Lulu in Berlin (part 2 of 4)

A rare interview with Louise Brooks by documentarian Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• louise
• brooks
• lulu
• in
• berlin
• g.w.
• pabst
• pandora's
• box
• diary
• of
• lost
• girl

[lidespinkparty]

She's so beautiful, she really does take my breath away.

[bjnevin]

I know this was recorded years ago but she really has a fantastic memory of events and dates etc.

[xexixk]

@squeapler As a person from Kansas who lived in NYC for several years I can tell you that many people out there still seem to consider it a "hick" accent. Then after asking where I was from I was always asked if I grew up on a farm! I've never lived on a farm in my life and know nothing about farming (though I don't mean to imply that is a bad way of life, it certainly isn't, but was never my life).

[squeapler]

@liotommy A Kansas accent is very different from Louise Brooks' voice. A Kansas accent, particularly in the early 20th century, would have sounded like the cowboy accent used in Westerns, basically a drawl. It would probably have been considered hick in places like New York. I have read that Brooks worked to lose her Midwestern accent. The one she is using, as KatarinaSu pointed out, was taught to actors then, and was also used by rich Americans who had spent time in England.

[KatarinaSu]

@liotommy No, Kansas people do not. I've been reading about Brooks and, if anything, I assume she was taught to use a Mid-Atlatic accent, which is sort of a half-American half-English accent taught to actors in the earlier decades of talking films. She did appear in 1930's films and did some radio work as well, so there's a chance she recieved some of this speech instruction after the silent era ended. But her American accent is still fairly strong.

[liotommy]

This was taken in 1973 which means Mrs. Brooks was 67 years old at that time..

I find her accent interesting. Sounds European but she was born in the USA. Do people from Kansas talk like this?

[SiliconBayGirl]

There needs to be more beautiful, badass women like her today!

[stu57stu]

what a beautiful woman

[Pengo115]

Interestingly, the scenes from "Pandora's Box" are reversed - Jack the Ripper's knife is on the right side of the screen when it's supposed to be on the left. I wonder if this was done intentionally. Of course, it must have been hard for the filmmakers to get a decent print of this film.

[16reynoso]

She may have been a lot of things considered character flaws,but I have to admit, she was pretty interesting. She was a "bad girl" before it was cool,before it was a money making tactic. 

[GeminiNightOwl]

She should have kept the short style instead of the long, pulled back broom hilda hairstyle. Made her look too old in the interview.