Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever [Hardcover]

Peter Cowie (Author), Jack Garner (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2006

Louise Brooks has become one of the most spectacular icons of early cinema. Her distinctive "bob" haircut looks as modern as they did when she first appeared in films in 1925. Louise Brooks was born on November 14, 1906 in Cherryvale, Kansas, and by eighteen had established herself as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies, and was receiving film offers from both MGM and Paramount. In 1928, she starred in William Wellman's Beggars of Life. Meanwhile she was mingling with the high and mighty of Hollywood, having a passionate affair with Charlie Chaplin, spending weekends at William Randolph Hearst's castle and captivating such men as William S. Paley, the founder of CBS. Her brief, yet spectacular role in Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port impressed G.W. Pabst, the German maestro who was seeking an actress for his upcoming production, Pandora's Box. He rejected Marlene Dietrich in favor of Brooks, who went to Berlin and made not only Pandora's Box but also Diary of a Lost Girl, forever ensuring her status as a screen icon.This exquisitely produced album celebrates Lulu with rare film footage stills, private photos, letters, interviews, and text by renowned film critic Peter Cowie, exploring this influential cult figure and abiding symbol of the Jazz Age.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lulu Forever exists for its art, and on that score it delivers magnificently: I'd never seen fully half of the images in the book. There are scene stills, candids, snapshots, everything documenting the deadly lure of Lulu. Oddly, there are no pictures of Brooks as a ravaged old woman in a small apartment in Rochester-that would violate the masturbatory fantasia the book seeks to evoke." -- 12/18 NEW YORK OBSERVER

"affectionate and insightful portrait" -- Feb MALIBU TIMES MAGAZINE

"presented luminously..." "By turns gleeful, sultry and pensive, the shots are a photographic paean to Brooks' girlish beauty." -- 12/03/06 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

".....finding a certain comfort and familiarity in the heft and subtle texture of the cover and gilded lettering." -- SHELTER INTERIORS, April, 2007

"Cowie's new book is a fitting, even fascinating literary tribute .... It is a valuable addition to film history." -- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, July, 2007

"Fans of the cinema will treasure Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever." -- VOGUE, December, 2006

"This beautiful book is chock-full of the peeling and romantic furnishings, books and mementos Carter surrounds herself with." -- PAPERCITY MAGAZINE HOUSTON, November, 2006

"This beautifully produced album celebrates this early screen star as Lulu with rare film footage stills, photos, letters, interviews, and text by film critic Peter Cowie." -- METROSOURCE NY, October, 2006

"lavishly illustrated...[Peter Cowie's] personal reflections on the ironies of her fate lend this volume an unexpected poignancy." -- VILLAGE VOICE, December, 2006

"...the gorgeously illustrated [book] captures the myth better than any of her films." -- Oct06 OUT

About the Author

Peter Cowie, a noted film historian and author of more than twenty books on cinema, corresponded with Louise Brooks from 1965 to 1982. Jack Garner is the chief film critic for the Gannett News Service.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli; 1st edition (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847828662
• ISBN-13: 978-0847828661
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 1.1 x 12.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Tribute, October 12, 2007

By 

Lichanos - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever (Hardcover)

Louise Brooks' current reputation rests mostly on two films, both silent, both done in Germany by Pabst: Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. This excellently produced book provides more background on this all but forgotten star who, in her day, was a supreme flapper icon. Looking at the marvelous photographs, mostly film stills, but with some candids and modeling shots I've never seen before, you get a sense of why Brooks was such a sensation in her day.

Brooks' influence lived on long after her name and identity in the public mind had faded. Her hair, referred to as that "helmet bob" and her fashion sense, set the tone for generations of confident, independent, sexy young women. This book makes clear that she was more than just a projection of a strong image - she was a very special actress. The text is, at times, a bit too personal and adulatory, but it contains a lot of good, perceptive material on her appeal, and it fills in many details about her not very happy life.

In her two most famous roles, the prostitute-mistress-showgirl in Pandora's Box, and the abused middle-class waif in Lost Girl, Brooks was superb. Pandora is one of the sexiest films ever made, and this without nudity or sex! In Lost Girl, she is the archetype of oppressed femininity, but she rebounds! with a tough, no-nonsense core. Looking through this book takes you back to an earlier era in entertainment when sensibilities and expectations were different. For fans of silent films, it is a great find; for others - see if it doesn't make you a fan!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, August 10, 2007

By 

Samuel R. Stitman (Mountain Top, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever (Hardcover)

I too rate this book five stars. Louise Brooks fans are so hungry for new information about her they will rate practically anything new about her five stars - but this one deserves it. More photo than text, many of the photos are movie stills, but there are some candid shots of her, including some that I have not seen before, a few of which alone make the book worth the price.

There appear to be a few minor errors of fact, such as page 144, where the author makes reference to Buck Rogers, but he obviously means Buck Jones. None of the several such errors are significant and do not detract from the quality of this work.

One interesting line in this book, pages 209-210 quotes Miss Brooks as saying she had not seen Charlie Chaplin since 1928. If correct, that differs from the biography which implies they did not see each other after their affair in 1925. If this author is correct (and it is plausible, since Miss Brooks was in Hollywood in 1928 and presumably so was Chaplin), how many times did they see each other after 1925, and what, if anything did they do together?

I marvel at how much we don't know about Miss Brooks. I'm waiting for some one to publish her diaries, although I am a firm believer that diaries are private and should not be published without the permission of the writer (which is not possible in this case), but I think such a publication would give us a fascinating and insightful look at this extraordinary legend.

Finally, I am most grateful to this author for sharing his knowledge and experiences about Louise Brooks with the rest of us. It's great reading!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lulu lives on, February 18, 2007

By 

Jack Danson (Oklahoma City) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book for those of us that enjoy silent movies. It is filled with wonderful photographs of this too little appreciated (in her day) actress. I highly recommend it.