Louise Brooks - Looking for Lulu
Produced in 1998 for Turner Classic Movies, this documentary is nearly  as exceptional as its subject and just as fascinating. Born in Kansas, Louise  Brooks rose from the Ziegfeld Follies to become a silent film icon. As  biographer Barry Paris writes for this definitive hourlong profile (narrated by  Shirley MacLaine), "Lulu" Brooks was "one of the most intensely erotic screen  beauties of all time," and her rise, fall, and resurrection make for a  fascinating personal history. Paris charts Brooks's controversial and often  self-destructive course from Hollywood to Berlin (where she made cinema history  inPandora's BoxandDiary of a Lost Girl), while insightful  interviews and abundant film clips provide breathtaking proof of Lulu's  undeniable beauty. Most revealing are clips from a 1976 interview with Brooks,  who remained utterly unique, sharply intelligent, and tragically convinced that  she'd failed at everything.Looking for Luluserves as captivating proof  that she was wrong.--Jeff Shannon