Louise Brooks, A Girl Too Big For the World of Fame

I’m so enamored with Louise Brooks, the iconic flapper girl who skyrocketed to fame as only to later fizzle out. In the 20s she was *the* symbol of female liberation and sexuality, but at her lowest point was a call girl in nyc as stardom subsided…fortunately, she and her work were rediscovered in the 1950s, and she spent the last decades of her life writing about fame, Hollywood and her star-studded life, finally appreciated for her contributions to the history of film…

Louise starred in almost two dozen films, “Pandora’s Box” and “Diary of a Lost Girl” as two of the most well known, filmed in Germany with GW Pabst. She lived and worked uncompromisingly, which made her both an intriguing figure as well as one that would take actions leading to her own undoing.

What I enjoy about her is also caused her trouble. She was willing to risk it all for fame, for impulsive decisions to have affairs with this or that magnate, actor or director even if it meant her long term future prospects were endangered. It was both her strength and her weakness that she stood up to people she shouldn’t, like powerful figures in the movie industry. And while she had moral justifications for doing so, it also seems it might’ve been her showing her power and her insight. Not to mention her frustration with the patriarchy. Inevitably, she would be shunned by these people, blacklisted by the industry and even in her late 20s and early 30s no longer offered anymore roles because of how she’d hurt her personal relationships.

Louise is also a tragic figure. Molested at 9, she never really believed in love and never really seemed to trust men, except for her father, who was always there for her, and she sometimes came to.

Eventually, Louise turned to what she knew best – alcohol and sex – after trying out her hand at dancing professionally later in life and even opening her own studio. She struggled with her alcoholism throughout her life, until very late in life. And acted as a dancer and call girl to make ends meet. Reportedly, she flirted with suicide several times, with a small stipend she received from a former lover keeping her from total rock bottom.

Louise pursued what she wanted and what she loved, but she also didn’t heed warnings even when they smacked her in the face. After she told her former director GW Pabst that she intended to return to America out of boredom with European society after starring in two films of his, he warned her of a bleak future if she didn’t quit her drinking and her undisciplined lifestyle. Unfortunately, as she later admitted: his words rang true for a time.

There would be redemption however, and after years of living in ignominy as a barfly, sales girl and, self-reportedly, a call-girl, in New York, she was rediscovered by John Card, who connected her with a well known film institute in Rochester, NY. Thereafter, she was encouraged to move there, just as she was beginning to write more about her past fame, her films and her relationships. Meanwhile, she was being highlighted again by important European film critics such as Henry Langlois.

Pandora’s Box, A Review

Pandora’s Box, a 1929 German silent language film, directed by G.W.Pabst and which stars the internationally-renowned Louise Brooks who stars as Lulu. Ahead of its time in its depiction of lesbianism, sexual-positivity, the film casts Louise as a strong female protagonist who drives much of the plot. Based on an earlier play by Frank Wedekind, this film is reportedly darker and edgier than its play counterpart. The film was so boundary-pushing that it was censored and re-edited in several countries both to have a happier ending, to eliminate depictions of lesbianism and to reduce instances of sexuality shown in the film. Beginning with the ongoing love affair between the austere and traditional Professor Schon and Lulu, the film follows a series of happenstances and misfortunes involving Professor Schon’s son Alwa, Lulu’s occasional lesbian interest Augusta Geschwitz, her “first patron” Schigolch and more. Lulu is a beautiful girl who both envies the attention of the men she cannot entice and captivates men and women alike all while placing herself in increasingly dangerous situations and creating unfortunate situations which eventually lead to her own undoing. Still, even as she is very much an actor and not just an acted-upon, seeing her live the consequences of her actions is nevertheless tragic and heart wrenching, right up until the end. Much like the self-determined, open and often chaotic life she lived in real life, Louise Brooks played a role that suited her, going on to also do another film with Pabst, “Diary of a Lost Girl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Furc-LygU

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