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Pandora’s box

by Glenn Erickson Oct 22, 2024

Director G.W. Pabst imported the notorious Hollywood showgirl Louise Brooks to Germany, to star in one of the greatest of Weimar-Era films. Brooks’ Lulu is the equivalent of catching lightning in a bottle, a revelatory performance in a play adaptation that upends Victorian conventions: female sexuality is for once not demonized for ‘loosing evils on the world.’ Among silent masterpieces, this is one of the most mysterious. An impressive digital restoration finally makes it to Blu-ray.


Pandora’s Box
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 358
1929 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 141 min. / Die Büchse der Pandora / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 15, 2024 / 39.95
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Carl Raschig, Alice Roberts, Gustav Diessl, Daizy D’Ora, Michael von Newlinsky, Siegfried Arno.
Cinematography: Günther Krampf
Art Directors: Andrej Andrejew, Gottlieb Hesch
Film Editor: Josef Fleisler
Costume Design: Gottlieb Hesch
Music scores by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, Stéphan Oliva
Scenario by Ladislaus Vajda, Joseph Fleisler, Georg Wilhelm Pabst from the plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora by Frank Wedekind
Produced by Heinz Landsmann, Seymour Nebenzal
Directed by
Georg Wilhelm Pabst

G.W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box is a true movie legend. An effort by German producers to break into the American market, it arrived in New York just as the earliest talkies were making silent film art commercially obsolete. It was also rejected in Wiemar Berlin, with various reasons given. A few critics did see something special in director Pabst’s choice to play Lulu. A pair of Victorian-era plays proposed the character Lulu to represent an Original Erotic Sin, a woman seemingly created to destroy men and foment chaos.

That not-so-obscure object of desire.
 

Pabst and his co-scenarist Ladislaus Vajda had a different idea: their Lulu is an innocent, and the destructive energy is sourced in the men who throw their lives away because they cannot resist her. Lulu has a considerable power that she cannot control.

G.W. Pabst was already a celebrated director of silent films. His biggest hit had been The Joyless Street, a naturalistic and socially conscious drama that helped make a star of Greta Garbo. Pandora’s Box is now known as one of the last and greatest silent pictures, but it was not a success when new. It was all but lost until the 1950s, when ragged copies were revived for museum screenings. Even in in that poor condition one could see what entranced critics like Andrew Sarris. Louise Brooks’ Lulu is a vision of sex appeal disconnected from acting styles, fashion or the morality of any particular period. Everything is instinctive, even her childish tantrums. Critic Raymond Durgnat described a basic appeal of movies as a ‘harem game,’ onto which audiences can project their own desires. Durgnat talked up Kim Novak, Marilyn Monroe and even Barbara Steele, but his theory certainly applies to Louise Brooks. She’s an unattainable sex object at an even higher level of mystery.

 

The story of Lulu begins light, adds disturbing elements and ends on a note of near-unfathomable doom. The original plays held Lulu culpable for her own sex attraction, but Pandora’s Box has much more to say about sexuality and the Way of All Flesh.

Lulu is a kept woman living in a fancy apartment maintained by the respected publisher Dr. Peter Schön (Fritz Kortner). She’s gaining attention as a star peformer in stage extravaganzas. Schön arrives to tell her that they must part because he’s engaged to marry the daughter of a politician. Schön is not the only person infatuated with Lulu. Schön’s own son Alwa (Franz Lederer) is the producer of Lulu’s show. Countess Anna Geschwitz (Alice Roberts) designs Lulu’s costumes. She cannot fully express her same-sex attraction.

 

Lulu is affectionate with a strange, ragged little man named Schigolch (Carl Goetz), who may have been her first pimp. He is at present trying to team her up for a variety act with acrobat Rodrigo Quast (Krafft-Raschig). The actualy relationship remains unsettled. Lulu refers to Schigolch as her ‘first patron,’ but later shouts that he is her father.

Dr. Schön brings his fiancée to the premiere of Alwa and Lulu’s big show, and fireworks ensue when Lulu throws a fit and causes a big scene. His respectable marriage plans ruined, Schön has little choice but to go ahead with a wedding to Lulu. The reception becomes a nightmare. Alwa sulks because Lulu won’t run away with him. Lulu’s uncouth theatrical associates put on their own party in the bridal bedroom, and when Dr. Schön discovers them, he becomes unhinged.

 

From that point on a number of lives become chaos. A murder trial ends with several characters becoming fugitives. Lulu attracts blackmailers and opportunists. Lulu proves easy prey for a charming schemer (Michaelvon Newlinsky). Not much later, she’s been maneuvered into a debt situation that may end with her being sold to an Egyptian brothel-keeper. A major set piece plays out on a floating casino, where the demoralized Alwa tries to save Lulu by cheating at cards.

Lulu’s fortunes bottom out, but an even worse fate awaits when she, Shigolch and Alwa end up together in London, at Christmastime.

No synopsis can communicate the range of emotions that come with Pandora’s Box. A teasingly sexy story about a universally desired showgirl transforms into a dark, unsparing look at the lower depths of human desire. Conventional movie sirens mainly weave spells of silver-screen glamour, but Lulu embodies a more elemental flesh-and-blood allure, an appeal inseparable from her personality. She isn’t explained as a ‘type,’ she just is.

Louise Brooks was apparently one of those women that present a chemical challenge to every male they encounter. Her devil-may-care private life wasn’t at all private. The actress was of course not like the fictional Lulu, but they share a basic quality — they like men, enjoy being happy, and aren’t interested in what anyone else thinks of it. She doesn’t give a damn that the meter reader might think she’s socially unacceptable. She sees nothing wrong with consorting with both the high-toned Peter Schön and the decrepit beggar Schigolch.

Lulu is unpredictable. When a fugitive from justice, she pauses at the scene of the crime to read a fashion magazine. Fleeing on a train, she returns the overtures of a suspicious gentleman who recognizes her photo from a newspaper announcing a big reward for her capture.

Pandora’s Box focuses on the amorous relationships ‘inspired’ by the innocent Lulu. Peter Schön foolishly thinks he can possess and control her. His son Alwa sees in Lulu his ticket to manhood. The Countess Geschwitz wants her as well. The villains want to sell Lulu into sexual slavery. Only the filthy old man Schigolch seems to understand and accept Lulu for what she is. Society would blame Lulu for everything that happens, but Pandora’s Box repeatedly shows her to be a victim of the desires of others.

Director Pabst concentrates on intense performances, using a minimum of dialogue intertitles. He blocks his scenes for maximum impact. A quick pan follows Lulu as she flies excitedly into a room. Character blocking and telling compositions express the relationships of the players. In the bridal bedroom after the disastrous wedding reception, Lulu seems unaware of Dr. Schön psychic distress. He crowds out Lulu’s image in her own mirror and then corners her against a wall, blotting out most of the frame.

Pabst’s film is mostly post-expressionistic. The scenery and lighting are moody but realistic, and there are no distorted sets. Some sequences quicken the tempo, but most scenes stress atmosphere, pausing to isolate significant details. Each chapter ends with a scene of chaos — the backstage premiere, the trial, the violence on the gambling boat. Then the next chapter opens with the characters stuck in yet another no-solution debacle.

For its final act Pandora’s Box returns to visual storytelling as pure as anything in silent cinema. We don’t know how much time has passed, but it is now winter and Alwa, Lulu and Schigolch are holed up in London, in a freezing attic room. It is Christmas. Lulu is a ragged mess but prepares herself to go out and earn some money. Down in the street, an angelic Salvation Army volunteer offers kind words and a sprig of mistletoe to a tall, forlorn stranger (Gustav Diessel) that we’ve seen glaring at a poster warning about a savage sex killer. The stranger is touched to be shown so much kindness. While Alwa cries in utter humiliation and defeat, Lulu steps outdoors to look for a customer…

 

Pandora’s Box finishes with a profound statement about mercy, goodwill and kindness — while also embracing total horror. Lulu accepts the lonely stranger with an open heart; he experiences a few minutes of blessed warmth and affection.

Even in less than optimum condition Pandora’s Box weaves an undeniable spell. As a silent film, its effects don’t rely on conventional star appeal. Louise Brooks’ Lulu has a timeless quality. Director Pabst didn’t have her reach for a characterization, but simply react naturally, using her own personality. The effect is haunting. Louise Brooks wrote that Lulu’s attraction to the actor in the final London looks real because it was real — she was strongly attracted to the actor Gustav Diessl.

 

Pabst depicts the honest lesbian attraction between Lulu and Countess Geshwitz without visual allusions or coded behaviors — Countess Anna is clearly moved to be with Lulu, especially when they dance. Geschwitz has been noted as the ‘first’ recognized lesbian character in a movie. In 1929 … can that possibly be true?

The stage assistant Siegfried Arno shows up in a number of classic German films — but also has a great bit in Preston Sturges 1942 comedy  The Palm Beach Story. Francis Lederer had a notable Hollywood career, with good roles in classics like Mitchell Leisen’s  Midnight. Noted stage actor Fritz Kortner was a genuine star in German film. He spent the war years in Hollywood playing secondary parts, some of them in notable films noir.

Lulu’s fate remains an almost mystical question. She’s still a challenging characer for audiences: more than an innocent, yet a contradiction of moral conventions. Lulu doesn’t need a philosophy to justify her existence. She fears and suffers but endures, and still has the ability to give. Yet, women like her take the blame for ‘corrupting’ the world.

 


 

The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray of Pandora’s Box is described as a new digital restoration. The brief text notes about the transfer only say that the show was pieced together from duplicate elements found in French, Czech and Russian archves. Added disclaimers on the actual transfer report that no original negative or original print of Pandora’s Box have been found; everything was taken from lower quality duplicate copies. Much of the restoration of Fritz Lang’s  Metropolis was taken from surviving original negative material. For Pandora they had only dupes, and dupes of dupes.

Old copies of Pandora were riddled with scratches, splices, and printed-in false frame lines. The contrast fluctuated and the image was ‘unstable in the gate,’ juddering like a print with bad sprocket holes. It was difficult to imagine what the film might have looked like when new. Criterion’s 2006 DVD was a big leap forward. Its DVD notes indicated one source, a print held by the Munich Film Museum. It looked good, but many of the flaws persisted.

 

How does it look now?
 

We aren’t told how much digital work had to be done to put Pabst’s picture into acceptable shape. The image is now rock stable. Missing frames have been restored and errant splice marks are gone. The contrast fluctuates less. The scratches are gone, and in their place is a new kind of digital grain, a kind of ‘weaving’ in the textures of objects. My unprofessional response is that the film’s appearance is an excellent compromise. Before this it was difficult to suppress an awareness of film damage. This presentation looks intact, with good continuity. It plays very well.

We end up asking questions instead of providing answers. One thing not discussed in the notes is the film’s frame rate. The show once looked terribly sped-up; it might even have been at the PAL frame rate of 25fps. With the coming of sound in 1927, American silents mostly standardized at 24fps. But Pandora always looked fast when projected at 24. This presentation is the first time we’ve seen all the action in the frame looking ‘normal,’ even Lulu’s impromptu dance for Schigolch. Could Pabst in late 1928 really have filmed it at a lower frame rate, and this new remaster slows it down?  The 2006 DVD clocks in at 133 minutes, and this new release is 141 minutes … minus a minute or so for added text credits and disclaimers. We didn’t notice any added new material, so does a slower transfer speed account for the added 7-8 minutes?

The extras appear to be identical to what Criterion’s producer found for the 2006 DVD. The show is given four distinct music scores, elaborated on in the stats list below. All are good. The ‘cabaret’ style tracks have more of a Weimar flavor, even if the Orchestral score and the piano score were likely closer to what one might have heard in Berlin of 1929.

 

The TCM docu Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu by Hugh Munro Neely is a fine resource for the star’s life story. Also repeated from 2006 is a fine interview with G.W. Pabst’s son Michael. He mentions an uncompleted biography of his father, and avoids discussion of the full arc of the director’s career, which extended through the Nazi period. He does say that Leni Riefenstahl tried to sway Pabst senior to National Socialism.

The very good commentary by Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane provides background for the movie and its players, and adds some interesting applications of film theory. Ms. Doane has a ready interpretation for one phenomenon that surprised me throughout Pandora: the camera direction frequently violates the legendary 180° line in ways that we can’t help but notice, and that sometimes confuse. Right off the top with shots of Lulu talking to the meter reader, eyelines don’t match across cuts. We’ll see Lulu looking off camera, and then the meter reader, and we get the idea that they must be looking at some third person, not each other. In a couple of situations later on, when we cut between a wide shot and singles, people seem to be in the wrong positions relative to one another. As an editor, we wonder — if Lulu’s shots were all flopped, would the problem be fixed?  Probably not.

Ms Doane suggests that Pabst purposely does this to communicate a dislocation in their relationship. That doesn’t sound credible, especially after seeing Pabst’s  The Love of Jeanne Ney and  Diary of a Lost Girl, both of which exhibit fluid continuity. Could Pabst have simply left the some of these choices to his cameramen?  The camera direction in those films is very active, kinetic; Pandora instead concentrates on more formal, just-right static compositions.

 

The older documentary piece Lulu in Berlin is one of the best vintage star interviews ever captured on film. In 1971, documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock scored a full filmed interview with the reclusive Ms. Brooks, in the dinette of her Rochester apartment. The actress wears an old housecoat over a nightgown with her hair pulled back and a bit of makeup on. She knows herself very well, and she has a near-total recall. She also has no difficulty speaking frankly about all the episodes in her life. She can recite the lyrics of an Argentine Tango that was played when she danced with Alice Roberts, forty-two years earlier. This interview is the source of the quote in which Brooks states that Hollywood was invented as a way for men with money to meet lots of ambitious, beautiful young women.

The old film clips in Lulu in Berlin reveal what Louise Brooks’ German films once looked like, unrestored. Clips from Pandora’s Box are a mess, and some are even flopped left-to-right. Leacock opens and closes with a scene from Brooks’ early French talkie  Prix de beauté, which is stunning despite being in wretched condition. We hope to see some kind of miracle rejuvenation of that picture in the future.

Richard Leacock returned in 2006 for a brief talk on his history-making Louise Brooks interview. It ends with the cheeky statement that, when the session ended, he got an invite to stay alone with her and get drunk together. Brooks is in her ’60s — but looks fully ready to party.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson


Pandora’s Box
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Very Good – Excellent in terms of restoration
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Four musical scores:
Orchestral by Gillian Anderson
Cabaret Score by Dimitar Pentchev
Modern Orchestral by Peer Raben
Piano Improvisation by Stéphan Oliva
Audio commentary by Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a documentary by Hugh Munro Neely
Lulu in Berlin (1984), a rare interview with actor Louise Brooks, by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll
Interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst, director G. W. Pabst’s son
Illustrated booklet with an essay by J. Hoberman, notes on the music scores, Kenneth Tynan’s 1979 The Girl in the Black Helmet and an article by Brooks on her relationship with Pabst.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed:
October 18, 2024
(7214pand)
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Text © Copyright 2024 Glenn Erickson

About Glenn Erickson

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Glenn Erickson left a small town for UCLA film school, where his spooky student movie about a haunted window landed him a job on the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS effects crew. He’s a writer and a film editor experienced in features, TV commercials, Cannon movie trailers, special montages and disc docus. But he’s most proud of finding the lost ending for a famous film noir, that few people knew was missing. Glenn is grateful for Trailers From Hell’s generous offer of a guest reviewing haven for CineSavant.

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[…] flow as smoothly as do the silent dramas of Josef von Sternberg. Unlike Pabst’s classics Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, the suspenseful Jeanne Ney differs because it makes no particular claim […]

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