PANDORA'S BOX Movie Review
Die Buechse der Pandora
The era of German expressionism was drawing to a close by the time of G.W. Pabst's silent classic Pandora's Box, which established Louise Brooks as one of most electrifying, erotically charged screen personalities in movie history. Brooks plays Lulu, a tempestuous, irresistible knockout who seduces or murders (or both) just about everyone she comes in contact with, eventually descending into the depths of prostitution and a fateful encounter with Jack the Ripper. Brooks was a struggling Hollywood actress under contract to Paramount when Pabst—who had been searching for the right actress to play Lulu—tried to arrange for her to be loaned out to shoot Pandora's Box in Germany. Legend has it that Paramount never even informed her of Pabst's offer until she threatened to quit the studio anyway over money. Ultimately, the deal was made, and Brooks became an instantaneous international sensation (still not in America, however). What wowed audiences wasn't just Brooks's beauty and natural screen presence, but her powerfully erotic, remarkably natural performance. The movie was censored and suppressed in many countries, and in France it was reedited almost beyond recognition and fitted out with a completely new storyline. (According to Sadoul's Dictionary of Films, the Jack the Ripper climax was eliminated in French prints, and an ending was substituted in which Lulu joined the Salvation Army.) There are still lots of different unauthorized versions of Pandora's Box floating around, but the superb near-definitive 1983 restoration is available from Home Vision Cinema. The film that Pabst and Brooks followed up with, Diary of a Lost Girl, is available as well. (A fan organization, the Louise Brooks Society, maintains an elegant and well-stocked web site at www.pandoras box.com.)
NEXT STOP … Canary Murder Case, Diary of a Lost Girl, Prix de Beaut… (Miss Europe)
1928 110m/B GE Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer. Carl Goetz, Alice Roberts, Gustav Diesl; D: G.W. Pabst; W: G.W. Pabst. VHS GPV, MRV, VDM