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Pandora's Box Details

1929 Certificate PG
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 1135 members

This classic silent German film tells of Lulu (Louise Brooks in her most famous role), a sensual chorus girl whose uncontainable sexual power literally destroys every man with whom she has an affair, until she encounters one of history's most notorious killers--Jack the Ripper. The film was considered particularly shocking at .. Read more

Starring Louise Brooks, Francis Lederer, Carl Gotz, Alice Roberts
Director Georg W. Pabst
Genres Drama, Gay/Lesbian, World Cinema

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Pandora's Box

This classic silent German film tells of Lulu (Louise Brooks in her most famous role), a sensual chorus girl whose uncontainable sexual power literally destroys every man with whom she has an affair, until she encounters one of history's most notorious killers--Jack the Ripper. The film was considered particularly shocking at the time of its release because of the suggestion of a lesbian attraction between Lulu and a countess. Brooks is at her sultry finest.

Starring Louise Brooks, Francis Lederer, Carl Gotz, Alice Roberts
Director Georg W. Pabst
Studio SECOND SIGHT FILMS LTD.
Run time DVD: 2 hrs 11 mins
Certificate Certificate PG
Genres Drama, Gay/Lesbian, World Cinema
Language DVD: German
Dubbed English, German
Released DVD: 24 Jun 2002
Production year: 1929
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (2) of Pandora's Box

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  • 5 stars out of 5

    Marlene Dietrich came within a whisker of landing the role that made Louise Brooks a cinematic icon. The American-born Brooks is devastating as Lulu, the insatiable femme fatale who murders her husband and tangos with a lesbian countess before falling victim herself to Jack the Ripper. Screenwriter Ladislaus Vajda makes a superb job of condensing Frank Wedekind's two Lulu plays, but it's the visual imagination of director GW Pabst that most fully conveys the story's brooding sexual tension and all-pervading atmosphere of latent violence. A masterly mix of Expressionism and street realism, this ranks among the undisputed masterpieces of German silent cinema.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006

  • A masterful adaptation/compression of Wede-kind's Lulu plays, the most humanely tragic portrait of obsession that the... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
    • Posted 04 Nov 2008

  • Most helpful member's review of Pandora's Box

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  • 15 out of 15 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Masterpiece

    I've heard so much about this movie and it still comes as a shock, just how good it is & how luminous Louise Brooks is. You get no indication from her still pictures, the shock that your system gets when you see her on film.

    The still camera may have loved Monroe, but the Movie Camera adored Louise Brooks. I have never managed to watch Monroe in the Misfits, from start to finish, the air of doom always gets to me and I have to turn away. Pandora's Box has this feeling in spades, it took me three attempts to watch it through.

    The final scene is a masterclass in minimalist film making.

    The Louise Brooks documentary on the DVD is very good, but don't watch it first, to much is given away.

      • PaXoMelun from Staffordshire
      • Posted 26 May 2004 23:28

  • Most recent members' review of Pandora's Box

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  • 10 out of 10 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    A stunning central performance elevates an average film

    'Pandora's box' is mostly remembered for the actress in the lead role, Louise Brooks. She takes the role of Lulu, a prostitute in pre-war Germany who hits the hedonistic heights before falling into poverty and violence.

    Brooks is justifiably celebrated for this performance. She lights up the screen whenever she appears with her dazzling smile and playful sexuality. It's a groundbreaking display and a tragedy that she never reached this level in her career again.

    Director GW Pabst has condensed two plays into this screenplay and it shows. The film is overlong and never picks up it's early pace after stalling halfway through. Still, it is beautifully shot and while Brooks is in view it's well worth watching.

      • Philip Concannon from London
      • Posted 03 May 2004 21:41

  • News and features

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    Wings

    The It Girl

    • 12 Mar 2007

    The producers of Factory Girl, which opens in cinemas this Friday, did one smart thing. They found a genuine twenty-first century It Girl (Sienna 'Drugs are f*** loads of fun' Miller) to play a 1960s variety (Edie 'Sex and speed. Wow' Sedgwick). But what is 'It', and who else has got 'It'? Sienna herself is not much help ('I've never understood the definition,' she told a USA Today reporter recently.) But then neither was Clara Bow, the original It Girl back in 1927, who also claimed not to... Read more

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      • This classic silent German film tells of Lulu (Louise Brooks in her most famous role), a sensual chorus girl whose uncontainable sexual power literally destroys every man with whom she has an affair, ...