Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Kevin Brownlow 2 June 1938 Crowborough, Sussex, England |
Nationality | British |
Education | Haileybury |
Occupation(s) | Film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, film preservationist, author, and film editor |
Years active | 1953–present |
Known for | It Happened Here (1964); Winstanley (1975); Hollywood (1980); the restoration of dozens of silent films such as Napoléon (1927) |
Spouse | Virginia Keane |
Relatives | Peggy Fortnum (aunt) Molly Keane(mother-in-law) |
Kevin Brownlow (born Robert Kevin Brownlow; 2 June 1938) is a British
Early life
Brownlow was born in
It Happened Here and Winstanley
Brownlow's interest in the
In 1968, Brownlow published a book, How It Happened Here, which described the making of the film, and the reception it received. Not only does it explain how two teenage boys made a feature film, it also explores the provocative
After this, Mollo and Brownlow began another project, Winstanley,[9] about Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers' commune following the English Civil War. The duo spent several years trying to gain support and following a long and difficult shoot, the film was released in 1975. In 2009, UKA Press published Winstanley: Warts and All, a making-of book. Brownlow had written it shortly after completing work on the film, but the manuscript sat on the shelf for 34 years before being published.
Cinema history and preservation
Brownlow's first book on silent film, The Parade's Gone By..., was published in 1968. The book features many interviews with the leading actors and directors of the silent era, and began his career as a film historian. He spent many years gaining support for the restoration of Abel Gance's French epic, Napoléon (1927), a then-mutilated film that used many novel cinematic techniques. Brownlow's championing of the film succeeded, and the restored version, with a new score by Carl Davis, was shown in London in 1980,[10] and again in London in 2013 with the Philharmonia Orchestra.[11] Gance lived to see the acclaim for his restored film. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented the complete 2000 restoration of the film, with Davis conducting his score, at the Paramount Theatre Oakland in March 2012.[12]
Brownlow also began a collaboration with
Since Gill died in 1997, Brownlow has continued to produce documentaries and conduct
In August 2010, Brownlow received an
On 13 November 2016, Brownlow was featured in an episode of The Film Programme entitled "Napoleon and I", dedicated to Abel Gance's 1927 film Napoléon on BBC Radio 4. It tells how Brownlow has spent 50 years of his life piecing together the lost sequences into the latest restoration of the silent movie and about his meeting the dapper Gance when still a schoolboy.[15] On 9 August 2018, Brownlow again featured on The Film Programme, in which he discussed the making of and initial responses to It Happened Here.
In April 2019, Brownlow was honored at the Turner Classic Movie Festival in Hollywood at a screening of It Happened Here at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre.[16]
Personal life
Brownlow is married to Virginia Keane, the daughter of Molly Keane.[5]
Filmography
Directorial credits
Feature films
- It Happened Here (1964, co-director, co-writer, cinematographer, editor)
- Winstanley (1975, co-director, co-producer, co-writer)
Cinema documentaries
- The World of Josef Von Sternberg (Episode of BBC TV series The Movies, aired 16 January 1967)
- Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite (1968)
- Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film(TV series, 13 episodes, 1980)
- Unknown Chaplin (TV series, 3 episodes, 1983)[17]
- Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (TV series, 3 episodes, 1987)
- Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (TV series, 2 episodes, 1989)
- D. W. Griffith: Father of Film (TV series, 3 episodes, 1993)
- Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (TV series, 6 episodes, 1996)
- Universal Horror (1998)
- Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000)
- The Tramp and the Dictator (2002)
- Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (TV series, 2 episodes, 2004)
- So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM (2004)
- Garbo (2005)
- I'm King Kong!: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005)
Other documentaries
- Nine, Dalmuir West (1962) - on the last tram to run on Glasgow's tram system in 1962
- Millay at Steepletop (1983) - on Edna St. Vincent Millay
Editing credits
Shorts
- Band Wagon (1958, short)
- Ascot, a Race Against Time (1961, documentary short)
- Eye Doctor on Safari (1962, short)
- I Think They Call Him John (1964, documentary short)
- Turkey the Bridge (1966, short)
- The White Bus (1967, short)
Feature films
Bibliography
- How It Happened Here. London: Secker & Warburg, 1968; new edition: London & Japan: UKA Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-905796-10-6
- The Parade's Gone By .... London: Secker & Warburg, 1968.[18]
- The War, the West and the Wilderness. London: Secker & Warburg, 1979.
- Hollywood, the Pioneers. London: Collins, 1979.
- Napoleon: Abel Gance's Classic Film. London: Jonathan Cape, 1983.
- Behind the Mask of Innocence. London: Jonathan Cape, 1990.
- David Lean. London: Richard Cohen, 1996. ISBN 1-86066-042-8
- Mary Pickford Rediscovered. Rare pictures of a Hollywood legend. New York: Abrams, 1999. ISBN 0-8109-4374-3[19]
- The Search for Charlie Chaplin. Le Mani – Microart (Cineteca Bologna) 2005; New edition: UKA Press 2010, ISBN 978-1-905796-24-3
- Winstanley. Warts and All. London & Yorkshire: UKA Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-905796-22-9
References
- ^ Horne, Philip (22 July 2011). "Kevin Brownlow: a life in the movies". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ Pollock, Dale (20 November 1983). "Rescuing a monument". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 March 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ King, Susan (10 November 2010). "Kevin Brownlow helped spread the word on silent film era". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ a b Brownlow, Kevin (2009). "Face to Face with Kevin Brownlow" (Interview). Interviewed by Tony Fletcher. Celluloid Tapestry (published 22 October 2018). Retrieved 10 May 2023 – via YouTube.
- ISBN 978-1-905796-10-6.
- ^ Brownlow (1968). How It Happened Here. pp. 185–95.
- ^ "How It Happened Here (Review)".
- ^ Caute, David (17 October 2008). "Looking back in regret at Winstanley". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Brownlow, Kevin; Davis, Carl; Hutchinson, Pamela (29 November 2012). "How we made – Napoleon". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ Scorsese, Martin (March 2012). "The Quest for Napoléon". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
- ^ "Cinema Europe I – Where It All Began". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Kevin Brownlow – Honorary Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 18 November 2010.
- ^ "The Film Programme episode of 13 November 2016 dedicated to Brownlow's story with the film and news of its release on DVD". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- ^ TCM Festival website, festival program
- ^ "Kevin Brownlow brings cinema's past to life". Variety. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ "Kevin Brownlow Takes Silent-film Comedy Seriously". The Miami News. 30 July 1987. Retrieved 7 December 2012. [dead link]
- ^ "Brownlow Documents Days Before Talkies". Lawrence Journal-World. 19 September 1999. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
External links
- Kevin Brownlow at IMDb
- Kevin Brownlow biography and credits at the BFI's Screenonline
- A Tribute to Kevin Brownlow by various friends and peers, May 2015, archived at the Wayback Machine 6 September 2015
- Mel Novikoff Award article by Dennis Doros of Milestone Films, 2007, archived at the Wayback Machine 5 October 2013
- History Repeating by Village Voice, 1999
- Between the Map and the Painted Landscape: Kevin Brownlow's Historical Films by John C. Tibbetts, 2005, including January 1999 interview
Interviews and articles by Brownlow
- Silent Films, What Was the Right Speed? by Brownlow in Sight & Sound, 1980, archived at the Wayback Machine9 November 2011
- Brownlow on Beckett (on Keaton) Archived 7 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Brownlow in Film West Archived 4 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine magazine, 1995
- Silents Please by Brownlow in the Sunday Times, 24 March 2007; archived at the Wayback Machine15 June 2011
- Kevin Brownlow: Introduction to Silents Archived 19 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine lecture note for the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival
- September 2008 interview + Parts 2, 3, 4, 5 at Ann Harding's Treasures blog
- March 2009 interview at Killruddery Film Festival
- October 2016 interview by Matthew Sweet on BBC Radio 3