManhattanThe French Lieutenant's Woman, and Heaven's Gate, about which he wrote the bestseller "Final Cut." 
This Booksmith sponsored event will take place at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street in San Francisco). For further information, call 415-863-8688 or visit www.booksmith.com     If you can't attend this event and would like to order a signed copy of the author's new book, please email or phone our store.


"Steven Bach's Leni finally presents Riefenstahl as she genuinely was: not as we have seen her so far but as Hitler's self-serving and mendacious p.r. handmaiden. If you haven't thought of 'Nazi artist' as a noxious and corrupting oxymoron, Bach's scrupulous account of a zealously masked life may persuade you otherwise." 
-- Cynthia Ozick

"In this lively, engaging biography of the legendary Leni Riefenstahl, Steven Bach finally separates fact from fiction to give the powerful filmmaker, manipulative narcissist and friend of Hitler her due." 
--Richard Rhodes

“It is difficult to overpraise Bach’s efforts . . . Bach is determined to present [Leni Riefenstahl] coolly, ironically, without loss of his own moral vector. What emerges is a compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work . . . an almost novelistically compelling narrative of a life endlessly obfuscated by lies . . . graceful . . . nuanced . . . brilliant.”
-Richard Schickel, The Los Angeles Times (March 11, 2007)

“First-rate . . . [a] richly fleshed-out portraiture and social history”
- Judith Thurman, The New Yorker (March 19, 2007)

“Energetic . . . Serves as [a] much needed corrective to all the spin, evasions and distortions of the record purveyed by Riefenstahl.”
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times (March 13, 2007)

“Bach makes the vivid and exasperating Riefenstahl come back to life and stand before us to be judged . . . Meticulous . . . Bach unearths the buried facts, finds the truth behind the lies.”
-Book World (March 4, 2007) 

“Penetrating and superbly well-written . . . As Bach expertly elucidates the opportunistic Riefenstahl’s exploits . . . he takes measure, as no one else has, of her ruthless ambition . . . Riefenstahl loved fairy tales, and, as Bach so perceptively and artistically reveals, she succeeded in living one, however insidious.”
-Donna Seaman, Booklist (February 15, 2007)

Monday, April 16, 2007

Screenings in Toronto

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. 
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