#358: PABST, Georg Wilhelm: Pandora's Box (1929)

PABST, Georg Wilhelm (Germany)

Pandora's Box [1929]

Spine #358
DVD
OOP

One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfled girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst's lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora's Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she comes in contact with. Daring and stylish, Pandora's Box is one of silent cinema's great masterworks and a testament to Brooks's dazzling individuality.

133 minutes
Black & White

Silent

German Intertitles

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2006

Director/Writers

Adapted from the play Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora by Frank Wedekind.

Screenplay by Ladislavs Vajda.

Georg Wilhelm Pabst was 44 when he directed Pandora's Box.

Other Pabst films in the Collection:

#907: Westfront 1918 (1930)
#908: Kameraschaft (1931)
#405: The Threepenny Opera (1931)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

100-page booklet featuring essays by J. Hoberman, Kenneth Tynan, and actor Brooks.

Commentary

By film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane.

Four musical scores

Each offering its own interpretation of the film.

Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998)

A 60-minute documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley.

Lulu in Berlin (1984)

A rare, 48-minute interview with Brooks, by vérité documentarian Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll.

Video interviews

With Leacock and Michael Pabst, the director’s son.

Stills gallery

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

By Director
By Spine #