La vie en vogue: fancy cars and flappers on film in Paris

• 
• 

Do any of you enjoy watching silent films today? Although some sources state a 95-year period, it seems most likely that a film's copyright expires after a century, at least in America. Well, in the US at least. That would mean that all pre-1924 films would have to be in the public domain now.

It also means you’ll have to wait another six years for Prix de Beauté to become freely watchable. First seen in 1930 and set around the Miss Europe finals in southern Europe, this silent picture's star is Louise Brooks, who epitomised the flapper era with her vivid make-up and bobbed hairstyle. Brooks had a reputation for other things besides films. Her relationships with male and female friends were of a decidedly free and easy nature, which caused quite a bit of controversy. From the Internet Movie Database: “Her dissatisfaction with Hollywood in general led her to quit films altogether in 1938; she was at the peak of her career, but just gave it all up. After that she spent her life writing, reading and painting until her death in 1985.”

The picture here shows the American actress on set in France in 1929. The caption reports a great number of French cars of the 1920s, plus one Packard Deluxe Eight. That’s not this one, is it?

Words: Jeroen Booij

Kommentar abgeben...