A cinephilac blog about an actress, silent film, and the Jazz Age, with occasional posts about related books, music, art, and history written by Thomas Gladysz. Visit the Louise Brooks Society™ at www.pandorasbox.com
Happy Birthday to Matt Frewer, the American-born Canadian actor and comedian who for a time also lived and worked in the UK. Frewer has a notable list of film (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) and TV appearances (Star Trek: The Next Generation) to his credit, but may be best known in certain quarters for his portrayal of Max Headroom in the 1985 TV film and 1987 television series of the same name.
Apparently, if I am reading things correctly, before Max Headroom became an American TV series in 1987, it aired in the UK on Channel 4 in 1985. And, notably, it was on episode 10 of season 1 of the original Max Headroom in which the video for "It Hurts", the last single by The Lotus Eaters, appeared. This LINK contains most of episode 10, but without the Lotus Eaters video, which has been removed for copyright reasons. Other music videos included on that same episode include Ultravox - "Love's Great Adventure",
Squeeze - "Is That Love", Go Go's - "Vacation" (also removed for copyright reasons), and
Queen - "Radio Ga Ga".
For a time, an excerpt from that particular UK broadcast, showing the Lotus Eater's video with its Max Headroom intro and outro, was floating around YouTube, but now it seems to have disappeared. I recall seeing it online. (I also recall seeing the Max Headroom show on American broadcast TV ever so long ago.) But still, the Lotus Eater's standalone video for "It Hurts" can still be viewed elsewhere. It is a great song. Take a look and you will see why it caught my attention.
"It Hurts" was released in 1985, and charted at number 87 on the UK charts. Nineteen-eighty five was the same year that Louise Brooks passed away, which makes this new wave musical tribute one of the earliest rock / pop tributes to the actress. I am not saying that the song is about Louise Brooks, but certainly the video depicts her.
Notably, this video predates the similar effort by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose 1991 recording and video, "Pandora's Box," is clearly inspired by and is about the actress. Watch that video HERE.
. . . . All this by way of saying all roads lead to Louise Brooks, and happy birthday to Matt Frewer.
Pandora's Box, the 1929 silent screen classic starring Louise Brooks as Lulu, will be shown in Pudsey, a town located in northern England (between Bradford and Leeds). This special screening, sponsored by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival with live musical accompaniment by the Frame Ensemble, will take place on April 20, 2023. More information on this event can be found HERE.
Here is a bit more information on the event from the event webpage.
G.W. Pabst’s 1929 silent movie masterpiece Pandora’s Box stars Louise Brooks in the role which ensured her a place in the Pantheon of immortal goddesses of the silver screen. This controversial, and in its day heavily censored, movie is still listed in the UK Guardian Newspaper’s top 100 films. It is a two-hour emotional roller coaster ride through the loves – male and female – of Lulu, a high class courtesan and dancer, and the trail of devastation she blazes through 1920s Berlin society, to exile in a Parisian gambling den, and abject poverty and violent death in a fogbound London.
The Music
Frame Ensemble, a quartet of Northern musicians specialising in improvised silent film accompaniments, will improvise a live score. Frame Ensemble is Irine Røsnes (violin), Liz Hanks (cello), Trevor Bartlett (percussion), and Jonny Best (piano).
To learn more about Pandora's Box, please visit the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.
Happy New Year from the Louise Brooks Society. What a year it has been. I figure there is no better way to celebrate than to share a couple of 'swonderful pictures of Louise Brooks, and one less 'swonderful picture of me.
My love and appreciation to all the fans of Louise Brooks who have supported me and this website for its 27 years of existance. Over the years, individuals and newspaper and magazines have said have said some rather nice things about me and the Louise Brooks Society. But none beats what I was told my the estate of Louise Brooks earlier this year; he simply thanked me for all that I have done. That means a lot.
I had hoped to upload a couple of these celebratory pictures of Louise Brooks to the Louise Brooks Society Instagram account ( @louisebrookssociety ), but due to the pathetic actions of an individual who shall go unnamed, the LBS Instagram account has been suspended.
Recently, while doing some research on Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men, I came across a 1925 magazine clipping mentioning the The Loves of Lulu, which reportedly was the first American stage presentation of Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. Notably, the play opened in New York City in May of 1925 - at the same time as Brooks was dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies and The Street of Forgotten Men was in production just across town. How's that for historical overlap?
I was intrigued to find out more, and to learn more about Margot Kelly, the actress who first played Lulu in America. She has a few film credits, but seems primarily to have been a stage actress. Below, is a rather striking photo of Kelly as Lulu. Notably, this photo was taken by Edward Thayer Monroe, who also photographed Brooks. How's that for coincidence?
Interestingly, I also came across a 1924 letter from the Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan in which O'Neill mentions Margot Kelly and his interest in the Lulu plays. O'Neill writes, "I've been going over, with the English translations of the separate plays as a trot, the combination made by Wedekind himself of Erdgeist & Pandora's Box which he called Lulu. Margot Kelly dug up a copy of it in Library of Congress. It looks good. I'm strong for it, provided we can get a good translator. I'll even promise to help on the dialogue. This Erd-Pandora work of Wedekind's ought to be done somehow. It's the best thing of its kind ever written and we ought to do it at the P.P." [Provincetown Playhouse] Ah, what might have been.
Kenneth Macgowan, to whom the letter was addressed, ran the Provincetown Playhouse as its producer, and with Eugene O'Neill as a business partners. In the 1930s, Macgowan went into film as a producer, and even won an Academy Award. Later, he authored a notably early history of film titled Behind the Screen (1965). While it briefly discusses G. W. Pabst, it does not mention Louise Brooks.
Well, anyways, here is another striking portrait of Margot Kelly. While looking her up online, I came across another portrait, which looks like it was taken ship-board. Kelly, it seems, had been to England, where she played Lulu. The caption on the back of the photo reads, "American actress too daring for London stage Margot Kelly returns from
London where she received the "cold shoulder" in the play Loves of Lulu
which was a big hit in this country but too risky for Englishmen." She seems like quite a personality.
I have dug up some more on Margot Kelly and her role as Lulu which I will post in the next blog. All this is interesting to me as background on the way Louise Brooks role as Lulu was received just four years later.
Asta Nielsen was an early European film star in whom Louise Brooks had a special interest. (For more about Asta Nielsen and her remarkable career, check out her Wikipedia page HERE, or better yet, check out this excellent article "Asta Nielsen - #Bosslady" by Nanna Frank Rasmussen. The short introductory film about Nielsen at the top of the page is surprising, even a bit shocking.)
Brooks' interest likely stemmed from the fact that the two actresses had a few things in common. I don't know that they ever met, but they both worked under the same director, G.W. Pabst. Late in her career, Nielsen was featured in Pabst's Joyless Street (1925), which starred Greta Garbo. Brooks, of course, starred in two Pabst films, Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). Another bit of overlap came in the form of a woman named Josephine Müller, who was Brooks' maid in Berlin; according to Brooks, Müller had once worked for Asta Nielsen, and in her essay "Pabst and
Lulu," Brooks notes that her German maid thought Nielsen the best
actress in the world.
And of course, both actresses also wore their hair short throughout their life, with Nielsen at times sporting bangs and a helmet-like bob similar to Brooks.
However, the most notable thing that the two actress had in common is that they both played the same character, Lulu. Brooks played Lulu in Pandora's Box, while Nielsen played Lulu in Erdgeist, or Earth Spirit (1923), a German film directed by Leopold Jessner. We know from Brooks' notebooks that Brooks viewed Erdgeist on June 15, 1959 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Interestingly, when Brooks recorded the fact she had seen the film, she referred to it as Loulou. If you want to see the Nielsen film, hurry on over to the Danish Film Institute where you can stream Erdgeist online for free. These days, this 69 minute film is seldom shown in theaters or at festivals, so, this is a great opportunity to see a significant silent film. BTW, this version has Dutch intertitles with Danish subtitles. But no worries, just watch it for the visuals and you will be able to follow it along. Otherwise, hard-core Lulu devotees might also want to catch this 64 minute version of Erdgeist on YouTube which features Russian intertitles.
Speaking of screenings and festivals, the British Film Institute is mounting a multi-film, two part retrospective in February and March curated by film critic / film historian / author and friend to the LBS Pamela Hutchinson. "‘Die Asta’ was silent cinema’s Danish diva," notes the retrospective webpage, "whose mesmerising performances helped invent modern screen acting." More information HERE.
As Hutchinson notes, "A single tear from Nielsen, a single flicker of her mouth, says more
than any superimposed effects of suffering,’ said German director
Leopold Jessner. ‘She was and is the great actress, the canvas that
makes dignity visible.’ Almost an overnight success when she appeared in
1910’s melodrama The Abyss as a young woman torn between passion and
duty, Nielsen soon became Europe’s greatest film star – though her
transgressive films would be censored in the US. She was widely
celebrated for the emotional depth and sensuality she could convey with
her modern, naturalist style and her deft use of gesture, whether in
comedy or tragedy. This month we’ll explore her first films, made in
Denmark and Germany, which reveal her to be a screen actress of
boundless range, with unique sensitivity and unforgettably hypnotic
eyes."
For those interested, here is an LBS blog from 2017 about Nielsen which contains the scans of a vintage German language booklet on the actress noted for her large dark eyes, mask-like face and boyish figure who often portrayed strong-willed passionate women trapped by
tragic circumstances. Sound familiar?
Louise Brooks passed away 35 years ago, but still there is considerable interest in this singular dancer, silent film actress, & writer. This year, 2020, saw new articles, books, DVDs and despite the pandemic, a few screenings and a major film retrospective. And too, Brooks' name and image continues to pop up here and there in the realms of fashion and popular culture, proving she remains a memorable 20th century icon.
At year's end, I thought it would be a good time to look back at 2020 through the prism of the LBS blog and some of the articles about the actress that have appeared on-line. Most of the headlines below come from this blog, with exceptions noted. The most recent news-worthy headlines are given first. Happy new year from the Louise Brooks Society, let's hope it's a good one, without any fear....
In the summer of 1995, I posted my first webpages about Louise Brooks
and proclaimed the formation of a society dedicated to the silent film
star. That was 25 years ago, at the beginning of the internet. The
Louise Brooks Society is a pioneering website. It was the first site
devoted to Brooks, one of the very first about silent film, and one of
the earliest related to the movies. I am proud that I have kept it going
to this day, making the LBS one of the older websites around.
At the beginning of this year, I was looking forward to this summer and celebrating
the 25th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society. But now, with all
that has happened in 2020 — things I could not have imagined in January
or February, I am resigned to merely marking the occasion. The
pandemic, and Trump's failure to help the nation get through it, has
certainly sucked the air out of the room. Who feels like celebrating
when one is only trying to get by.... Happy 25th anniversary to the Louise Brooks Society.
BIG news. Pandora's Box, Louise Brooks' greatest screen triumph, is set to debut on Blu-ray next month. The acclaimed 1929 film starring Louise Brooks as Lulu will be released in Germany on November 15 (the day after LB's birthday) by Atlas Film GmbH. The 2 disc set -- described as a "limited mediabook" -- can be found on amazon's German site and as of now nowhere else. NOTE: this is a region B / 2 DVD/ Blu-ray release, and it may not play on all DVD/ Blu-ray players. This list price is given as 21,99 Euros. The link to the amazon.de page for this new release can be found HERE.
Earlier Atlas Film media book releases are well regarded. Visit this Atlas Film page for more information on this new release HERE.
This Atlas Film media book marks the 90th anniversary of the film. This copy of Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box is the restored 2009 George Eastman House collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française, the Cineteca Bologna, the Gosfilmofond of Russia, the Narodni Filmovy Archive Prague and the Deutsche Kinemathek. Pandora's Box is accompanied by Peer Rabens' 1997 Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. The film's run time is given as 109 minutes, with the total run time of each disc including bonus material at 133 minutes. The cover of the Mediabook is based on the original 1929 premiere poster.
According to the amazon.de page, the release includes the short documentary The Shadow of My Father: Michael Pabst on G. W. Pabst's The Pandora's Box; an extensive booklet with historical documents and information on the history of the film; and three postcards with different vintage posters for the film. IMHO, it looks good.
This is great news, and about time! Hopefully, this German release will spur Criterion or some other American company to also release the film on Blu-rayAND with lots of bonus materials!
Today, coincidentally, I was working on the Pandora's Box chapter of my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which in part, details the little known history of the film in Cuba, Indonesia, Japan, Poland and elsewhere. This Atlas Film release adds the story....
October 3, 4, 5, 2019 at the Doncaster Little Theatre in Doncaster, England
A new musical, set in the glamorous excess of the 1920s, telling the story of iconic movie star Louise Brooks.
We
join Louise on location during the making of the 1928 movie Pandora’s
Box, a movie in which there are uncanny parallels between the life of
Lulu, the main character in the movie, and Louise, the actress.
A
tempestuous star with a reputation as an unrepentant hedonist, Louise
harbours a secret which holds the key to her apparently self destructive
behaviour. A secret well hidden in a whirlwind of sexual adventures,
and a party lifestyle which defined the roaring 20s.
I came across this sheet music online, and thought it might be of interest to those of us who inhabit the Lulu-verse. It is a song titled "Chanson de Lulu" by Émile Zola (words) and Alfred Bruneau (music). It comes from a four act opera called L'Ouragan.
Émile Zola (1840-1902), of course, is the famed French author of Nana and other literary works. [On July 26, 1958, Louise Brooks viewed a print of Jean Renoir's film version of Nana at the George Eastman House -- follow THIS LINK to view a video clip from the film.]
Alfred Bruneau (1857-1934) was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera. Zola and Bruneau collaborated on a three operas, including L'Ouragan. It was considered his best work.The sheet music shown below was published in France in 1901. L'Ouragan was given in Moscow in a Russian translation in 1905.
One reference I found described the opera as a "gloomy story of love, jealousy, and revenge" set among fisher-folk on an unnamed coast. Otherwise, I haven't been able to find much else about this piece, and how it might fit, if at all, into the Lulu-lineage. (There was, as well, a famous circus performer named Lulu in Paris around the turn of the last century.) Some additional images from the original 1901 opera production may be found HERE. Would anyone know of an English-language translation of "Chanson de Lulu" ?
From Wikipedia:"Asta Nielsen (11 September 1881 – 24 May 1972) was a Danish silent film actress who was one of the most popular leading ladies of the 1910s and one of the first international movie stars. Seventy of Nielsen's 74 films were made in Germany where she was known simply as Die Asta (The Asta).
Noted for her large dark eyes, mask-like face and boyish figure,
Nielsen most often portrayed strong-willed passionate women trapped by
tragic circumstances. Due to the erotic nature of her performances,
Nielsen's films were heavily censored in the United States and her work
remained relatively obscure to American audiences. She is credited with
transforming movie acting from overt theatricality to a more subtle
naturalistic style.Nielsen founded her own film studio in Berlin during the 1920s, but
returned to Denmark in 1937 after the rise of Nazism in Germany. A
private figure in her later years, Nielsen became a collage artist and
an author."
Asta Nielsen was also the first screen Lulu, having played the character created by Frank Wedekind in the film, Earth Spirit (1923). Louise Brooks was well aware of Nielsen and her approach to Lulu, at least later during her life in Rochester, New York. It is not known if Brooks was aware of or made aware of Nielsen prior to her playing Lulu in Pandora's Box (1929).
I recently came across a German language booklet (on the Internet Archive) about Nielsen which contains some sublime images of the actress, including one of her as Lulu. She was certainly striking in her appearance. I would encourage everyone to learn more about this significant and too little known actress. (p.s. Nielsen had a role in the G.W. Pabst film, The Joyless Street, which set Greta Garbo on the path to stardom.)
For those who might have missed the live broadcast comes this welcome news....
From the Nonesuch website: "Nonesuch Records releases the Metropolitan Opera's performance of Alban Berg's Lulu on
Blu-ray and DVD together in one package on October 28, 2016. The Met's
new production, directed by acclaimed South African visual artist
William Kentridge, premiered in 2015 and starred Marlis Petersen in her
final performances as Lulu, a role she has made "hers and almost hers
alone" (Opera News) in ten different productions over eighteen years. The New York Times called it "a stunning and searing production." Lulu was recorded and broadcast live in movie theaters around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD on November 21, 2015. The Lulu Blu-ray/DVD may be pre-ordered now from the Nonesuch Store. You can watch the Met's trailer for the production below.
Kentridge received acclaim for his previous work at the Met directing the company premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose in 2010. This new Lulu,
conducted by Lothar Koenigs, featured Susan Graham as the Countess
Geschwitz, Daniel Brenna as Alwa, Paul Groves as The Painter/African
Prince, Johan Reuter as Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper, and Franz Grundheber
as Schigolch. Lulu's production team included co-director Luc
De Wit, set designer Sabine Theunissen, costume designer Greta Goiris,
lighting designer Urs Schönebaum, and projection designer Catherine
Meyburgh, all of whom also worked on The Nose.
Berg's monumental opera, which he left unfinished when he died in
1935, had its posthumous premiere in its incomplete version in 1937,
with the three-act version that has become standard premiering in 1979.
The opera tells the tragic story of a young woman who, as a victim of a
harsh society, torments a series of men by whom she is objectified,
desired, abused, and eventually killed. "She's ungraspable, and a
fantastic white canvas for the men to put their ideas on," says Petersen
about her character, in an interview with Graham.
Berg adapted the libretto from Frank Wedekind's two Lulu plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's
Box, 1904). He wrote the music using the 12-tone style conceived of his
teacher, Arnold Schönberg, but with a nod to Romanticism that makes it
unusually accessible for something written by a Schönberg disciple.
"Berg made it very tonal, actually, for us and also for the ears of the
audience," says Petersen. "You don't hear the 12-tone music."
"Lulu is one of the great operas of the 20th century," says Kentridge, speaking on video
about the production. "It's an opera that's about the fragility or the
possibility or the fragmentation of desire…Ink is the primary medium of
the production. Essentially [it's] the vehemence of a black brushstroke…
trying to find some equivalent, visually, to the violence of the
opera."
Kentridge's production will be presented at English National Opera in November 2016; for tickets, visit eno.org.
The Kentridge staging of Berg's Lulu was a big deal last year in New York City. Check out this Huffington Post piece, "Lulu-mania Sweeps New York City."
A live
performance of The Met's new production of William Kentridge's staging of Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, will be shown in theaters across the United States and Canada
on Saturday November 21st at 12:30pm ET. Lulu is screening as part of "The Met: Live in HD," which reaches more than 2,000 movie theatres in
70 countries around the world. For more information on local times and participating theatres, visit metopera.org (for the United States) or cineplex.com (for Canada).
Acclaimed artist and director William Kentridge
applies his unique theatrical vision to Alban Berg's Lulu, one of the
most important, not to mention notorious, stage works of the 20th
century. Based on Frank Wedekind's stage plays, Berg's notorious femme fatale shatters lives, including her
own. Soprano Marlis Petersen has excited audiences around the world with
her portrayal of the tour-de-force title role, a wild journey of love,
obsession, and death. Susan Graham joins a winning cast, including Daniel Brenna and Johan Reuter.
There is a bit of Louise Brooks found in this production. For more information on local times and participating theatres, visit metopera.org (for the United States) or cineplex.com (for Canada).
Lulumania is sweeping New York, And Lulu, it seems, is everywhere.
Frank Wedekind's legendary femme fatale, who's beguiling behavior inspired nearly as many artists as Helen of Troy's beauty launched ships, can be found all over New York City.
Alban Berg's modernist opera, Lulu, which was based on Wedekind's two "Lulu" plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904), has just opened a month-long run at the Metropolitan Opera. This new production stars the soprano Marlis Petersen and is directed by the South African artist William Kentridge, who's dynamic art for the staging of the opera proves as seductive and active as Lulu herself. The Met's new production of Lulu runs through December 3. On November 21, Lulu will be live streamed to theaters across the United States.
Meanwhile, across town, the Marion Goodman Gallery
is showing "William Kentridge: Drawings for Lulu." This exhibit
presents the original 67 Kentridge drawings used in the opera. Anyone
who sees Lulu, who appreciates Kentridge's art, or who is inclined toward German Expressionism will want to see and study
this must-not-miss show. (Bravo to the Marion Goodman Gallery website
which so brilliantly displays this brilliant work.) "William Kentridge:
Drawings for Lulu" is on display through December 19th.
Kentridge's Lulu at Marion Goodman Gallery
PHOTO: Marion Goodman Gallery
Also on display at the
Marion Goodman Gallery is a suite of four related linocut prints by
Kentridge, as well as a new fine press edition of the Lulu plays which
utilizes Kentridge's art. The book is from the San Francisco-based Arion
Press, which has just released its edition of Wedekind's The Lulu Plays featuring the 67 Kentridge drawings (printed by four-color offset lithography) bound into the book.
Kentridge's Lulu at Marion Goodman Gallery
PHOTO: Marion Goodman Gallery
The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is a fine achievement.
Four-hundred copies of this limited edition artist's book were printed
by letterpress on luxurious creamy paper utilizing period type in
fittingly black and red inks. The book, which is hand bound and comes in
a slipcase, can be seen and no-doubt fondled at the Arion Press booth
at the IFPDA Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory through November 8.
Louise Brooks as Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora's Box.
PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
It is on November 8 that a free screening of the 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box,
starring Louise Brooks -- the greatest Lulu of them all, will take
place at Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The sensational
G.W. Pabst directed film was drawn from the Wedekind play, and in turn
contributed to Berg's realization of his opera (composed from 1929-1935,
premiered incomplete in 1937) just a few years later.
If you are
looking for a little background on Kentridge's art and its use in the
new production of Berg's opera, as well as the Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays, check out this video of a recent onstage conversation between Kentridge and Arion publisher Andrew Hoyem which took place last month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Those
in upstate New York who can't make it to NYC can look forward to seeing
some of this work in the future. The newly renamed George Eastman
Museum in Rochester recently announced
that Kentridge has given the definitive collection of his archive and
art -- including films, videos and digital works, as well as his work
for Lulu -- to the museum. Founded in the 1940s, the museum has
one of the world's largest and oldest photography and film collections.
And as fans of the actress well know, it was also the longtime home of Louise Brooks.
Although she died countless times on stage and on film, Lulu still lives. Frank Wedekind's immortal character -- the great femme fatale of the 20th century -- first appeared in his once controversial, now celebrated "Lulu" plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904).
In
the years that followed, Lulu was reborn in other art. Wedekind's plays
were the basis for two great silent films in the 1920s, as well as
Alban Berg's masterful opera of the 1930s. The plays and their stage
performances, the films, and the opera all influenced one another. It is
known, for example, that Berg saw G.W. Pabst's 1929 film Pandora's Box
while composing his great modernist opera, as did his great champion
and correspondent Theodor Adorno, who wrote that he was profoundly
affected by Lulu.
There have been other later film adaptions,
poems, paintings and drawings, comic books, and even erotica inspired by
the character of Lulu, as well as a few rock and pop recordings like
Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010) and the Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration Lulu (2011).
Her origins remain obscure. Did Wedekind base the character on Lou Andreas-Salomé
and his own frustrated relationship with the vivacious intellectual
(who preferred the company of Nietzsche, Freud, and Rilke)? Or did
Wedekind base Lulu on his mother, a one-time showgirl in Gold Rush San
Francisco? She married Wedekind's father, an older and respectable
professional, not unlike Dr. Schön in the plays.
Or, was Wedekind -- a rogue in his youth
-- smitten with Lulu, a popular circus performer in Paris in the 1890s?
We do know that Wedekind was inspired by the circus as well as Félicien
Champsaur's 1888 circus pantomime, Lulu. In the prologue to Earth Spirit,
the characters are introduced by an Animal Tamer as if they are
creatures in a traveling circus. Lulu herself is described as "the true
animal, the wild, beautiful animal" and the "primal form of woman."
Over
the years, actresses from Eva Gabor to Judy Davis have played Lulu on
stage and in film, while many others have sung the role in opera. Here
is a shortlist of six great, memorable Lulus. Each has shaped the way we
see the character today.
Marlis Petersen as Lulu.
PHOTO: Kristian Schuller/Metropolitan Opera
Marlis Petersen: It would be something of an understatement to say there is great anticipation around the new production of Alban Berg's Lulu that opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The excitement building over this new Lulu stems not just from the fact that artist William Kentridge
is behind the staging of this modernist masterpiece, but that Marlis
Peterson will be singing the role of Lulu. The riveting German soprano
(a blonde who sports a dark bob à la Louise Brooks) is appearing in her 10th and just announced final production of the opera. As an interpreter of Lulu,
few have made the role so much their own. No wonder Peter Gelb, the
Met's general manager, calls her "the leading Lulu of the day." Lulu opens at the Metropolitan Opera on November 5 and continues through December 3. On November 21, Lulu will be live streamed to theaters across the United States.
Louise Brooks as Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora's Box.
PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Louise Brooks:
The best known Lulu may well be Louise Brooks, the bobbed-hair,
Kansas-born silent film star called to Germany to play Lulu in the G.W.
Pabst directed film, Pandora's Box.
Movie-goers at the time were dismayed. They asked, how could an
American play what was an especially German character? Though she
claimed not to know what it was all about, or even to have read
Wedekind's text until years later, Brooks so convincingly inhabits the
character of Lulu that any actress or singer playing the role is hard
pressed to ignore her. In a recent piece, critic Graham Fuller suggests that Brooks the actress and not Pabst the director is the film's real auteur. It's not a new notion, but still a provocative one. A free screening of Pandora's Box will take place on November 8th at Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Asta Nielsen in 1913, as Lulu in 1923, and turned from the camera in 1930. PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Asta Nielsen: The first film Lulu was Asta Nielsen, the great Danish actress, who played Lulu in Earth Spirit
(1923). One of the early international movie stars, she was noted for
her large dark eyes, mask-like face, and androgynous figure. (Famously,
she played Hamlet in 1921.) About her, the French poet Apollinaire once
exclaimed, "She is everything! She is the drunkard's vision and the
lonely man's dream." Be that as it may, Nielsen often and movingly
portrayed strong-willed, passionate women trapped by tragic
consequences. Due to the erotic nature of her performances, Nielsen's
films were censored in the United States, and her work to this day
remains obscure to American audiences.
Tilly Newes and Frank Wedekind in Pandora's Box. Tilly Wedekind as Lulu in Earth Spirit. PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Tilly Newes: The second actress to play the role on stage was Tilly Newes. Pandora's Box
was first staged in Nuremberg in 1904, but was banned by the German
censor. Austrian writer Karl Kraus produced a private performance in
Vienna the following year, and cast Newes, an Austrian actress, as Lulu.
Newes and Wedekind, who played Jack the Ripper, had an affair, and
after the playwright insulted her, the actress threw herself into a
river. Wedekind rescued her, and soon proposed. Despite a difference of
22 years, they remained together until Wedekind's death in 1918. In
1969, she published an autobiography, Lulu - the role of my life.
Kyla Webb in Lulu: a black and white silent play, which toured the country in 2006
Kyla Webb: Back in 2005 and 2006, the then newly formed Silent Theatre Company
of Chicago staged a brilliant and singular adaption of the Lulu plays.
Taking their cue from the silent cinema, this Lulu was performed without
words. The intent was to say what words often cannot express -- here,
gesture and body language did all the talking. At the heart of Lulu: a black and white silent play was an immensely talented young actress, Kyla Webb,
in the title role. Webb was Lulu incarnate -- throwing her affections
and body about with abandon on a razor's edge of danger and desire. A
revival is in the works.
Melanie Griffith as Lulu in Something Wild (1986).
PHOTO: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc
Melanie Griffith:
Though she didn't play Wedekind or Berg's Lulu, Melanie Griffith was
Lulu to a generation of moviegoers. In Jonathan Demme's 1986 thriller, Something Wild,
Griffith is given the character's name and unpredictable personae, as
well as Brooks' trademark hairstyle. Though a stylistic gloss on some of
Wedekind's more profound themes, Something Wild remains a clever, layered, Hitchcockian take on the nature of desire and uncertainty.
There is an old saying. Chance favors the prepared mind. There is another saying about being in the right place at the right time.
I love books. And have long been involved in various aspects of publishing. For two-and-a-half years I worked at Arion Press in San Francisco as its Director of Marketing and Sales. Arion Press, if you're not familiar, is one of the last letterpress publishers in the world. Started more than 40 years ago, Arion makes extraordinary, limited edition, handmade books. Their Moby-Dick, with 100 wood engravings by Barry Moser, and their Ulysses, with 40 etchings by Robert Motherwell, are each legendary and sought after.
One day in 2013 at an Arion Press staff meeting, we were discussing upcoming projects. At the time, the press was looking for a new book to publish; the press was also wanting to work with artist William Kentridge -- a proposed Flaubert project with Kentridge had stalled out. At the time, Kentridge was deep into his production of Alban Berg's opera Lulu, which was based on two plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind.
I have always been an idea guy, and it was at that meeting that I suggested to Arion publisher Andrew Hoyem that the press pair Kentridge with Wedekind's two Lulu plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box. I made the suggestion not long after having read in the New York Times that Kentridge himself was inspired by Brooks -- actress who played Lulu in the 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box. It seemed like a good fit.
Speaking to the New York Times in 2013, Kentridge explained "that his Lulu was being inspired by German
Expressionism, Weimar cinema (including, of course, Pandora’s Box, the
G. W. Pabst version of the Lulu story starring Louise Brooks), Max
Beckmann drypoints depicting brothels and the like...."
Not long after the staff meeting where I made my suggestion, Hoyem approached Kentridge with the idea of publishing the Lulu plays accompanied by artwork by Kentridge. After some back and forth, the project was a go.
Fast forward to 2015. Arion Press has just released its edition of Wedekind's The Lulu Plays, featuring 67 Kentridge drawings (printed by four-color offset lithography) bound into the book. The images are derived from brush and ink drawings for projections included in the artist's new production of Berg's opera, which opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on November 5. It looks to be a terrific production.
The role of Lulu is sung by the German coloratura soprano Marlis Peterson (a dirty blonde who wears her hair shoulder length); she is famed for the role, and in this production sports a dark bob a la Louise Brooks.
Those seeking a sneak peak of the visuals behind the opera should head over to the Marion Goodman Gallery in New York, where "William Kentridge: Drawings for Lulu" is on display through December 19th. The exhibit presents the original 67 drawings by Kentridge used in the opera and the book, as well as a suite of four related linocut prints. The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is also on display at the gallery, as well as at the IFPDA Print Fair in New York from November 4 through November 8.
The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is a fine achievement. It's both handsome and sexy. Four-hundred copies were printed, each signed by the artist and numbered. The book is quarto format, measuring 13-1/2" x 10", and is printed by letterpress on luxurious creamy paper utilizing period type in fittingly black and red inks. The book is hand bound, and comes in a slipcase. Louise Brooks and her role in Pandora's Box is mentioned in the introduction.
To learn more about the new edition of The Lulu Plays, check out this video from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on-stage conversation between Kentridge and Arion Press publisher Hoyem.
The Met's production of William Kentridge's staging of Alban Berg's opera will be streamed live into theater's across the country on Saturday, November 21st. More info HERE.
West Edge Opera is presenting Alban Berg's opera Lulu in the abandoned 16th Street Train Station in Oakland, California. A very blonde un-Louise Brooks like Emma McNairy takes the role of Lulu. More information HERE.
Lulu, by Alban Berg
The summit of German Expressionism in opera
SATURDAY JULY 25, 8PM
SUNDAY AUGUST 2, 2PM
SATURDAY AUGUST 8, 8PM
Lulu, the second and final opera of composer Alban Berg (1885 - 1935), is considered one of the masterpieces of 20th-century composition. Berg, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, adapted the libretto himself from two plays by Frank Wedekind.
The central character Lulu is the embodiment of sex appeal - Lulu is married to three men successively in the opera. They worship her, but her untamed sensuality spells their ruin, with Lulu even killing the third, the wealthy Dr. Schoen. Jailed for this murder, she escapes, but she descends into poverty and ultimately prostitution. She is killed by a client, Jack the Ripper.