Press release for Lulupalooza
tho...@pandorasbox.com
Lulupalooza 2005: A celebration of the cinematic life of Louise Brooks
-- She was a rocker before there was rock - July 23-24, 2005 at
the Firehouse Theater, Richmond, Viriginia - lulupalooza.org
May 19, 2005, Richmond, Virginia
The Firehouse Theatre Project and Yellow House of Richmond, Virginia,
are in collaboration presenting Lulupalooza 2005, July 23-24, with nine
films and other events, celebrating the cinematic life of 1920s film
star, memoirist and cultural icon, Louise Brooks (1906-1985).
A highlight of the Saturday, July 23-Sunday, July 24, 2005 festival is
the presentation on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., of her best known film,
Pandora's Box, at the Byrd Theater movie palace, 2908 W. Cary St.
(http://members.tripod.com/~g_cowardin/byrd/), accompanied live by
Richmond's own Los10Space (los10space.com). Saturday night at 7 p.m.
features a staged reading of Janet Munsil's Smoking With Lulu,
presented in association with Michael White and Richard Jordan
Productions Ltd. (UK).
Many people know Brooks now not necessarily by name or even her movies
but as an emblem of the Jazz Age and an Art Deco symbol. A familiar
image of her turned in profile, holding a string of pearls, is sold on
postcards today.
She is notable for her characteristic black bobbed hair, expressive
dark eyes and a natural quality in front of the camera that wasn't
seen again for decades. Brooks was from Cherryvale and Wichita, Kansas,
and as a teenager left home as a member of the modern Denishawn dance
troupe with Martha Graham. This led to the Ziegfield Follies and a
wandering into movies. She made only 24 films between 1925 and 1938
before quitting Hollywood, disgusted by its assembly line approach and
Hollywood, for its part, was fed up with Brooks and her headstrong
notions of independence.
Brooks could be a regular Kansas twister; tempestuous and exasperating
at one turn, adorable and witty at another, though always smart, and
often smart alecky. She hung out with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and
George Gerswhin, played tennis at William Randolph Hearst's San
Simeon estate, engaged in a passionate dalliance with Charlie Chaplin
(among others), and she brought The Charleston dance to London. She did
most of this, and much more, before the age of 21.
Her best films, ones in which the director knew what to do with her,
are foreign and silent, though Prix de Beauté was dubbed into French.
She walked away from what could've been a promising career to spend
almost 50 years in self-exile, drinking too much gin, smoking too many
cigarettes and learning to write. Her essays were ultimately collected
as Lulu In Hollywood, a classic account of Hollywood's early days.
She was "found" by theater critic Kenneth Tynan whose New Yorker
profile "The Girl in the Black Helmet" returned her to the popular
imagination. And she never really left.
A recent Vogue Magazine portrait series of actress Natalie Portman
featured the actress dressed and styled resembling similar photographs
of Brooks. The titular character of the 2001 film Amélie bore physical
affinity to Brooks and her alluring on-screen impishness (though little
of Brooksie's sometime off-screen spitefulness).
Lulupalooza '05 is presenting nine Brooks films and excerpts from
several others primarily using DVD projection, although Pandora's
Box, through arrangement with Kino International, will be shown in 35
mm on the big movie palace screen of the Byrd Theater. The festival's
primary location is the Firehouse Theater, an alternative performance
space housed in a century-old fire station.
Seating is limited and reservations are required. Tickets for the
entire festival are $37.50 and may be purchased online through PayPal.
For further information about the festival, see lulupalooza.org and
about Brooks, go to the Louise Brooks Society site, pandorasbox.com,
the absolute go-to source on the Internet. For other questions, call
the Firehouse Theater at (804) 355-2001. Both the Firehouse Theatre
Project and Yellow House are non-profit, 501 (c) (3) organizations. See
also firehousetheatre.org and yellowhouseva.org.