Prix de Beaute (1930)

Louise Brooks is stunning as ever in her final starring role in the early sound melodrama Prix de Beauté, also known by its alternate title, Miss Europe. After becoming a European sensation in her classic silent films for German director G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl), Brooks' career began a tragic decline as alcoholism took its toll, but she's still in fine form here as Lucienne, a lively Parisian typist who enters an international beauty contest against the wishes of her disapproving fiancé André (Georges Charlia), only to find herself swept up in a whirlwind of fame and publicity when she unexpected wins the contest. Among the high-styled elite, the newly christened "Miss Europe" thrives on the affectionate attentions of several potential paramours, but when she returns to her daily routine with André, she soon realizes that she wants glitz and glamour more than André's conventional notion of domestic bliss. André is driven to jealous insanity, and once again, "Lulu" (as Brooks was famously nicknamed) falls victim to her own narcissism and the men who've played so recklessly with her charms. One of France's earliest sound features, Prix de Beauté was originally filmed in a silent version and quickly dubbed when sound films grew popular, and although Brook's voice is dubbed (along with her singing, which was dubbed by the legendary vocalist Edith Piaf), the film's technical crudeness doesn't detract from Brooks's astonishing beauty, which far surpasses a performance that was, according to director Augusto Genina, seriously compromised by Brookss off-screen drinking. Based on a story by René Clair (who was originally slated to direct), Prix de Beauté offers fascinating glimpses of vintage fashion shows and Parisian high society, but it's the divine Miss Brooks who makes it all worthwhile. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Movie Making at it's Best

A lot of people including my self by-pass silent films because of no sound. But if you want to see some really good early films you cannot go wrong with this film. A little on the long side it's star American Louise Brooks, as she did in Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box, is great and these movies show how great movies and acting these early works are. It's odd that German Cinema took a movie actress (Louise Brooks)from Hollywood and turned her into a star and Hollywood took this star and turned her into B film actress because of personal prejudice a great lost.



October 20, 2007

The Beauty Prize

I do own a VHS edition of this movie (© 1989 Interama Video Classics) which also seems sped up,

as mentioned by a previous reviewer, but is listed as 93 min. on the case and listed as 94:38 on the tape itself (lead-in/out?).

IMDB also lists this as a 93 min. movie. This release is 88 min.

So is this missing 5 minutes or being run at a faster fps? I'm also hearing rumours of a 108 or 109 min. restored silent version.

I'm thrilled to see more Louise Brooks on DVD, but wondering if this is a release worthy of the Screen Goddess.
March 13, 2006

Technical Issues - Film Runs Too Fast

I'm going to comment more on the technical side of the disc, because the speed issue made it a bit tough to enjoy or properly judge the film.

Unfortunately, the film just runs too fast. I've never seen that before with a sound film; it normally effects silents due to the lack of a standard speed in the silent film era. My understanding is that this was originally shot as a silent, with dialogue & lots of sound effects added just before release. As this is the only print of the film I've seen, I am uncertain whether the frame rate was sped up in 1930 when they dubbed the dialogue, when they did this digital transfer, or at some point in between. The voices don't sound like chipmunks to me, but I am totally unfamiliar with French. The print is quite clear for the age, although there are a number of dropouts where a second or 2 is missing. My guess is that it's a largely unrestored 35 mm print in fairly good shape.

The silent version was also said to have been released in 1930 concurrent with this dubbed version. Brooks did not do any of her own dialogue, the speaking parts were dubbed by a French actress & the singing by Edith Piaf. IF there is an existing print of the silent version, I would be very interested to see it; I suspect it would be superior.

Just a couple comments on the film: The last 20 minutes or so is definitely the best part. I also was really surprised that they showed Brooks & her UNMARRIED boyfriend in bed together. The scene was totally non physical & they were both wearing heavy bed clothes; but this would have never happened in a pre 1960's US film, even pre codes only hinted at such things. Brooks is good, but it's definitely not her best performance. She appears somewhat bored until the last 20 minutes or so. Again, the film might have been more enjoyable if the motion wasn't so speeded up.

I'm a bit surprised that Kino would release something with this large of a flaw & no explanation as to why. I consider Kino to be #1 in quality of all US companies that specialize in silent film. March 8, 2006

Louise Brooks makes this movie alone worth watching!

Although Louise Brooks is dubbed in this movie, it doesn't matter too much as the movie is essentially silent in itself. (Besides Edith Piaf dubs for her singing and I have no problem with that.)
The story is simple. Louise Brooks has a jealous boyfriend, whose anger only increases when she defies him and enters/wins the Miss Europe contest. Brooks has some great acting in this movie especially when she's crammed up bored in the apartment.
The only thing I would really change about this movie is the unflattering swimsuit Brooks wears. May 28, 2002

More reviews at Amazon.com ...