Lulu In Hollywood: Expanded Edition by Louise Brooks
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Book Reviews of Lulu In Hollywood: Expanded Edition
Book Review: Excellent Essays by a Hollywood Beauty
Summary: 5 Stars
Louise Brooks led one of the most fascinating, self-destructive lives of any actor of the silent film era. A born dancer, and giving professional appearances in Kansas at a very young age, she joined a famous ballet group and became a top dancer before she was kicked out for a "bad attitude". Then on to Broadway rising in the ranks to be a starlette of the great revues of that time, including Ziegfield. Talked into taking a screen test in New York, she immediately was cast and, once again, shot upward like a rocket. NY movie making was quite different than the Hollywood "machine" and once forced to CA, she again rebelled at the reins thrown around her. Off to Germany to make the two greatest silents ever: Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box with director GW Pabst. Bored with Germany, she fled back to the USA, only to find herself blacklisted. She made a few non descript movies after that and only one with sound. The studios, she claimed, let out a story that her voice wasn't "good" for talkies. What a lie! Her voice is angelic as is shown by her only speaking movie made with none other than a fledgling John Wayne, fresh out of USC.
After virtually vanishing for years, she was found in a terrible NYC apartment and convinced to move to Rochester, NY, home of the George Eastman House which was the inception of the largest film library in the world. Through devoted fans and despite her aggressive and often callous behavious, she began writing about her career and Hollywood, German film making and actors she knew. The result is a stunning tour-de-force and not to be missed by a "Lulu" fan. She led a wild, sexually charged life and was an alcoholic in her teens, yet she read philosophy, history, and classic literature. She was so intellectual that men were frightened of her. The rich wanted arm-candy. She was all of that, but because she had brains.
Be aware, however, that highly researched biographies of Louise prove that many of her assertions of "fact" and incorrect. Either she didn't remember well or purposely chose to bend the truth a little. Still, a beautifully, lovingly written set of words. The photos alone are worth the price of the book. With her hugely copied "helmet" hairstyle and those dark, penetrating eyes and perfectly symetrical face, her beauty was unrivaled. Personally I think, in her teens to early thirties, she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.
Book Review: Quintessential Lulu (Louise Brooks)
Summary: 5 Stars
What made Louise Brooks interesting beyond just the typical celebrity she was unusually intelligent. She was an extraordinary beautiful woman but if that were all - she would have been just another face in the Hollywood crowd albeit a striking one. Her life was not so much one of just ups and downs but most generally straight down starting at the top. Lucky to have so much success early in life but maybe unlucky for her vision as to witness the folly of those who gave it. Louise's insights and critical assessment of her life and those around her were a " blessing and curse" but then again she had no choice but to follow her own mind as it played out to the end. She was certainly not one to parlay her attributes as a cunning femme fatale as it were but she existed as a passing player through a masquerade of "bread and circuses" orchestrated by those with lesser sensibilities. No, Lulu could have never been satisfied with the status quo, the mundane of the hoi polloi, the trappings of the superficial she was an individual who saw life in its raw form and played no game and for those who did not understand Louise - missed - that her only glory was the truth and its price to pay. She was an intriguing and talented woman who deserved more but would not sell her soul to gain it. Her book tells of her life and times and the pathos within it.
I will recommend highly Barry Paris' biography of Louise Brooks as a necessary read for anyone interested in reading about the life and times of Louise Brooks. The book is excellent and engrossing. It gives a most informative detail of all aspects of Lulu's life. Actually Paris' book should be read first to gain a comprehensive overview of Brook's life before reading "Lulu in Hollywood." A better biography you could not read.
Book Review: A beauty unparalleled in film history
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a collection of Brooks's autobiographical essays together with an interview by Kenneth Tynan.
It shows a Louise Brooks as a fiercely independent character, as well as her failure as a social creature, because of her open critic of people's false faces.
But at what price? She survives as a kept woman by three lovers and ends in poverty, rejected and lonely.
She characterizes her work in Hollywood's film factory as slavery and throws a shrill light on Hollywood's morals (the casting couch) and cynicism: the end of the silent period served as an excuse to terminate all contracts.
The all important feature of her life was sex, not love: 'I have never been in love.' But, 'A person's sexual loves and hates and conflicts ... It is the only way the reader can make sense out of innumerable apparently senseless actions.'
She considers that 'the most fateful encounter in my life' was a sexual one with George Preston Marshall.
Nevertheless, she had some regrets: 'How often do we change the whole course of our lives in pursuit of a love that we will have forgotten within a few months.'
She never wrote her biography because 'I am unwilling to write the sexual truth that would make up my life worth reading.'
Barry PARIS did it for her, admirably. His book contains also a few corrections on Louise Brooks's statements in her book.
A moving text with admirable pictures.
Book Review: BROOKS AND TYNAN ARE EXTRAORDINARY
Summary: 5 Stars
I am unimpressed by Emily from Seattle's harsh words, which are both snotty and inaccurate. Tynan was the finest theatre critic of his time--and not bad on film, either. His profiles of stage and screen actors, recently collected in one volume, are masterpieces of the genre. In particular, his profile of Brooks was an indelible portrait of a brilliant and beautiful woman. Brooks herself, though not a great actress, was indeed a great star--exquisitely beautiful, highly charismatic, and powerfully erotic. To the best of my memory, Tynan describes her only in these terms, never as the creator of naturalistic film acting. (Incidentally, none of the women named by Emily--Crawford, Davies, Bow, and the insufferable Shearer--could properly be described as an actress. They were merely stars--and distinctly inferior to Brooks in talent, intelligence, and beauty.) Finally, as everyone here (including Emily) acknowledges, Brooks was a first-rate writer herself, and the essays in this book are required reading for anyone interested in silent film.Book Review: Brooks back in print
Summary: 5 Stars
Great to have this irreplaceable book back in print. Even better that it now includes the New Yorker article by Kenneth Tynan, "The Girl in the Black Helmet," that helped touch off the 80's Brooks revival, and an additional piece by Brooks entitled "Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs." Still, one can't help coming away from this book wishing there were more material, just as one wishes there were more Brooks films.
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