Did anybody happen to catch this doc on TCM the other nite? I recorded it as it was playing at 3am. I watched it yesterday and I loved it. Louise is a favorite of mine, I even wore her hairstyle for a while (somehow it didn't look quite as nice on me LOL). I didn't know that she had been so wild. In interviews with her in the mid 70's she did seem somewhat eccentric, almost 'not all there'. I had no idea she had written a book. It seems when she rejected Hollywoods personal demands on her, she just left the Country. But unlike Bette Davis and other actresses that challenged the studio system of the time, Louise did not win out. By the early 40's she was an unknown. I had read a long time ago that she had numerous affairs with men, and women too. People that knew her at the time have said she was very wild for her time. Loved to drink and smoke and even got kicked out of an apartment complex for 'promicuity'. She was certainly a character I enjoyed learning more about. A free spirit to say the least.

Anybody here a fan of Lulu?

Totally love Louise. She was beautiful and sexy. Have always liked the bob haircut because of how she wore it. I guess she epitomizes adventure and being a free spirit to me.

I remember reading a biography of Louise long ago. She moved to Germany and continued to make movies still silent after sound hit America.

The Cacharel fragrance Loulou was inspired by her performance in Pandora's Box,a silent German movie.

Hi Donna, I have Pandora's Box, it's a great silent movie. It's too bad that by the time she DID talk in a movie, she wasn't as famous anymore and the part was rather poor. There is one movie that was mentioned in the doc, that was a french movie and was dubbed in French, but she looks faboulous in it. She was indeed gorgeous.

Rosebud, I wore that bob for about a year. the bangs and everything. I have straight hair so it worked well but somehow it just didn't set off my face as I thought it would. lol. It's a hairstyle that requires ALOT of make-up, b/c it's very edgy. Since I don't wear alot of make-up it just didn't go with me. I'm very 'natural' so a softer, longer hair style is more suitable. I see from your picture that you wear nice make-up so why don't you go for it!? Hey - at least ONCE you gotta do the LuLu thing! ;-)

She had a beautiful body too, small breasts but perfect. She's a great example of how a small chest can can be beautiful and sexy. Expecially in today's society which is so into large breasts. She was also plump and built like a 'girl'. I exercise and all but I hate that muscular look in women, and I especially hate a 6 pak in women, it's okay to work your abs to tone them up, but why do you want abs that look like a man's? Anyway - I think she was beautiful.

http://www.pandorasbox.com/
I did the haircut, too, in grad school - it was cute, but I'm more of a romantic, long flowing hair type. I always thought Louise Brooks was gorgeous!

Make sure you check out the portrait photo section!

http://www.pandorasbox.com/portraits.html

I fell madly in love with Louise Brooks the first time I saw Pandora's Box. There has never been a more beautiful woman in film. Never.

I love Louise Brooks, she was gorgeous. And it's sad that later in her life she became an unknown. After looking at some of those photos, I noticed the haircut looks similar to ones Vidal Sasoon was so doing in the 60's. He was called "groundbreaking" then, but it just goes to show at least in fashion, there really is nothing new, ideas just get recycled.

Yes Perfumefanatic, Vidal did those cuts in the 60's, the angular graduated bobs. The bob wasn't invented by Louise but I do think she's the only one that wore it straight with bangs. I think she wore bangs b/c she had a very very high forehead (have you seen shots of her w/o bangs?). I also think she wore it daringly short. In the 20's they used to use a razor to shave the back. WHen I got my Lulu cut, they used clippers to make the back really close as I wanted it as close to the real thing as possible. However, I never went as short as she did. I've seen her bob as short as EYE length. Mine was cheekbone length. Very severe hairstyle really.

We are having a tribute to her at the Film Forum, NYCs...get down there and see it!

http://www.filmforum.org/films/pandorasbox.html

I wore that bob (jawbone length) for quite a while, until the hair on top of my head thinned out too much for the bangs to look right. My father-in-law used to call me "Frenchie" when I had this hairstyle. It's my very favorite. You can sort of get the idea in my avatar if you imagine a thick fringe down to the eyebrow.

I bet that style looked really cute on you, Sandra!

I named my peke after the perfume. I wish I could wear my hair like she did but its wavy and fine.

I wore this cut when i came to school and then when i finished university again for years.... :-)
Still i am amazed of how cute it is when i see it on others... and still thinking about getting the longer (and interstingly now waving) hair cut again.

The film is based on a German writer's plays: Frank Wedekind: Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wedekind

Lillie, after I let my Lulu bob grow out, the next best thing was the Bettie Page look you are now wearing. I too wore it long with short straight bangs. It's a very dramatic look. Both require lots of make-up in my opinion so I slowly started getting away from the look b/c I generally wear very 'natural' make-up. But I admit I miss looking dramatic - I got alot of compliments and looks when I wore my hair that way with blood red lipstick! It's a great vintage look.

You're so right! If you don't wear red lipstick your eyes must be dominating or you'll look tired all day. In summer i wear not so much makeup but always eyeliner and black mascara.
Interesting, because of your old photo i imagined you like a MM lookalike, funny, ain't it?

LOL! I love MM, she's my idol. What happened was that last nite I was trying to change my avatar to a picture of myself, and my computer got all weird and it didn't work. This morning when I checked, my avatar was totally gone and the only photo I have on my work computer is Lulu. Although I like her too! So I had to use that one. But, being a brunette with fair skin, I do resemble LB much more so than MM. But when I was a little girl, I wanted nothing more than to look like Marilyn!!!

Louise Brooks is in this well researched look at our history
http://www.flapperbook.com/


the new woman of the 20's
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6032701507.html

Chanel
http://www.poetryconnection.net/ItemId/1400080533

sillage

very interesting website, article and book - thanks sillage~

I saw this one too. We recorded to watch and seen it night before last. God she was a gorgeous woman in her time. More beautiful than other greats like Garbo, Dietrich, Hedy Lamar, etc.....
Too bad she was so headstrong and didn't want to listen to a mentor so she could've had a long lasting career in pictures. I think she could've had a really good body of work only if she wasn't so uncompromising about how she lived her life. But "Hey, we all gotta to live our lives the way we see fit, even if others disagree". She was a rebel and that I applaud her for. I always root for the underdogs and rebels here. The ones that go against the grain are my faves mostly.

Same for Clara Bow too. Great documentary on her too seen this week. She really had a harrowing early years, I read her biography already so I knew she had a bad life in her early years. But it was so sad that she was shunned by the film community that were themselves hypocrites for hiding their sordid backgrounds and that ***hole, A.P. Schulberg using her to death and wasting her talent and beauty on lots of rubbish. Another good one wasted cause of NO GOOD GUIDANCE needed too.

Both gals are great in my book!

Mando, I didn't record the one on Clara Bow and now I'm sorry I missed it. If you like Clara Bow you might want to see Bombshell with Jean Harlow which is in part based on the real life of Clara Bow. It is interesting to note that both Clara and Jean had similiar lives.

I had only actually seen Louise in one film, Pandora's Box which I have and enjoy. But in the doc I was able to see her in clips of other movies, and she was indeed even more beautiful than I had seen. In Pandora's Box she was gorgeous but there are other movies where her hair was shorter, and she looked stunning.

I think Heddy Lamar was a great beauty but they're different types, not really comparable if you ask me. Louise was very very modern and edgy for her time and her look reflected that. Heddy was more classic.

I never thought Garbo was beautiful. She was interesting looking, certainly a woman that would get attention, but she wasn't a beauty.

And since this is a perfume board, I found out that LB loved and wore Narcisse Noir.

I really enjoyed reading the Kenneth Tynan bio and interviews of LB in his Lulu in Hollywood. Tynan was a wonderful writer and she was a character. I think of her and Lange's portrayal of Frances Farmer usually in tandem. Maybe someone will make a movie of her life someday --- there are worse subjects (many current movies for instance). LB was also a Denishawn dancer early in her career.