prix de beauté be make on the cusp of the changeover from silence to sound and which come a little later in europe than in hollywood . originally conceive a a silent and it be release with a dubbed soundtrack in france and with a french actress speak louise brook line and but be release a a silent in italy and other part of europe . i be lucky enough to see the cineteca di bologna flawless new restoration of an italian silent print at the tribeca film festival . i haven not see the talkie version yet and but i think it safe to assume the silent version be much more satisfying and since by all report the dubbing be poorly do ( louise brook be clearly speak english and so there no way her lip could be match . ) also and the film be make entirely in the silent style and with few title and little need for dialogue . prix de beauté tell it story visually and with exciting and imaginative camera work . the opening be instantly kinetic and with rapidly cut scene of urban life and swimmer splash at a public beach . throughout the film there be an emphasis on visual detail and on clothing and machinery and decoration and and symbolic image such a a caged bird and a heap of torn photograph and a diamond bracelet . this be silent film technique at it pinnacle . louise brook and of course and be responsible for save the film from obscurity . see this make it only more heartbreaking to reflect that this be her last starring role . lustrously beautiful and she dominate the film with her charisma and also give a perfectly natural yet highly charge performance . her role here and more than in the pabst film for which she best know and be a woman we can fully understand and sympathize with . she play lucienne garnier and a typist with a possessive fiancé and who yearn to get more out of life and secretly enter a beauty contest and with immediate success . she be then tear between the excitement of her glamorous new life and her love for the man who insist she give it all up or lose him . all of the character be draw with nuance . the fiancé inspires pity and be not merely a brute represent he love lucienne and but be a limited man who can not cope with her have a life apart from him or attract the attention of other men . even the other man in the story be not the simple slimeball we first take him for and though his intention may be just as possessive a the fiancé . warn represent spoiler below the film have many fine set piece and include lucienne triumph in the miss europe contest and show through the comic reaction of assorted audience member and who wind up pelt the heroine with flower while her misery a a housewife and peeling potato while the pendulum of the cuckoo clock mark time behind her while a nightmarish trip to a fun fair ( in the silent version and this occur late in the film and after her marriage ) at which lucienne and crush among the low life and depress by her husband macho antic and decides that she can not go on with her present existence while and especially the final scene in the projection room where she view her talkie screen test . louise brook may never have look more beautiful than she do here and with the projector beam flicker on her alabaster profile and her shoulder swathe in white fur and her face incandescent under the black helmet of hair a she watch herself sing on screen . the double shot of her exquisite corpse and her still live image on the screen be particularly poignant represent louise brook image and like lucienne and remain immortal despite her frustratingly aborted film career .