Pandora's Box (film)

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:For the Greek myth, see Pandora. For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation) and Pandora's box (disambiguation)

Pandora's Box

Poster
Directed by G. W. Pabst
Produced by Seymour Nebenzal
Written by G. W. Pabst
Ladislaus Vajda
Starring Louise Brooks
Francis Lederer
Carl Goetz
Alice Roberts
Cinematography Günther Krampf
Distributed by Süd-Film
Release date(s) 1929
Running time 100-152 minutes
(10,275 ft)
USA 133 Min
Director's Cut
Country Germany
Language silent film
German intertitles
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Pandora's Box (German: Die Büchse der Pandora) is a German silent film directed by G.W. Pabst and released in 1929.

The film is based loosely on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904), which was also the source for Alban Berg's opera Lulu.

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[edit] Plot summary

Louise Brooks stars as Lulu, a young and impulsive vaudeville performer whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring about the downfall of almost everyone she meets. She marries a respectable newspaper publisher, but soon drives him into insanity, climaxing in an incident in which she accidentally shoots him to death. Found guilty of manslaughter, she escapes from justice with the help of her former pimp (whom she considers her father) and the son of her dead husband, who is also in love with her. After spending several months hiding in an illegal gambling den in France, where Lulu is nearly sold into slavery, Lulu and her friends end up living in squalor in a London garret. On Christmas Eve, driven into prostitution by poverty, Lulu meets her doom at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

[edit] Themes

The film is notable for its lesbian subplot in the character of Countess Augusta Geschwitz (in some prints Anna Geschwitz, played by Alice Roberts).

The title is a reference to Pandora of Greek mythology, who upon opening a box given to her by the gods released all evils into the world, leaving only hope behind.

2006 Criterion Collection DVD Release
2006 Criterion Collection DVD Release

[edit] Cast list

[edit] DVD soundtracks

In 1999, to celebrate the film's 70th anniversary, an official soundtrack was finally commissioned. Four soundtracks were commissioned for the film's DVD release by the Criterion Collection in 2006: an approximation of the score cinema audiences might have heard with a live orchestra, a Weimar Republic-era cabaret score, a modern orchestral interpretation, and an improvisational piano score.

[edit] References


[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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