Looking For Lulu - Documentary on Louise Brooks (1998)

[Music] nobody burned more bridges than louise brooks without meaning to she developed into one of the most intensely erotic icons of her time [Music] she redefined film acting without realizing it her name would disappear for a quarter century but her face never could she conquered new york hollywood and berlin and fled them all none of her many lovers could hold her not charles chaplin not cbs founder william paley she left them all behind lovers husbands and movie studios [Music] no one believed a creature so beautiful could be so brilliant or so self-destructive yet in the end she carved immortality out of defeat this is a true tale of the contradictory life death and resurrection of louise brooks and the search for lulu my [Music] [Applause] i think that every actor should look at her work so you don't ever just feel one thing you can feel fear anger sadness happiness all at once it's never just one thing and that's what she did and people said she did nothing but she was doing everything it was so simple i'm so glad i knew she was really uh it was a relic in good friendship she was so bright god she was bright i find a form of profound morality in louise brook's life i think luis brooks was considering life as the most supreme form of art you have this sharp feeling that getting close to louise brooks was like getting close to a tornado i have a gift for enraging people louise said but if i ever bore you it'll be with a knife the sex symbol and darling of two continents came from a dot on the plains cherryville kansas the unlikely birthplace of louise brooks in my dreams i am never crippled she reflected late in life in my dreams i dance she never wanted to be a film star she only wanted to be a dancer born on november 14 1906 louise was the defiant daughter of a brilliant woman who recognized her little wild cat's gifts from the start myra brooks had aspirations of her own myra who was a very modern woman she went around speaking about women's health and the right of women to then vote and she was much sought after as a woman speaker she got i guess extremely full of herself and decided that that she wanted to light out on her own and that raising children was not what she was meant to do the brooks's were proud people they took on challenges and they liked to achieve and did achieve louise's daughter father leonard was an old fuddy daddy he was a nice old man gentleman and kind-hearted meyer was a beautiful woman she was considered the most beautiful woman in wichita and she played the part myra took charge of the cultural education of her children she was an avid reader and an accomplished pianist who played the latest wc while little louise danced why do i care that she was no mother and cared less about her children than an alligator louise told her brother theodore later she taught us the love of beauty and laughter myra brooks would eventually abandon her family for a career on the lecture circuit but not before setting louise and theo loose in their father's vast library where they devoured every classic on the shelves and not before turning louise into a professional child prodigy a dancer from age six who performed at the local opera house and town social events mastering the art of movement sleepy cherryvale would seem like a safe place to grow up but even in kansas appearances can be deceiving living just down the street from the brooks's was a house painter named mr flowers he lured little louise by leaving candy on his doorstep inside the house he molested the nine-year-old girl and that sexual trauma would hang over her forever when louise told her mother this her mother said was furious with louise because what had she done to the poor man that she surely was somehow at fault six years later louise now 14 was an accomplished dancer performing at social events in or around the brooks's new home in wichita kansas her mother myra took louise to the theater to see touring theatrical companies one such performance would change her life in 1921 the pioneers of american modern dance the revolutionary denis shawn dance company included wichita kansas on their national tour historian jane sherman was the same age as louise when she saw her first denison performance i had danced since i was a child mother sent me to all kinds of different schools including classical ballet when i hated the rigidity of ballet and the hard tolls i wanted something freer when i saw miss ruth in her beautiful brahms liberstrom i burst into tears i said mother that's what i want to do the effect on louise was electric too one member of the dennis shawn company at that time was young martha graham and years later louise would say i learned how to act by watching martha graham dance and i learned how to dance by watching charlie chaplin act louise wanted to learn how to dance just like the denishawn girls she badgered her parents into letting her board a train to study dance with denisha at 15 she was leaving canvas bound with chaperone for new york [Music] if company founders ruth st dennis and ted shawn were the adam and eve of modern dance louise was the one destined to disturb the garden of eden [Music] we were supposed to be very pure and idealistic we were not allowed to smoke or drink or certainly not go out with men or boys with uh without being chaperoned when she joined for the 22-23 season she was simply in the ensembles but then by in the 1923-24 season sean selected her to be his heroine in a hopi indian ballet called the feather of the dawn and he was the american indian hero and she was his bride and she was beautiful in it and whenever louise's book came name came up there was a little uh gossip that maybe she'd been out with some men maybe she'd had a few drinks louise brooks was rather jazzy for that time and miss truth certainly was despite great praise and progress over two seasons saint dennis dismissed her in front of the whole company for having a superior attitude louise never got over the deep humiliating injustice only 17 she was alone in new york [Music] in her brief time in new york she made friends however and her chum barbara bennett sister of the celebrated actress constance came to the rescue barbara took her in and found her a place in the follies she performed specialty dances in the george white scandals of 1924. it may have been an artistic come down but the george white scandals produced a big upswing in louise's public recognition critics now took notice of this exotic girl with the striking hairdo that looked like a black helmet and so did the show's composer the most brilliant and beloved in broadway history george gershwin they flirted briefly at the rehearsal piano and gershwin promised to bring her a doll from paris but louise quarrelled with the other chorus girls backstage and left the show she was soon on to bigger things with the assistance of legendary broadway producer florence ziegfeld mr ziegfeld gave me a job in louis xiv a comedy at the cosmopolitan theater in march 1925 wrote louise the director was teddy royce who stood behind the orchestra pit sipping his gin and water he looked sharply at me and said some girls in this show are using it exclusively as a showcase i was humiliated and insulted and i rushed to mr ziegfeld and told him how mr royce had offended me he smiled his charming silver fox smile and instantly transferred me to the follies the default follies was of course a very important show and and happened almost every year it was mainly made up of sketches with good comedians and these beautiful girls many of whom did nothing except the clear was not too much in the way of clothes on but never vulgar louisa was part of that not at the showgirl she was there as a dancer [Music] w.c fields was a star of ziegfeld's 1925 follies louise loved fields and he loved her visits to his dressing room watching her pirouette around his makeup table and tossed down drinks prepared by his valet louise's biggest fan on the other side of the footlights was an audience member named charles chaplin she had admired his little [ __ ] in the movie house in wichita and now he became her fan and they fell into a two-month affair i went to see chaplin very gentle man i was so touched by his gentleness and we were talking about garbo and as usual i was raving about her and i had been to a party at selka fertiles and he said yes indeed in many ways she makes me think of louise brooks who is certainly one of the most interesting young actresses that i've ever known but who was difficult in her way pretty much as greta is well i said you know i met her when i was very young and what struck me about her was how beautiful her legs were and mom and i said beautiful legs he said little breasts like pears after the chaplain brooks romance ended louise was evicted from the algonquin hotel for promiscuity while they never met again both louise and charlie always spoke fondly of each other in the later years in the end louise performed a self-eviction from the follies for no better reason than the fact that she just got bored with it it was the height of the roaring twenties and the wheeze became the life of the party she was dying for a mint coat and she had been telling her current boyfriend that she wanted a full length mint coat so the boyfriend bought her a coat and it was a short coat it was a hip length and what she wanted was something that dust the floor and they went to the cotton club or someplace where there were quite a few showgirls and she got up and she threw the coat out into the floor and said there and whoever can get it grab it can have it and of course the boyfriend was furious unconsciously louise was preparing for her next step she was ready for the movies the only question was were the movies ready for louise [Music] so [Music] with brooksy in the jazz age things happened fast or not at all and movies weren't even on the list [Music] louise was a true 20s flapper out with inhibitions wrote zelda fitzgerald the flapper will learn that things aren't going to be over until she's too tired to care [Music] louise's new boyfriend walter weinger was a powerful paramount producer he asked her if she would do a screen test why not she said the money was good the test was made may 20th 1925 and before long two studios vied to put her under contract paramount and mgm louise chose paramount with wenger producing she turned into the most delicious little flapper on screen she appeared in a string of feature-length cheesecake pictures shot at the famous astoria studios in new york many of brooke's early films were lost before film preservation efforts could save them but her very first film appearance has survived eighteen-year-old louise had only one scene in which she played the girlfriend of a small time crook [Music] getting up at seven in order to be made up and ready to work at nine made me cross as a bear she wrote so nevertheless louise quickly advanced to important supporting roles in her next features there was no turning back a new star had begun to rise for her fourth film louise got a chance to work with her friend wc field she was delighted [Music] it's the old army game was directed by eddie sutherland louise played the loyal employee of wc fields character elmer pretty willy the owner of a local drugstore fields gets involved in a scheme to sell new york real estate to gullible florida [Music] investors [Music] on screen louise observes fields antics and provides feminine distraction for a romantic subplot involving the handsome new yorker who fronts the land company as a kid and regular moviegoer i know i was impressed by this girl this beautiful girl with the dutch bob i was about 10 years old i think it saw her in the first movies with the wc fields louise was impudent exciting and unpredictable qualities that bowled over director eddie sutherland he fell madly in love with her and proposed she said no [Music] nobody was quite like louise from her haircut to those that marvelous straight look that you got louise was a glamour girl in the last days of the roaring 20s you'd never mistake her for mary pickford or jenna kaner or anyone like that she was the only one of her kind after the film wrapped enthusiastic eddie sutherland continued his courtship of louise by telephone eventually he got his way louise and eddie were married on the 21st of july 1926 in new york 48 hours later mr sutherland left his bride to shoot a new movie in california it was not an auspicious beginning for their union louise had new movies too and her roles got better variety raved she photographs like a million dollars this girl is going to land right at the top of the picture racket the show-off is a top-notch film version of the broadway hit comedy of 1925 about a big talking office dandy who marries a sweet girl and then manages to ruin his new family's fortunes louise's girl next door character is on to ford sterling's fatuous braggart right from the beginning of the script the simple small town girl from kansas comes through louise is sweet but she has fire at the end it is a tongue lashing from louise that serves as the final straw shaming sterling into reforming his ways she was very much an individual she wasn't someone who could be called stereotyped in any way there was a strong sense of personality the second you saw her she had a sort of sureness about what she did even though she was very young and great looking [Music] she was popular a rising film star photographed regularly by studio glamour photographers people speculated when she would get her first big starring role she was everywhere at once [Music] everywhere it seemed but with her husband assigned to films shooting on opposite coasts the newlyweds were apart far more often than they were together marriage did not tie louise down by all appearances she continued to live the single life [Music] with her next role her film image began to catch up with the real one in love him and leave him louise was cast as a wicked girl who decides to steal her sister's boyfriend just for the fun of it [Music] she was very rarely the heroine she was usually somebody's wicked sister or cousin and though she was of the 20s you think charleston charleston she was her acting was always quite reserved she wasn't throwing herself around recklessly the same attitude that had offended ruth st dennis was evident to her directors as well but some of them liked it director malcolm sinclair sketched a little cartoon of his favorite flapper and made a gift of it to her next louise moved from new york to hollywood and director howard hawks borrowed her from paramount for fox to play a sexy circus diver in a girl in every port i wanted a new type said hawks i hired louise brooks because she was very sure of herself very analytical very feminine damn good way ahead of her time a rebel i like rebels in 1927 director william wilman gave louise her first serious dramatic role in beggars of life opposite major paramount stars wallace bieri and richard arlen and a number of occasions louise mentioned to me the beggars of life was her favorite phone the whole experience was something she liked she liked everything from director to stars that were in the film and what she was able to do with her part beggars of life is the brutal story of a girl disguised as a boy running from the law and riding the rails in a world filled with unscrupulous hobos and heartless railroad police she's threatened by violence and rape at every turn her co-star richard arlen was friendly on the surface but secretly jealous of her quick success [Music] one night filled with liquor he told louise i've been working for three years and i make a stinking 400 a week you're a pet of the front office you're a lousy actress and your eyes are too close together it didn't help matters on the set after louise on a lark bedded down with one of the stuntmen who spread the word but trouble on the set didn't slow her down at the moment louise was busy being one of the beautiful people a regular at san simeon the fabled castle built by publisher william randolph hurst and his actress mistress marion davies [Music] louise was making real money in the picture business and even more from certain rich older boyfriends what she got she spent fast and generously objects of her generosity included her younger siblings theo in june [Music] louise bought theo a new chrysler roadster one day some strange man came to the door and he said would you like to have a new car well anyway he got the new chrysler roadster but the warmth and kindness that louise lavished on those close to her could quickly turn to fire as younger sister june found out louise had put june in school in paris and she was on holiday and there was a shakespearean festival going on apparently when louise was with june there was a bust or a statue of shakespeare and louise gestured toward the bus through the statue and said something like oh and here and there's the author and june poor little june said said oh which box is he in and and the sad part and the rest of the story is that of course louise verbally just flogged her for being so incredibly stupid well and the brooksides are pretty good at doing that to people apparently and louise was blessed with that gift more than more than many of us women all over america were copying her hairdo though they could never copy her caprice love is a publicity stunt she said and making love after the first curious raptures is only another petulant way to pass the time waiting for the studio to call her husband appeared to be one of those publicity stunts my name is mary louise brooks she once said don't be calling me mrs sutherland their divorce was fast louise always preferred to cut off friends abruptly rather than endure a tearful farewell [Music] when talkies hit the hollywood movie colony like a bomb the stars trembled lest their voices end their careers but louise was not among the terror stricken going to the movies a lot brought me to one afternoon to a film called the canary murder case well in that film i was so taken with her there was something about her that held my interest in it because of that strange miracle which is what she has between her forehead and right about here on her chest and when the camera catches that and all she has to do is look one way or another the neck something happens in the neck and the shoulders she is absolutely extraordinary no other men shall ever have you alive the canary murder case starring william powell was the first modern detective movie louise played a blackmailing showgirl whose eventual murder places a series of boyfriends under suspicion when it was decided in mid-production to convert the picture to sound her conflicts with the studio culminated in an epic battle with paramount chief bp shulberg years later louise recalled what happened in this rare interview [Music] i was working at paramount and it was 1928 and my contract came up in september and i was getting 750 a week and schulberg bud shulberg's charming father called me and said said look talkies are coming in and we don't know how you talk and i said really i have the most beautiful voice in hollywood paramount executives wanted to win contract concessions from their players it was an economy move to offset the cost of converting to sound most paramount stars caved in saved louise who stunned studio boss bp shulberg by quitting on the spot by coincidence walking out the door she was handed a cable by schulberg's secretary someone wanted her to star in a picture based on a german play shooting halfway around the world in berlin louise spoke no german she knew nothing of either the play or the director she had no way of knowing that on this decision would ride her entire future and in many ways her place in film history [Music] the character of lulu in the 1928 german feature pandora's box is the ultimate lethal seductress not for being the most wicked but the most innocent the great austrian director gw papp searched long and hard for her a past four year had hadn't begun lulu because he'd been looking around for a girl to play lulu and he couldn't find anyone they picked girls up off the street it was like looking for scarlett o'hara in the german version and then finally he saw me in a fox picture with the victor mclaren called the girl in a report and he said that is my lulu and no one seemed to agree with him but at any rate i left paramount and decided to come and at that very time when i sent the cable saying that i could come he had marlena dietrich sitting in the outer office because he thought if i can't get brooks i will take her she's too old she's 25 i was 21 and it's a part that can't be played by her type you know that one look which gives the scene away on the surface pandora's box is the story of a beautiful young girl who destroys the men around her through her innocent sexuality we first meet lulu and her rich lover in berlin where she dances in a fashionable theater by the end she is living a fugitive existence a streetwalker in a london slum picked up on christmas eve by jack the ripper startling in its sexual candor pandora's box is a complex drama suffused with both allegorical and psychological meaning co-star francis lederer who had played in stage production felt louise was perfect for her role this was a very famous german stage classic by virgin di boxer de pandora that was the title on the stage in germany the name is the name of a very decadent goddess they decided to have the part played by louise brooks i never heard of her before she was a mysterious angel and that is actually what the character was meant to be by the writer and so it was that louise brooks became the first significant hollywood actress to go to germany instead of the other way around she received a royal welcome at the train station by director pabst himself [Music] brooks and berlin louise and lulu were perfect for each other the germans were fiddling while the weimar republic burned hitler was just three years away but berliners wouldn't believe it louise plunged happily into the decadence and sensual smorgasbord of the city pabst did his best to reel her in i really didn't know any of the actors uh in the first place paths didn't want me to know any he was so afraid that i'd run out at night and go go to all those lesbian joints or get drunk pabst loved her sexuality but had more than sex in mind for her he wanted psychological realism under his skillful direction he drew from her a white hot performance as intense and erotic as any ever captured on film he made lulu a screen icon for all time beneath brook's powerful sexuality lay a subtlety that was startling in its simplicity and truth so natural it didn't look like acting and people did not know what to make it's just so hard to capture her i think she was right in saying that what she did on screen was play herself and in past she found somebody who knew how to use that well and they really were interconnected and it's rare that an actor gets that kind of relationship he knew how to just let her behave he would just give her a very simple direction like just one emotion and then let her behave around that emotion or that action like she was a dancer so it was like choreography she was sexual she was unapologetic and that's what he needed in lulu louise's acting was unlike anything ever seen in germany the german intelligentsia were appalled to find an american girl playing their german lulu they had taken that character to heart [Music] there were criticisms when the movie came out she's not doing anything well she was doing so much that's just not what they expected acting to be she had such an expressive face and so often he left the camera on her face and even though it was somebody else's moment the camera was on her face she was so exquisite looking and she had that ability where you could read thoughts across her face and read emotion and it was like quick silver [Music] louise was and is and she remained my memory as always and mystery that's why pubs and the producers chose her she was a mystery from a to z pandora's box was strong stuff for germany but even stronger for americans film censors waited with scissors poised for her next film louise loved her director gw pabst and she jumped at the chance to work in his next film 1929's the diary of a lost girl daily of lost skill i guess that is the most mutilated the most cut i know the writer of it saw it in paris after it was released and he said i uh it stopped and he said i thought the film was broken he said it was over it was released and cut almost in half louise made one more picture in europe pre de bote it was a stunning film about a girl who was torn between marriage and the fame and professional opportunities that are offered her as the result of a beauty prize this sound film was as beautiful as the star but was marred by poorly dubbed dialogue provided by a french actress after the film was completed in paris pabst begged louise to stay in europe and let him turn her into an international star to surpass garbo she refused she was bored by the idea of learning a foreign language and she was homesick for the states angrily pabst told her she would end up like lulu she was it was a tremendous force but she was a hedonist i mean it was all out there what she needed was somebody to garden that to mold it into to give it boundary and of course pabst was that person i think she was really smart and she didn't suffer fools and perhaps held her interest i think that he appreciated her intelligence and he said to her you have got to get yourself together and stop drinking and be disciplined and she didn't want to hear it you know and i think it scared her and so the rage of berlin in paris fled from the scene of her triumph to face an uncertain future in the hollywood industry that had once abused her brooks had exchanged her hollywood career for independence fun and three european films nobody in america would appreciate for years her stunning work in the german silence was largely ignored because the only thing grabbing headlines now were the new american talkies what happened backstage were you able to see the canary no luck charles she's about as hard to get out in a dressing room as she is in that swing but paramount was willing to give her one final chance her last american film the canary murder case shot as a silent needed retakes to be released as a sound film so they called me in new york in december and they said you must return to hollywood to make this into a talkie i said well you certainly let me go without uh so much as a so easy uh i said ah anyhow i hate hollywood i'm not going back but they were just living they had to get a girl called margaret livingston she was in sunrise remember she was very good and it cost him a fortune to dub her voice and reshoot some of the scenes send him in please shall we go over here well yes i'm afraid that marriage is quite out of the question miss odell oh you're sure about that are you i'm positive well how would you like me to tell the world about jimmy's embezzling from your bank what you heard me brooks had worked hard to get rid of her kansas accent and to learn to speak proper english but vengeful paramount studio boss bp shulberg spread the word that she didn't record well once blacklisted by paramount the other studios shied away from her tube she had made a bad decision and her acting career would never recover devil may care louise had begun the plunge to professional oblivion i think that um today's hollywood doesn't quite know what to do with louise brooks story because she wasn't really a winner in the hollywood sense you know we like big success stories here i think that's what makes her interesting the great louise brooks former toast of the town was now shunned by the major studios she played a few humiliating roles for the second and third string film factories thanks bill okay one of them was a cheap farce called wendy reilly goes hollywood for director roscoe fatty arbuckle you like it benny oh mrs smell i think it's great photographs like that'll do me a lot of good don't you think yeah here was the voice that schulberg said was unrecordable of course it was fine only the script needed work arbuckle working under a pseudonym was still in disgrace from the scandal that ruined his career they were now both among the untouchables though that hollywood treatment is murderous just murders it isn't that people turn their heads not to speak to you they don't see you you're not a person anymore you know the people who've been to die with you and you spent weekends with and so on and you walk into a restaurant they look right at you ellie that you don't exist in desperation ballroom dancing was what louise now fell back on she ended up in chicago in 1933 performing in nightclub shows with a dancing socialite named deering davis she married him without quite knowing why and took their dance act on the road by the time she got back to new york a year later they were divorced louise would never dance professionally again for lack of a better idea louise returned in 1936 to hollywood what awaited her there was the final stage westerns her last film appearance was in a low-budget cowboy movie called overland stage raiders oh gosh it's good to see you oh it's good to see you too but wait like tell you what's been happening nobody would remember her instead they would remember her leading man that's hoyt i believe oh hello going my way maybe what's the percentage interesting company guaranteed it never fails when stony meets a gal we meet trouble i think it's time you and i had some serious conversation that's no longer why you said that louise was bowled over by handsome young john wayne looking up at him i thought this is no actor but the hero of all mythology brought miraculously to life a purely beautiful being overland stage raiders provided louise with two weeks work and three 300 she had gone from irreplaceable to just another cowgirl and now louise brooks called it quits once and for all depressed and destitute louise returned home at last to wichita in the hot summer of 1940. through the first years of world war ii she spent her days in a kind of masochistic atonement scrubbing floors and fighting with her mother in a desperate effort to put her talent to use she decided to teach dancing her brother theodore helped to bankroll a dance studio which was set up in this building but louise was short-tempered she bullied and insulted some of her pupils and before long her studio failed brooks abandoned her parents home in disgrace retreating to new york in 1944 there for the next decade she led a hand-to-mouth existence including a stint with an escort service all served up with generous helpings of gin the rest of her time was spent barricaded inside her small apartment on first avenue and 59th street the world seemed to have completely forgotten louise brooks [Music] after i got out of the air force i came to new york i was a woman across the hall as soon as she'd see anybody she put her hand up like this with and put her bag covering her face and i thought she was kind of nutsy then one night we had a party we decided to make it a a silent movie party and we made posters put them up in the entrance to the apartment house in the hallway this way to see louise brooks in the air and in the middle of the party suddenly there was a furious knock at the door i opened the door and it was miss brooks from across the hall how dare you make fun of me like that how dare you suddenly it hit me god that's it by 1948 louise had retreated into a paranoid and private world contained within a gin bottle she was quite frankly a butterfly but the better i knew her the better i liked her and i realized how bright and how charming and how woody she was you had to know her to get the full impact of her personality as a woman and as a friend my father loved louise in spite of herself she was difficult and made many phone calls to us and i remember once i answered the phone i must have been pretty little because i had to get up on a chair to get to the telephone and she said this is your aunt louise is theodore there i said what's that what's the matter aunt louise and she really started crying then she said there is no one on this earth that loves me and i said i did and and she chewed my ass out among the rich and powerful men who became involved with louise in the 1920s was cbs founder william paley their affair had been brief but in the 40s when she sought his help paley generously gave her a small monthly stipend that continued for the rest of her life he never asked for or got anything in return paley swearing her to secrecy kept her from suicide by providing a financial lifeline she wrote an autobiography and then burned it frustrated she explained in writing the history of a life i believe the reader cannot understand the character and deeds of the subject unless he is given an understanding of that person's sexual loves and hates and conflicts i too am unwilling to write the sexual truth that would make my life worth reading [Music] even so she was honing her literary skills this washed up woman who spent the first half of her life as an actress was preparing subconsciously for the second half [Music] louise's rescue and resurrection came in 1953 through a chance discussion between her friend john springer who worked as a publicist in manhattan and the director of a great american film archive in upstate new york jim piccard who ran the george eastman house in rochester and he said i'll give anything talk to louise brooks nobody knows where she is or what's happened to her he said i don't suppose you even don't even know i ignore her very well card corresponded with her and was astounded by the deep insight and revelation in her letters he told her she should write about the film history that she had helped to shape jim card considers lewis brooks as a brilliant writer a very sharp personality a personality that shared within a sense of obsession of drive card took brooks to europe in 1957 where the director of the cinematic francaise in paris screened pandora's box publicly for the first time in 30 years and declared there is no garbo there is no dietrich there is only louise brooks suddenly after a quarter of a century in oblivion louise was famous again her performances in the two pabst films absolutely haunt me she had been taken on this journey by this one man who understood her mechanism when i was being homaged in paris in 57 i got so tired of people saying ah ms brooks what a great actress you are so i wrote past the letter to munich and said will you tell those people to stop i'm not a great actress you're a great director and he wrote me a very cute postcard he said you are a great actress because you're a great personality i thought that was sweet honey card induced louise to move to rochester new york home of the george eastman house rochester was to become her final home and on its tranquil back streets she finally found a sanctuary with some measure of peace she worked hard at writing and through her contact with the eastman house became something of a local celebrity a hollywood expatriate who was available to share her insights with film students and visiting colleagues one day in 1962 a famous face from her past appeared in the form of richard arlen her co-star and beggars of life 30 years after their last meeting louise showed up at a luncheon in his honor and complained that he didn't recognize her you didn't wear your bangs he replied in 1928 arlen had been surly and mean-spirited jealous of her early success now they both laughed together the old grudges had died even late in life louise remained both totally honest and thoroughly outrageous during the period of time that she was taking valium she says would you help me write a letter i want to write a letter to the government to tell them that i actually think that valium and the use of it is damaging to women it numbs the chance you have for pleasure with something like masturbation she felt masturbation was the highest highest art form in the sexual area louise who had been sexually molested at age nine always insisted on control of her own sexual identity [Music] louise lived in rochester for nearly 20 years and it was there that she wrote the articles collected in her best-selling book lulu in hollywood when louise took on a project she took things very serious she taught herself to write and she wanted to learn structure of sentences and rhythm of sentences and things like that she wrote them over and over in her three ring notebooks and page after page in these books had single sentences from marcel proust's remembrances of things past that she had just written over and over so she could work out the rhythm her book plus a profile by critic kenneth tynan which appeared in the new yorker produced a literary sensation f scott fitzgerald said there were no second acts in american life he was wrong louise's latter-day reincarnation brought her an international cult after tynan's article was published so many young people all over the world not the united states people in germany and france and italy and spain and all said how much they admired her acting and it's remarkable the audience she attracts now she gradually reduced her circle of confidence to a small and select group she was reclusive in her manner and yet those who were permitted into her world became loyal and protective companions she came into the kitchen with the first volume of eugenie de garan's journal and she read to me this extraordinary section on death and dying and the way she read it i will never forget i was convinced right there and then that she should have been one of the great tragic actors as she could have been a fabulous personality and yet not wanting to help herself in any way not wanting self-pity not wanting anybody to pity her she just was strong a very strong woman but whose strength annihilated her i think and i always felt she was a lost soul by the 1980s louise's health had seriously deteriorated yet in spite of the ravages of arthritis and emphysema she possessed a unique and solitary beauty to the end for the actress who had portrayed lulu that end finally came in 1985 at the age of 78. i've always thought that was so strange that he would make that picture with me the last girl because i knew i was lost and i was and i always have been ortega said we are all lost we're all shipwrecked but the most intelligent of us [Music] learn in other words we are not masters of our faith everything happens by chance and it's the very people who think they have everything in control and they are running everything who get into the most trouble today we might think it's extraordinary that a great actress like louise brooks is known through such a limited number of films i think it's fair to say that louise brooks was way too wild in a business that was way too tame louise brooks never felt she had achieved to the degree she should have yet she had in fact succeeded brilliantly as a dancer actress and writer but she always suspected her success of being failure in disguise [Music] [Applause] i have been taking stock of my 50 years since i left wichita she wrote at the end of her life how i have existed fills me with horror for i failed in everything spelling arithmetic riding swimming tennis golf dancing singing acting wife mistress [ __ ] friend even cooking and i do not excuse myself with the usual escape of not trying i tried with all my heart [Music] foreign [Music] you

Channel: sean ramsden

Views: 164,918

Keywords: Louise Brooks, Hugh Munro Neely, Shirley MacLaine, Silent Film, Documentary, Hollywood, America, Flapper, Film History, Actress, Film, 1920s, Beauty, Star

Id: 4F8GuNAu1Q4

Length: 59min 48sec (3588 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021