Title: Pandora’s Box
Release Date: January 30, 1929
Director: G. W. Pabst
Production Company: Süd-Film
Summary/Review:
This German film is deeply weird and severely misogynist. American actress Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a young woman who is passionate and sexually confident and of whom the film tells us is “thoughtless.” But really it’s a morality play that would have us believe that a woman with an independent streak will bring everyone around her to ruin.
Brooks is a captivating actor and without someone of her capability in the role, I don’t think this movie would be worth watching. She’s a great silent film star because she can say so much with her face. I found myself pondering for a long time who she reminded me of, and then finally I hit upon Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag who also conveys so much with a look.
The story, for what it’s worth, has kind of a perils of Lulu plot as each scene leads to another level of degradation. Lulu goes from a mistress to a stage performer to marrying her reluctant lover to an accused murderer to a fugitive in an illegal gambling den to prostitution to a victim of Jack the Ripper. There are some interesting scenes, particularly during the backstage scenes of her variety show, where performers go on and off the stage entering and leaving Lulu’s drama in the backstage. This movie also broke ground with a prominent lesbian character, Countess Augusta Geschwitz (Alice Roberts), who helps Lulu escape imprisonment.
The movie is kind of bland melodrama and I can’t really recommend watching other than for film history research.
Rating: **1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 