Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios

Among the books the LBS highly recommends is Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, by Frederic Lombardi. The book was published by McFarland in March, 2013.


Dwan is a legendary director. His credits include Robin Hood (1922), Stage Struck (1925), and The Iron Mask (1929), as well as Louise Brooks' screen test, which was shot in 1925.

Publisher description: "It could be said that the career of Canadian-born film director Allan Dwan (1885-1981) began at the dawn of the American motion picture industry. Originally a scriptwriter, Dwan became a director purely by accident. Even so, his creativity and problem-solving skills propelled him to the top of his profession. He achieved success with numerous silent film performers, most spectacularly with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Gloria Swanson, and later with such legendary stars as Shirley Temple and John Wayne. Though his star waned in the sound era, Dwan managed to survive through pluck and ingenuity. Considering himself better off without the fame he enjoyed during the silent era, he went on to do some of his best work for second-echelon studios (notably Republic Pictures' Sands of Iwo Jima) and such independent producers as Edward Small. Along the way, Dwan also found personal happiness in an unconventional manner. Rich in detail with two columns of text in each of its nearly 400 pages, and with more than 150 photographs, this book presents a thorough examination of Allan Dwan and separates myth from truth in his life and films."

"No wonder it took seven years, and we should be grateful to Fred Lombardi. This is a thoroughly researched book which no film aficionado can afford to be without." -- Kevin Brownlow, 2010 Honorary Academy Award winner

"Exhaustively researched." -- Dave Kehr, The New York Times

"Totally remarkable book on Allan Dwan...so wonderfully dense with information, insights, judicious speculation, etc, etc.--in short it is an instant classic, one of the three or four finest books on film that I have ever read." -- Kevin Thomas, film critic

"Lombardi has done his homework. His Allan Dwan is a revelation, a testament to the fruits of untiring and solid research. Every page reveals the always reliable Dwan as a prolific and versatile filmmaker, whose work touched upon every genre and aspect of the evolving studio system in Hollywood’s Golden Age. He was the architect behind Douglas Fairbanks’s best pictures, from the early comedies to the swashbuckling costume epic, Robin Hood. Gloria Swanson, John Wayne, and Shirley Temple, among so many others, all benefited from his sure touch. We can only wonder why it has taken so long to restore this master director to his rightful place in the Hollywood firmament. We are profoundly grateful to Mr. Lombardi." --John C. Tibbetts, University of Kansas.

Check out the Louise Brooks Society store on Amazon.com. It's stocked with other related Louise Brooks movies, books, music and more.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Louise Brooks on a ladder in Hollywood

A picture of Louise Brooks (on a ladder) alongside actor Adolph Menjou and Evening Clothes director Luther Reed is included in this months Los Angeles Magazine. The three are pictured outside of "The Barn" in Hollywood, the site of Cecil B. DeMille's production of The Squaw Man, said to be the first feature film shot in the greater Los Angeles area. Production of Evening Clothes took place in January of 1927. The historic snapshot was likely taken around that time. (Thank you to film historian Mary Mallory for tipping us off to this clipping.)


And here is a snapshot of Christy Pascoe and Thomas Gladysz (Director of the Louise Brooks Society) outside The Barn many years later. This historic building is located just across the road from the Hollywood Bowl. Should you ever visit Tinsel Town, be sure and pay a visit.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Louise Brooks :: “Musei in Musica”: riprende l’attività della Casa del Jazz con un triplo concerto

Yesterday, Louise Brooks was celebrated in jazz in Italy. . . 
 
Il 7 dicembre, ore 21, alla Casa del Jazz, Roma 

SIMONE GRAZIANO QUINTET
“Frontal”
David Binney sax alto
Dan Kinzelman sax tenore
Simone Graziano pianoforte
Gabriele Evangelista contrabbasso
Stefano Tamborrino batteria
 
CRISTIANO ARCELLI QUARTET
“Brooks”
Cristiano Arcelli sax alto
Federico Casagrande chitarra elettrica
Marcello Giannini chitarra elettrica
Zeno de Rossi batteria

CRISTIANO ARCELLI /SIMONE GRAZIANO ENSEMBLE
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In collaborazione con l’Assessorato alla Cultura, Creatività e Promozione Artistica di Roma Capitale e Zètema Progetto Cultura

Riprende l’attività della Casa del Jazz, sabato 7 dicembre nell’ambito di “Musei in Musica” in collaborazione con l’Assessorato alla Cultura, Creatività e Promozione Artistica di Roma Capitale e Zètema Progetto Cultura, con un triplo concerto: alle ore 21.00, il pianista  Simone Graziano presenta  il suo cd “Frontal” acclamato dalla critica musicale come una delle migliori produzioni del 2013, con lui sul palco, un quintetto d’eccezione composto dall’icona del sassofonismo americano David  Binney (sax alto), dal giovane talento americano ma naturalizzato in Italia, Dan Kinzelman al sax tenore, da contrabbassista Gabriele Evangelista e dal batterista Stefano Tamborrino.Alle ore 22,00 ,Cristiano Arcelli con il suo quartetto  presenterà il suo ultimo progetto discografico “Brooks”, un tributo alla diva dark del cinema muto Louise Brooks, realizzato per l’etichetta Auand.Sul palco, accanto a Cristiano Arcelli (sax contralto), alcuni dei più interessanti musicisti del jazz italiano: Federico Casagrande e Marcello Giannini (chitarre elettriche) e Zeno de Rossi (batteria).Infine alle 23,00,Cristiano Arcelli / Simone Graziano Ensemble con i musicisti dei due gruppi che si uniranno sul palco.

“Frontal”, il nuovo disco del pianista fiorentino Simone Graziano pubblicato a maggio da Auand Records e realizzato insieme a Chris Speed, David Binney, Gabriele Evangelista e Stefano Tamborrino, è un concept album che nasce dall’improvvisazione, si cristallizza nella scrittura e si semplifica nella canzone, suggerendo una forma che è data dall’insieme di tre cerchi concentrici. Con il cerchio esterno, il più grande, a rappresentare l’improvvisazione; il cerchio intermedio, la composizione; e quello più piccolo le song. Nessuno di questi elementi viene mai disatteso, perché nella composizione, anche laddove la scrittura appare molto compressa, la musica continua a mantenere una singolare cantabilità e l’improvvisazione è sempre presente.
Il primo cerchio dell’album passa attraverso tre momenti improvvisativi: Frontal, la title track che apre il disco, No Words At All, brano centrale e Carolina, l’unica in piano solo, che chiude il disco. Il momento compositivo si sublima nei quattro brani articolati su forme inusuali e complesse Tre Spirali, As a First Point, Away From Here, Takehiko, tutti caratterizzati da una densa scrittura. Ci sono infine brani come Rock Song #1, Rock Song #2, Nocturnal Fly, e Lucyne, dove predomina la semplicità formale e melodica.

Sono molti, in “Frontal”, di Simone Graziano, i riferimenti alla formazione e alla personalità del leader. C’è il desiderio di dare suono a una forma geometrica, come nel caso della song minimale Lucyne, che sfuma nel brano Tre Spirali, prendendo un andamento vorticoso e complesso proprio come le spire; o come in Takehiko, dedicato all’incontro presso il Bauhaus Archiv di Berlino con un’affascinante scultura dell’artista Takehiko Mizutan: una lastra di bronzo fusa che dà vita a tre coni concentrici poggianti su un asse obliquo. C’è la passione per la musica rock, quella con cui il pianista fiorentino è cresciuto, espressa nelle due Rock Song. Ci sono le improvvisazioni collettive come in No Words At All dove la suggestione è un suono senza alcuna evoluzione, statico, asettico e distante. Ci sono i grooves di As a First Point; le sovrapposizioni armoniche inusuali di Away From Here; la rappresentazione in musica del sogno di volare di Nocturnal Fly; l’inno al mistero della vita di Carolina.Quella che ha accompagnato Simone Graziano nella realizzazione di “Frontal” è una formazione d’eccezione che avvicina in maniera esclusiva due realtà musicali distanti solo geograficamente, ovvero la sempre più vivace scena jazzistica italiana e l’effervescente mondo dell’improvvisazione newyorkese.  Due assi della scena contemporanea statunitense incontrano tre giovani ma già affermati musicisti italiani in una combinazione di originalità e talento.

L’eccezionalità dell’incontro è accresciuta dal fatto che Chris Speed e David Binney, pur avendo all’attivo più di 160 pubblicazioni discografiche, non si erano mai proposti prima d’ora in uno stesso gruppo. La carica innovatrice della band sta nella scelta di eseguire solo musiche originali, composte e arrangiate ad hoc dal leader Simone Graziano; tutte le composizioni mirano a valorizzare il virtuosismo dei singoli esecutori in una musica che non lascia mai da parte la melodicità dei temi e la ricchezza armonica, frutto dello studio dei più grandi maestri della tradizione classica e jazzistica. Tutto ciò contribuisce a determinare un suono d’insieme unico e moderno.

A un anno dalla sua fondazione, il gruppo guidato da Simone Graziano ha già raccolto un pregevole successo di pubblico ed entusiasmanti consensi dalla critica specializzata, che hanno consentito al pianista di essere nominato nel Top Jazz 2012, indetto dalla rivista Musica Jazz, nella categoria Migliori Nuovi Talenti.

“Brooks” è il nuovo lavoro di Cristiano Arcelli, un tributo alla diva dark del cinema muto Louise Brooks, realizzato per l’etichetta Auand.

Alla mostra del Cinema di Parigi del 1950, il famoso storico del cinema Henri Langlois, curatore della mostra, proclamava senza mezzi termini: “Non esistono Garbo e Dietrich, esiste solo Louise Brooks!”. Fu l’inizio della riscoperta e riabilitazione dell’attrice che durerà fino ad oggi. La sua straordinaria e conturbante bellezza, che ne fecero subito il prototipo della donna seduttrice e l’incarnazione del sesso, irruppero nel perbenismo di quegli anni. Divenne l’oggetto del desiderio d’intere generazioni.Guido Crepax dichiarò di essersi ispirato a una foto dell’attrice e alla sua malizia conturbante quando creò l’eterea e peccaminosa Valentina e iniziò un fitto rapporto epistolare con lei per presentarle i suoi lavori e scambiarsi idee, pensieri e intima amicizia. La musica del disco nasce dalla penna di Cristiano Arcelli, il quale fonde il jazz con l’hardcore e il punk e raccoglie tutte le sue esperienze artistiche maturate in questi anni, traendo ispirazione dal personaggio di Louise Brooks.

Ogni brano ha un riferimento preciso:
“Solid Gray”
il titolo è ispirato alla luce dei film dell’epoca del muto. Louise Brooks, alla quale è dedicato il cd, è stata una diva indiscussa di quel mondo.
“Boogeyman and Me”
il lato oscuro della personalità di Louise Brooks (e della nostra), quello che traspare dal suo sguardo, quello che si percepisce leggendo la sua biografia e guardando la sua immagine.
“Elison Parade”
una canzone, firmata assieme a Cristina Zavalloni, che racconta di lontananza, di distacco. Un testo ispirato ai tanti cambiamenti repentini che Louise Brooks ha avuto come donna e come artista nel corso della sua vita
“Pandora”
ispirato al film di Pabst “Il Vaso di Pandora”. Louise Brooks diventerà Lulu, una vera icona del ‘900. La forma del brano “bipartita” e frammentata ritmicamente, descrive la pericolosità dell’essere doppi.
“Verse for Brooks”
come un “verse”, l’introduzione delle canzoni americane di jazz, ritmicamente largo e cantabile, nel mio immaginario descrive la vita di Louise precedente alla carriera cinematografica.
“The City Gone Wild”
il titolo è preso in prestito dall‘omonimo gangster – film del ‘27. Il brano è rabbioso, corrosivo e accelera la percezione come in un film scomodo e di movimento.
“Around Lulu”
un brano dedicato alla Lulu del “Vaso di Pandora”, volendo guardare l’altra faccia della luna. Un brano diviso in due, prima tranquillo e lirico, poi di colpo ritmico e distorto.
“Corale for Brooks”
un’introduzione elettronica prepara il campo ad un corale. Si percepisce la calma del cammino compiuto con tutta la solenne pacatezza di un brano che non ha bisogno di sviluppo ma solo di essere cantato.
“I’ll remember Louise”
il voler tenere a mente la luce dello sguardo di Louise Brooks, un’artista che ha fatto del vivere la contemporaneità una missione e che ha avuto nel suo destino la persecuzione delle sfide dell’arte e della vita.
“Elison Parade” (reprise)
in conclusione un “ritorno”.

In “Brooks”, accanto a Cristiano Arcelli (sax contralto), alcuni dei più interessanti musicisti del jazz italiano: Federico Casagrande e Marcello Giannini (chitarre elettriche), Zeno de Rossi (batteria) e, ospite d’eccezione, la voce di Cristina Zavalloni.

Cristiano Arcelli in questi anni si è affermato come sassofonista e compositore. Ha collaborato con artisti quali: Enrico Rava, Joe Chambers, Paolo Damiani, Cristina Zavalloni, Dafins Prieto, Paul McCandless, Cyro Baptista, Danilo Rea, Gabriele Mirabassi, Nguyen Le, Stefano Battaglia. Si è esibito in molti festival tra i quali: Umbria Jazz, Roccella Jazz, Jazz at Lincoln Center (NY), Casa del Jazz (Roma), European Jazz Expo (Cagliari), Maison de la Culture de Grenoble, New Morning (Parigi), Jazz Festival Saalfelden, Barga Jazz, Beijing Internationl Jazz Festival, Amiens, Teatro Regio (Torino), Auditorium Parco della Musica (Roma). La sua attenzione per la composizione e l’arrangiamento l’hanno portato a cimentarsi con organici di ogni tipo, dal trio all’orchestra sinfonica, travalicando gli ambiti del jazz verso le stagioni concertistiche classiche, le colonne sonore, il teatro e la danza.

Casa del Jazz
Viale di Porta Ardeatina, 55 – Roma
Info: 06/704731
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Relazioni con la stampa: Maurizio Quattrini 338/8485333

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Louise Brooks in A Girl in Every Port, tonight in Madison, Wisconsin

As part of its mini Howard Hawks retrospective, HOWARD HAWKS: THE EARLY YEARS, the Cinematheque at the University of Wisconsin in Madison will screen A Girl in Every Port. The 1928 Louise Brooks film is set to play tonight at 8:30 pm, with live musical accompaniment provided by David Drazin. [For more on Hawks' career, be sure and check out Joseph McBride's recently reissued Hawks on Hawks, from the University Press of Kentucky.]


Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port is a well-crafted and entertaining "buddy film" widely considered the director's best silent. It's also a film with a special legacy.

A Girl in Every Port features a romantic triangle – a reoccurring motif in many of Hawks' later works. It tells the story of two sailors (Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong) and their adventures in various ports of call around the world. Louise Brooks plays Marie (Mam'selle Godiva), a high diver and sideshow siren and the love interest of both sailors. Other girls in other ports of call include Myrna Loy, Sally Rand, Leila Hyams, and Maria Casajuana (the future Maria Alba).

Released by Fox in February of 1928, A Girl in Every Port debuted at the 6,000 seat Roxy Theater in New York City. For days on end, the film played to a packed house. Ads placed by the studio in trade publications claimed it set a "New House Record – and a World Record – with Daily Receipts on February 22 of $29,463." Considering ticket prices of the time, that's a lot of money.

Popular as well as critically acclaimed, the film received good reviews in New York's daily newspapers. The New York Times described it "A rollicking comedy," while the New York Telegram called it "a hit picture." The Morning Telegraph pronounced it a "winner."

The Daily News noted, "Director Howard Hawks has injected several devilish touches in the piece, which surprisingly enough, got by the censors. His treatment of the snappy scenario is smooth and at all times interesting. Victor's great, Armstrong's certainly appreciable, and Louise Brooks is at her loveliest."



Reviewing the premiere, TIME magazine stated, "There are two rollicking sailors in this fractious and excellent comedy. . . . A Girl in Every Port is really What Price Glory? translated from arid and terrestrial irony to marine gaiety of the most salty and miscellaneous nature. Nobody could be more charming than Louise Brooks, that clinging and tender little barnacle from the docks of Marseilles. Director Howard Hawks and his entire cast, especially Robert Armstrong, deserve bouquets and kudos."

A number of critics singled out Brooks. The New York American stated, “Then comes THE woman. She is Louise Brooks, pert, fascinating young creature, who does high and fancy diving for a living. . . . Miss Brooks 'takes' our hero in somewhat the manner that Grant took Richmond. . . . Louise Brooks has a way of making a junior vamp and infantile scarlet lady seem most attractive."

A reviewer for the English Kinematograph Weekly echoed American reviews of the film, and picked up on the film's somewhat different bromance. "Louise Brooks made a charmingly heartless vamp. . . . It has the novelty of a love interest that does not materialize, which is replaced by the friendship between two men."

The film made a bigger splash in France. Writing in 1930 in his "Paris Cinema Chatter" column in the New York Times, Morris Gilbert noted ". . . there are a number of others – mostly American – which have their place as 'classics' in the opinion of the French. . . . They love A Girl in Every Port, which has the added distinction of being practically the only American film which keeps its own English title here." The film enjoyed an extended run in the French capitol, and lingered for decades in the French consciousness.

Writing in Cahiers du Cinéma in 1963, French film archivist Henri Langlois stated, "It seems that A Girl in Every Port was the revelation of the Hawks season at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For New York audiences of 1962, Louise Brooks suddenly acquired that 'Face of the century' aura she had had, many years ago, for spectators at the Cinema des Ursulines. . . . That is why Blaise Cendrars confided a few years ago that he thought A Girl in Every Port definitely marked the first appearance of contemporary cinema. To the Paris of 1928, which was rejecting expressionism, A Girl in Every Port was a film conceived in the present, achieving an identity of its own by repudiating the past."

Brooks, under contract to Paramount, was loaned to Fox for her role in A Girl in Every Port. Anticipating the female types cast by Hawks in later works, the bobbed-hair actress stands as what might well be the first "Hawksian woman." Years later, the director stated, "I wanted a different type of girl. I hired Louise because she's very sure of herself, she's very analytical, she's very feminine, but she's damn good and sure she's going to do what she wants to do."

Film histories note that A Girl in Every Port ranks as the most significant of Hawks' silent films; additionally, historians claim, it seemingly persuaded G.W. Pabst to cast Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box. The claim was likely first made by James Card of the George Eastman House in his 1956 article, "Out of Pandora's Box: Louise Brooks on G. W. Pabst." It was repeated by others, including Brooks herself, in filmed interviews in the 1970's.

In Germany, Pabst cast Brooks as Lulu after a well publicized nationwide search which concluded months after A Girl in Every Port premiered in New York City. Not quite content with a German actress (including, legend has it, Marlene Dietrich), Pabst wrote to Paramount asking after Brooks, then an American starlet. The German director was also in search of a "different type."

Chronologically, the assumption that Pabst saw his Lulu in Hawks' Marie makes sense – Brooks plays a temptress in both films. Historical records show, however, that Blaue jungens, blonde Madchen (the German title for Hawk's film) was not shown in Germany until December, after production on Pandora's Box was finished.

Could Pabst have seen A Girl in Every Port well prior to its release in Germany? Or, might Pabst have noticed Brooks in one of her earlier American films, like Die Braut am Scheidewege (Just Another Blonde) or Ein Frack Ein Claque Ein Madel (Evening Clothes)? Each were shown in Berlin while Pabst was looking for Lulu, and each received press which highlighted Brooks.



Whatever the answer to this small mystery, A Girl in Every Port remains an entertaining film worthy of greater recognition – not only because it stars Louise Brooks, and not only because it may or may not have led Pabst to cast the actress as Lulu in Pandora's Box. It's deserving because it is an early work by great director which introduces the themes and characters Hawks would continue to explore throughout his long and distinguished career.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Singin' in the Rain at San Francisco Symphony

It's one thing for an orchestra to accompany a silent film. It is something else all together for an orchestra to accompany a sound film, let alone a musical.The level of expectation, as well as the technical and performance challenges faced by musicians accompanying a movie whose original score has been stripped from its soundtrack, are considerable to say the least.




That's the challenge the San Francisco Symphony will face on December 6 and 7, when the world renown orchestra accompanies the classic musical, Singin' in the Rain.

The 1952 film, one of most beloved movies of all time, is widely considered the greatest musical ever made. In fact, the film has appeared in numerous top ten lists of the greatest films in history -- all genres aside. In 1989, Singin' in the Rain was among the first 25 films chosen for the then newly established National Film Registry, honoring motion pictures deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.

The San Francisco Symphony faced a similar challenge last month when it accompanied the Alfred Hitchcock masterworks Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958). The Bernard Herrmann score for the latter film is considered by some the greatest Hollywood score of all time, and the Symphony accompanied it to near perfection.

Singin' in the Rain was originally conceived by legendary MGM producer Arthur Freed, the head of a unit responsible for many of MGM's lavish musicals. Freed envisioned the film as a vehicle for his catalog of songs written with Nacio Herb Brown, many of them for MGM film musicals dating from 1929-1939.

Most all of the songs in Singin' in the Rain -- such as "You Were Meant for Me" (from The Broadway Melody, 1929), "Should I?" (from Lord Byron of Broadway, 1930), "Would You?" (from San Francisco, 1936), "Good Morning" (from Babes In Arms, 1939), and notably "Singin' in the Rain" (from Hollywood Revue of 1929), had been featured in earlier films.

Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who contributed lyrics to one new song ("Moses Supposes"), were given the task of stringing these musical numbers together into a story. And they did so brilliantly.


Like the popular Academy Award winning film The Artist (2011), Singin' in the Rain tells a story which takes place during the period when silent film was being replaced by "talkies." The film follows the struggles of the studios and various actors as they attempt to transition to the new medium.

Co-directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, Singin' in the Rain stars Kelly, Donald O'Connor and then newcomer Debbie Reynolds. Also in the cast are Jean Hagen (who received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role as a character based on silent star Norma Talmadge), Cyd Charisse (as a Louise Brooks-like vixen), and Rita Moreno (playing a character not unlike "It Girl" Clara Bow). Watch for visual nods to Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Louella Parsons. In uncredited roles were familiar character actor Kathleen Freeman (as a diction coach), Mae Clarke (the grapefruit girl from The Public Enemy), and Judy Landon (as a silent screen vamp inspired by Pola Negri).

Kelly was also responsible for much of the film's choreography, while the hair styles designer was Sydney Guilaroff, the famed hair dresser credited with giving Louise Brooks her distinct bob in the mid-1920's. The director of photography was Harold Rosson, who as Hal Rosson, worked on The Street of Forgotten Men and Evening Clothes.


The San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Sarah Hicks, accompanies the film live in what promises to be a not-to-be-missed holiday event. Visit the San Francisco Symphony website for additional details.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Tribute to Louise Brooks ( Music By Editors)

A video tribute to Louise Brooks; the song is "Munich" by Editors.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Must read: The Survival of American Silent Films 1912-1929

Must read: The Survival of American Silent Films 1912-1929 (pdf), by the great David Pierce.

Here it is, the Library of Congress report that has been getting so much press of late.

Follow this link to download or read on line. There are a lot of statistics here, but ultimately it tells an important story. Louise Brooks is mentioned twice.
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