Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

bbmtwist Pandora's Box is one of the most internationally highly regarded silent films of the era. Pabst only equaled this success with his The Love of Jeanne Ney. His direction is solid, certain, full of details, and his actors are uniformly superb. The cinematography is sharp, atmospheric, and well framed. The editing is excellent, although the film suffers a bit by being over long at two hours and thirteen minutes. It could certainly have been tightened by fifteen to twenty minutes with judicial cuts.Francis Lederer as Alwa, the equally ruined son of Dr. Schon, is extremely handsome and a superb actor just beginning his career. Fritz Kortner as Schon is Emil Jannings-like in his depressed and rage-filled introspection at his helplessness to give up Lulu. Alice Roberts as the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, also hopelessly in love with Lulu, gives a restrained and riveting performance, reminding one of Lotte Lenya, but far more attractive. Carl Goetz as Lulu's father is always present and equally reminds one of character actor, George Marion. One can only imagine Jannings, Lenya and Marion in the roles.Michael Newlinsky plays a blackmailing marquis and Gustav Diessl is terrifying as Jack.The most amazing work is delivered by Louise Brooks in the only real performance she ever gave. I have seen almost a dozen of her films and found her only a personality with little dramatic talent. Here as the totally immoral Lulu, who leaves a wake of ruined men behind her, she is full of life, facial expression, and revealing body movement. Brooks herself has been described by someone who knew her as a hedonist, so perhaps she was most at home in this role of all she attempted.It is hard to imagine Garbo in the role. Her characters, who played with and discarded men, did so with a purpose, usually revenge. It is hard to imagine her as being completely immoral and amoral. Dietrich may have well pulled it off and justified the script's irresistibility of the character.The film is divided into eight sections, numbered acts with title cards to announce the beginning and end of each one. They range from 9 minutes to 24 minutes.Although Pabst's films as a rule have no point of view or if they do, it is heavy handed and slammed down at the last minute, he was a successful director of actors, who by reputation adored him. All in all, this is a solid and interesting film of societal conventions and repressions versus an amoral love object, out to enjoy life without a care in the world. The drama comes from the clash between possession and freedom of a free soul. Worth a look.

tomgillespie2002 The journey taken by Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Pandora's Box to reach its status as a classic of Weimar German cinema is an interesting one. It received mild praise upon its release, but was shrouded in controversy due to its frank depiction of sexuality, even featuring one of cinema's first portrayals of a gay woman. The film was soon forgotten about, until it was re-discovered by a group of socialites and film enthusiasts in the 1950s - some close friends with star Louise Brooks - who heralded the film a masterpiece and set out to spread the word. Soon enough, Pabst's work was undergoing a revival, but this was overshadowed by the attention Brooks received. She was being talked about as an even more striking screen presence than the likes of Garbo and Dietrich, much to her amusement.The truth is, Pandora's Box would perhaps only be an okay movie without Brooks in the title role. A known party girl, she started as a flapper dancer and bit-part actress before she was signed to Paramount by producer Walter Wanger, catching the eye of Charlie Chaplin in the process. As the film roles came in, she developed a hatred for the Hollywood scene, and fled to Europe after being denied a pay rise. She was unofficially blacklisted in her homeland, but it would be in Germany that she would make the two movies that would cement her as a goddess of the silent era, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, both directed by the Austrian pioneer of the psycho-sexual melodrama, Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Both told a story of a care-free, and careless, woman brought down by a society that had different plans for her, and Brooks was the perfect face to channel such a dangerous force of nature.Here she plays Lulu, a young dancer and aspiring performer engaging in an affair with the soon-to-be-married newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner). On the night of her performance as a trapeze artist, Lulu refuses to go on stage while Schon's fiancée is in the crowd, and kicks up such a fuss that he ends up marrying her instead. Events eventually force her to go on the run with Schon's son (Francis Lederer), and she finds herself in the hands of increasingly unscrupulous men as her naivety and promiscuity invite trouble. At over 2 hours, it's too long, but the film always holds your interest because of Brooks. Her performance is incredibly modern and playful, and there's something almost dangerous about her. Like a beautiful woman who is obviously nothing but trouble, you cannot help but be drawn in by Brooks' seduction. Pabst tastefully weaves a story of drama, tragedy and sexuality with an intense eroticism, but it is the star, with her perfectly symmetrical face and iconic bob hairstyle, who leaves the great impression.

evening1 Lulu grew up in horrible conditions and the only person who comes close to a father figure is an alcoholic pimp. "Too bad," he tells her as Jack the Ripper roams the dusky alleyways of London and they both are starving, "I'd have liked to taste Christmas pudding one more time before I die." Played with incredible sex appeal by Louise Brooks (herself sexually abused as a child, according to Wikipedia), Lulu tries to get by as long as possible banking on her pretty face and adorable figure. Sex gets her everything she wants till she accidentally kills her sugar daddy (the handsome older actor Fritz Kortner). Once this wealthy, sophisticated but ultimately dumb benefactor is out of the picture, Lulu can no longer run away from life's harsh realities. Turning to the only means of survival she has ever known, she becomes a sitting duck for the worst that life has to offer. Having absolutely no compass for trustworthiness -- how could she? -- she trusts the wrong guy. What are we to take from this grim tale? Must birth be destiny? Is life a mere rehearsal for disaster? Let's hope not. Whatever one's circumstances, we can try to lead an examined life and establish a reliable, legal way to earn one's bread. Poor Lulu. Poor Countess Geschwitz (compellingly played by Alice Roberts). I hope this movie lives forever. It's important viewing.

pontifikator The Germans had a thing for men degrading and debasing themselves without limits for women. For Louise Brooks, maybe it was worth it. This is a silent film worth seeing.The myth of Pandora* is heartbreaking, and this movie actually follows it rather closely. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a rather naive prostitute beloved of Professor Schon. Dr. Schon is engaged to a proper lady, but he cannot escape the lure of Lulu. He marries Lulu, but he cannot control her, and she continues her erotic behavior with others. In a rage he attacks her, she struggles, she kills him. She is convicted for the crime, but escapes before she goes to prison. She has seduced Dr. Schon's son Alwa, who takes her away.For her escape, they go to other countries, and Alwa's money is soon exhausted. Thus begins the spiral into sordid tragedy. Lulu supports Alwa and her pimp by prostituting herself again. Eventually, Alwa sinks so low he comes to himself and leaves her as she takes a john to their room. (At least Alwa ends up better off than Professor Rath in "The Blue Angel.") Ironically, the lover is Jack the Ripper,** who murders Lulu - a circumstance of which Alwa remains oblivious as he walks away down the street. He has given up everything he had for the love of her. She has lost her life, another prostitute victim of a serial killer. Perhaps there is hope for Alwa. Or maybe not. Who knows what's left in Pandora's Box as the curtain is drawn on Alwa's wretched life?The direction is fabulous. G.W. Pabst was at the height of his talent in 1930, and this movie shows it. All the actors were topnotch: Fritz Kortner as Professor Schon, Francis Lederer as Alwa, and Carl Goetz as the scummy Schigolch (the pimp who pretends to be her father). Louise Brooks is one of the most beautiful women of the 20th Century, and her acting here is flawless, natural. Her power over Schon and his son flows from her face and her body. This film may be the first to show a lesbian relationship between two women (Lulu and Countess Anna), and the version I saw was missing the scenes that show the end of their relationship, leaving a puzzling gap in the story line.It's interesting to contrast this movie with "The Blue Angel," with Marlena Dietrich as Lola. Dietrich steals the show, of course, with her iconic characterization of the woman of easy virtue, but Lola is never a person we sympathize with. Lulu, on the other hand, has our feelings from the beginning. Lulu is much more complex than Lola, and Brooks inhabits the role completely. (Dietrich inhabits Lola, too, of course -- but Lola has no heart.)*Prometheus brought mortal men fire, making them more nearly like gods. To punish Prometheus, the gods created Pandora, the first woman. Each god gave her a virtue which she was made to carry to Prometheus in a box. (I understand that Pandora means "all gifts.") Prometheus (which means foresight), wary of women bearing gifts from the gods, sent her away, and he changed all those virtues into evils. Prometheus's brother Epimetheus (hindsight) fell in love with her; Prometheus forbade Pandora and him ever to open the box, but curiosity overcame her. And when she opened the box, all evils were loosed upon the world, leaving her (and mankind) with only hope in the box. (There are other similar stories about a woman loosing evil upon the world because she failed to follow her instructions.)**Interestingly, the costumes are current for 1929, the year of the movie, and not the times of Jack the Ripper. In this regard, it is similar to "Mating Call," a Twenties film set before the time of its making but showing flappers in all their glory.