So sure, I wish more attention was paid to Viola Dana, but it doesn't have to be at Brooks' expense- because I know perfectly well that The Cossack Whip isn't going to attract a non-buff audience the way Pandora's Box understandably appeals to such people. But that doesn't mean her major films aren't especially fine films of the period, or that her presence- which is her performance- isn't hypnotic in its own way. So she's an anomaly, and if you're going to become a true silent film fan, you have to get past her modern-ness and embrace the actresses who were popular in the period because they embodied the period, and love the movies that don't escape their period. All this makes her accessible to people who would have trouble with Garbo's endless punishment for wanting love, or Mary Pickford's little girl act, etc. It was, in fact, closer to the blank stare and bored anomie of 60s actresses like Julie Christie or Monica Vitti.
(Yes, I know others knew about her before then, but that's when her widespread fame came.) Suddenly her affectless, minimalist acting (compared to frenetic sorts like Clara Bow, or often Mary Pickford or Colleen Moore, who sometimes work a role so hard it's frightening), and the sexual frankness of her European films (and, for that matter, Beggars of Life, which is plenty raw), jumped and grabbed us precisely because it wasn't quaint and typical of the 20s. Brooks was a time capsule, buried in the early 30s, that popped up in the 70s or 80s.
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