Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box
Pandora's Box, the masterpiece of G.W. Pabst (The Threepenny Opera, The Joyless Street, Diary of a Lost Girl), and one of the most erotic films ever made, is the story of Lulu, an effervescent chorus girl who destroys anyone whose life she has touched, then is murdered by Jack the Ripper. This brilliant adaptation of Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and The Box of Pandora brings out the erotic power of this singular beauty, who lacking all moral sense and devoid of guile and malevolence, does evil unconsciously. Pabst found his ideal Lulu in American actress Louise Brooks. Her remarkable natural presence and sexuality gives this silent classic a timeless modernity.
Customer Review: Fantastic!
This is a fantastic movie that demonstrates how great acting and story telling can be done without computer-generated effects and explicit sex scenes. The actors tell the whole sordid and sad story through their expressions and body language. The cinematography is also amazing. Watching great silent films like this is a real treat, and often shows just how modern film making has lost something.
Customer Review: The Original Big Screen Femme Fatale
Louise Brooks' performance in Pandora's Box is magnetically seductive. It blends predatory sexuality with infuriating naivety. Generations of femme fatales owe their dark magic to Lulu as embodied by Louise. The story is almost mythic: men destroyed by their lust for a fickle vixen who, in the end, brings about her own destruction by attracting the wrong man. I hesitate to say more. Those who haven't seen the film owe it to themselves to see it. Unlike a lot of silent melodramas, Pandora's Box still has potent appeal -- thanks mostly to Brooks' astonishingly natural performance. It's as if she's simultaneously unaware of the camera and diabolically inspired by its cyclops gaze. If you enjoy this, be sure to check out the other film she made with Pabst, Diary of a Lost Girl, which is available on DVD as well. It's a four-star film with another timeless Brooks performance. Louise Brooks is a fascinating legend of the silver screen and Pandora's Box is her crowning achievement.