Pandoras Box (1929 film)
.png) Theatrical poster | ||
| Starring | Louise Brooks Francis Lederer Carl Goetz Alice Roberts | |
| Directed by | Georg Wilhelm Pabst | |
| Produced by | Seymour Nebenzal | |
| Written by | G.W. Pabst and Frank Wedekind | |
| Studio | Nero-Film A.G. | |
| Cinematography | Günther Krampf | |
| Distributed by | Süd-Film | |
| Released | Jan 30, 1929 in {{{4}}} | |
| Runtime | 133 minutes [Note 1] | |
| Country | Germany | |
| language | Silent film with German intertitles | |
Pandora's Box (German: Die Büchse der Pandora) is a 1929 German silent drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer. The film follows Lulu, a seductive young woman whose uninhibited nature brings ruin to herself and those who love her. It is based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist ("Earth Spirit", 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora ("Pandora's Box", 1904).
Dismissed by critics on its initial release, Pandora's Box was later rediscovered by film scholars as a classic of Weimar German cinema.
Plot
Lulu is the mistress of a respected, middle-aged newspaper publisher, Dr. Ludwig Schön. One day, she is thrilled when an old man, her "first patron," Schigolch, appears at the door of her highly modern apartment. However, when Schön also arrives, she hides Schigolch on the balcony. Schön then tells Lulu that he plans to marry Charlotte von Zarnikow, the daughter of the Minister of the Interior. Lulu tries to persuade him to change his mind, but when he sees the disreputable-looking Schigolch, he leaves. Schigolch then introduces Lulu to strongman Rodrigo Quast, who wants her to join his new variety act.
The next day, Lulu visits her best friend Alwa, who happens to be Schön's son. Schön is very displeased to see her but suddenly comes up with the idea of having her star in his son's musical to get her out of his life. However, Schön makes the mistake of bringing Charlotte to see the revue. When Lulu refuses to perform in front of her rival, Schön takes her into a storage room to try to convince her otherwise, but she ends up seducing him instead. Charlotte finds them embracing.
A defeated Schön resigns himself to marrying Lulu. During the wedding reception, he's revolted to discover Lulu playfully cavorting with Schigolch and Quast in the bedchamber. He retrieves his pistol and threatens to shoot the intruders, but Lulu shouts not to, saying Schigolch is her father. Schigolch and Quast thus escape. Meanwhile, Alwa confesses his love to Lulu. Schön returns and orders his son to leave. Once alone, Schön insists his new wife take the gun and shoot herself. When Lulu refuses, the gun goes off during the struggle, and Schön is killed.
At her murder trial, Lulu is sentenced to five years for manslaughter. However, Schigolch and Quast trigger a fire alarm and spirit her away in the confusion. When Alwa finds her back in the Schön home, he is initially angry, but stops Lulu when she tries calling the authorities to turn herself in. They decide to flee the country. Countess Augusta Geschwitz, herself infatuated with Lulu, lets the fugitive use her passport. On the train, Lulu is recognized by another passenger, Marquis Casti-Piani. He offers to keep silent in return for money. He also suggests a hiding place, a ship used as an illegal gambling den.
Casti-Piani sells Lulu to an Egyptian for his brothel. Lulu, Geschwitz, Alwa, Schigolch, and Quast are now passengers on a gambling ship. Quast blackmails Lulu for funding for his new act. Desperate to pay the Egyptian, Alwa cheats at cards and gets caught. Turning to Geschwitz for help, Lulu now asks Schigolch. He convinces a reluctant Geschwitz to lure Quast to a stateroom, where she kills him. Lulu, Schigolch, and Alwa escape in a rowboat as the police swarm the ship.
They end up in squalor, living in a drafty London garret. On Christmas Eve, driven to prostitution, Lulu has the misfortune of encountering a remorseful Jack the Ripper. Although he protests he has no money, she likes him and invites him to her lodging anyway. Her kindness touches Jack, and he secretly discards his knife. Schigolch pulls Alwa away before they are seen. Although he genuinely cares for her, Jack notices a knife on a table as they embrace and cannot resist his urge to kill. Unaware of Lulu's fate, Schigolch celebrates with a group of revelers and finally fulfills his lifelong wish to eat Christmas pudding. At the same time, a broken Alwa (who sees Jack leave) follows a passing Salvation Army parade.
From ChatGPT
Plot Summary
The film follows Lulu, a beautiful, free-spirited dancer whose sensuality and innocence captivate everyone she meets — men and women alike. Her lovers’ obsession with her leads to jealousy, scandal, and tragedy.
Lulu begins as the mistress of Dr. Schön, a wealthy publisher.
He tries to marry her off to someone else, but eventually gives in and weds her himself.
On their wedding night, Lulu accidentally kills him during a struggle.
Fleeing from the law, she descends into a life of poverty and degradation — first in Paris, then London.
In the haunting final scene, she encounters Jack the Ripper on Christmas Eve, sealing her tragic fate.
Themes and Style
Sexual liberation and hypocrisy: Lulu’s openness stands in contrast to society’s repression and moralism.
- Femme fatale vs. victim: The film explores whether Lulu is a destructive force or a woman destroyed by men’s desires.
- Expressionist realism: Pabst moves away from exaggerated Expressionism toward psychological realism, using lighting and close-ups to capture emotion.
- Gender and sexuality: One of the earliest mainstream films to portray lesbian desire (through Countess Geschwitz, played by Alice Roberts).
Louise Brooks’ Performance
American actress Louise Brooks, with her iconic black bob and magnetic presence, became immortalized through this role. Although initially underappreciated, her naturalism and subtle acting style — rare in silent films — are now widely hailed as revolutionary.
Legacy
Now regarded as one of the great masterpieces of world cinema.
Helped redefine the depiction of women in film.
Restored and reissued multiple times (notably by the Munich Film Archive and Criterion Collection).
Frequently appears in “Greatest Films of All Time” lists.
Notes
- ↑ While various truncated cuts of the film were shown in the United States and other countries, the director's cut of the film, which appears on the 2006 Criterion Collection DVD, runs 133 minutes; this cut was passed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as "uncut" in 2002.
This article has been abridged and edited using Grammarly to make it more user-friendly, and to standardize spelling and text formatting. R/
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Pandoras_Box_(1929_film) ]
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