Based on Frank Wedekind’s two plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, Pabst’s cinematic interpretation is the ultimate amoral, mesmerising, and irresistible tale which deservedly found its place in the pantheon of cinema. Astonishingly modern, the film follows the downward spiral of flapper girl Lulu. Louise Brooks’s intensely erotic portrayal of the film’s heroine is seductive and innocent at the same time.
In Weimar Germany, Lulu (Louise Brooks) is an entrancing and free-spirited girl who lives on the beneficences of the men who fall under her spell. Her current paramour is the highly-respectable Dr. Schön, who comes to believe he must marry her, even though he has been engaged to a more respectable woman. At their wedding, he becomes mad with jealousy, and tragedy ensues.
In its turbulent history, Pandora’s Box was butchered by censors to a mere 66 minutes, rediscover the film’s beauty in its full running time of 134 minutes.
DEU | 1928/29 | 134 mins, dir. G.W. Pabst, with Louis Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts
The screening will be accompanied live on piano by Cyrus Gabrysch
