In the history of film, Kevin Brownlow is unique. The British documentary filmmaker, preservationist, author and friend to Louise Brooks is the first and only film historian to have won an Academy Award.
Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Brownlow for his lifetime achievement alongside Jean-Luc Godard, Eli Wallach and Francis Ford Coppola. That's good company for someone who works behind the scenes. “Mr. Brownlow is a giant among film historians and preservationists, known and justifiably respected throughout the world for his multiple achievements,” wrote Martin Scorsese in his nomination letter.
This week, Brownlow is in the United States to give two presentations in Washington D.C. On Friday, November 25th, Brownlow will speak at the National Gallery of Art about his decades long effort to restore Abel Gance's epic Napoleon (1927). And on Saturday, November 26th, Brownlow will give a talk at the Library of Congress about his life as a film historian. This latter presentation, which will include clips from early movies, is set to take place at the LOC Packard Campus Theater in Culpeper, Virginia.
As a film historian, author, documentary film maker, preservationist, and long-time champion of the silent cinema - Brownlow’s importance cannot be overestimated. His 1968 book, The Parade's Gone By (which bears a dedication to Brooks), helped shape a generations of film scholars and enthusiasts. And his 1979 television series, Hollywood (which includes videotaped comments from Brooks), aired to great acclaim on the BBC and PBS; it also set the standard for pretty much every serious film documentary which followed.
Brownlow’s other documentaries – some of which first aired on either British or American television - include Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite (1968), Unknown Chaplin (1983), Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987), Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989), D.W. Griffith: Father of Film (1993), Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996 - it also includes taped comments from Brooks), Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004), Garbo (2005), and I'm King Kong!: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005). There are others as well. Each is excellent.
Besides The Parade's Gone By, Brownlow has authored a number of significant books. They includeThe War, the West, and the Wilderness (1979), Hollywood: The Pioneers (1979), Napoleon: Abel Gance's Classic Film (1983), Behind the Mask of Innocence (1990), David Lean: A Biography (1996), and Mary Pickford Rediscovered (1999). Last year, UKA Press in England issued The Search for Charlie Chaplin.
There is more. Brownlow has also been intimately involved in the restoration of a number of important films. Among them are Rex Ingram’s 1921 blockbuster The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, King Vidor's seminal The Crowd (1928), and the Douglas Fairbanks' fantasy The Thief of Bagdad (1924). There are nearly two dozen others including the original Ben-Hur (1925) and the first film to win an Oscar, Wings (1928).
Now in his seventies, Brownlow first saw a fragment of Gance's Napoleon while still a teen. He was wowed. Since then, he has made it his life's work to restore this mutilated masterpiece, and has travelled the world in search of missing elements from the much heralded work.
The current version, which Brownlow will speak about on Saturday and which will be premiered in the United States next year, now stands at an epic 5 1/2 hours. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival will present Napoleonin its complete restoration in four special screenings at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012. Like Brownlow's upcoming talks in Washington, this 2012 event is something not to miss - for either Louise Brooks fans and silent film buffs.
Kevin Brownlow will also be speaking at Emory University on December 1. More info on that event here.
Thomas Gladysz is an arts journalist and early film buff. He is also the founding director of the Louise Brooks Society, and online archive and international fan club devoted to the legendary silent film star. Gladysz has organized exhibits, contributed to books, appeared on television, and introduced the actress's films around the world. In 2010, he edited and wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks Edition” of Margarete Bohme’s The Diary of a Lost Girl.
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