Diary of a Lost Girl, with Louise Brooks, to screen at National Gallery of Art

Louise Brooks has always received a warm welcome in Washington D.C.

On January 2, the silent film star returns to the nation’s capital in Diary of a Lost Girl. This once controversial German film will be shown at the National Gallery of Art with live musical accompaniment by 3epkano, an Irish musical ensemble which specializes in silent film accompaniment.

The group will perform their original score to G.W. Pabst's 1929 silent film, which stars Brooks in the title role. The score was premiered in June at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The January 2nd screening also marks the first appearance by 3epkano in Washington D.C.

Brooks and Washington D.C. go way back. As a member of the Denishawn Dance Company – Brooks performed three times in 1923 on the stage of the National Theater. And in February of 1925, as a member of the Ziegfeld Follies, she returned to the National for a series of popular engagements.

Throughout the rest of 1920’s and into the early 1930’s, the American films in which Brooks had a role also played in the city – at the Columbia, Palace, and elsewhere. Local newspapers took notice of her talents, and her name and likeness were featured frequently. In a May, 1926 review of her third film, A Social Celebrity, the Washington Times wrote “Louise Brooks, also endowed with a prominent part in the Menjou picture, was a featured dancer in Ziegfeld's production of Louie, the 14th, and she joined the picture game to play the part of 'Miss Bayport' in Paramount's production of The American Venus.”

Brooks also had an off-again, on-again relationship with Washington D.C. businessman George Marshall, the future owner of the NFL Washington Redskins.

Diary of a Lost Girl marks the second collaboration between Pabst and Brooks. The first was Pandora’s Box, also from 1929. It is considered one of the great silent films.

Diary of a Lost Girl tells the story of Thymian, a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution. The film was based on a once controversial book by the German novelist Margarete Böhme. Though little known today, The Diary of a Lost Girl was a literary sensation when first published in 1905. One contemporary scholar has called it “Perhaps the most notorious and certainly the commercially most successful autobiographical narrative of the early twentieth century.”

Pabst’s film version stars Fritz Rasp as Thymian’s creepy seducer, and avant-garde dancer Valeska Gert as a sadistic reform school disciplinarian. The Jewish actor Kurt Gerron, who appeared in many German films including The Blue Angel (1930), also has a role in this second adaption of Böhme’s bestselling book.

When Diary of a Lost Girl was released in Germany in 1929, it was subject to critical scorn and attacks by censors. For a period, the film was withdrawn from circulation until substantial cuts were made to its provocative story. Because it was heavily censored and was released as a silent film at the beginning of the sound era, Diary of a Lost Girl failed to have much of an impact. It was not shown in the United States until the late 1950s. Since the late 1970s, however, it has been revived regularly.

3epkano is an experimental / instrumental post-rock seven-piece band / ensemble formed in Ireland in 2004. They specialize in producing original and innovative soundtracks for films from the silent movie era.

3epkano has accompanied silent films at the National Gallery of Ireland, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Savoy cinema, and at the Triskel and Mermaid Arts Centres in Ireland. Other performances include the village square in Penne d'Agenais in France, and Lincoln Center in New York City. In 2007, they performed their score to Pandora’s Box at BAMcinemaFEST.

For more info: The National Gallery of Art will screen Diary of a Lost Girl on January 2, 2011. Start time is set for 4:30 pm. More on 3epkano can be found on their website at www.smilingpolitelyrecords.com/ and on their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/3epkano

Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so that in 1995 he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and international fan club devoted to the silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television, and introduced her films around the country. Recently, he edited and wrote the introduction to the “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Bohme’s The Diary of a Lost Girl. Gladysz will speak about his new book at the Village Voice Bookshop in Paris on January 13, 2011. This author talk will be followed by a screening of the film at the nearby Action Cinema.