Criterion Coll: Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks: DVD Cover
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Criterion Coll: Pandora's Box
a.k.a. Die Büchse der Pandora, Lulu Director: G.W. Pabst Cast: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Alice Roberts

DVD - 2 Disc Set - Black & White Learn more

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  • DVD Release Date: 11/28/2006
  • Original Release: 1929
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 4,992

Viewer Rating: (2 ratings)

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Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the definitive Munich Film Museum restoration ; Four musical scores, each offering its own interpretation of the film; Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane; New and improved English subtitle translation; Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a 60-minute documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley; Lulu in Berlin (1984), a rare, 48-minute interview with Louise Brooks, by vérité documentarian Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll; New video interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst, the director's son; Stills gallery; Plus: a book featuring Kenneth Tynan's 1979 essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet," an article by Brooks on her relationship with Pabst, and a new essay by critic J. Hoberman

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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Pandora's Box: The Film
1. Logos/Opening Credits [1:34]
2. Act 1: Lulu's Apartment [6:58]
3. Act 1: Dr. Schon [8:20]
4. Act 2: Invitations [1:36]
5. Act 2: Countess Geschwitz [7:38]
6. Act 3: The Revue [14:20]
7. Act 4: The Wedding Reception [6:44]
8. Act 4: The Bridal Suite [12:50]
9. Act 5: The Trial [6:57]
10. Act 5: The Plot [2:30]
11. Act 6: Escape [7:17]
12. Act 6: Train to Paris [6:59]
13. Act 7: The Casino Boat [13:17]
14. Act 7: Alwa Starts to Win [10:46]
15. Act 8: London [3:49]
16. Act 8: Soho Loft [19:21]
1. Lulu's Origins [1:34]
2. Pandora's Box, Unique Classic [6:58]
3. Fritz Kortner and Louis Brooks [8:20]
4. A Bourgeois Apartment [1:36]
5. Countess Geschwitz [7:38]
6. Cinema and the Theater [14:20]
7. An American Lulu? [6:44]
8. Another Primal Scene [12:50]
9. Myth as Evidence [6:57]
10. The Crowd [2:30]
11. Consumerism [7:17]
12. Border Transgressions [6:59]
13. Exchange [13:17]
14. A Femme Fatale? [10:46]
15. The Final Man [3:49]
16. Leaving the Cinema [19:21]
Disc #2 -- Pandora's Box: The Supplements
1. Introduction [3:01]
2. Lulu in Toe Shoes [11:30]
3. Lulu in Hollywood [15:43]
4. Lulu in Berlin [9:10]
5. Lulu in Hell [9:45]
6. Resurrection [9:28]
7. End Credits [1:09]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

German filmmaker G.W. Pabst's late-silent classic Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the "main chance," Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him. Eventually escaping to London with the doctor's moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her "adopted" father Schigolch (Carl Götz), where she is reduced to walking the streets, with tragic consequences. Pandora's Box (based on two works by the controversial German writer Franz Wedekind) exudes smoky sensuality in every frame; regarded now as a masterpiece, the film received surprisingly scathing reviews, with most of the critical broadsides aimed at Louise Brooks (this was long before Brooks graduated from just another pretty Hollywood starlet to Cult Goddess). Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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October 08, 2007: G. W. Pabst was no Fritz Lang, but, that said, this film deserves to be called a classic. Pabst chose Louise Brooks (instead of the 5-years older Marlene Dietrich) for the role of Lulu in his adaptation of Franz Wedekind's work and that was a stroke of genius. He compounded the wisdom by permitting her to be herself. By her own admission Louise Brooks didn't really know what she was doing, but she and Pabst put it all on the screen, whatever it was. The story is melodramatic, flirts with the ludicrous, creeps to a crawl in spots, but Brooks's Lulu remains fresh and refreshing to the "bitter" end. Pabst filmmaking was brilliant, in its own way, of course. Watch for the scene in which Lulu strokes Alwa's hair and his dying father does the same minutes later. It's an unforgettable expression of desperation and paternal affection. The supplemental disk and the accompanying book are full of interesting items, including Kenneth Tynan's 1979 article on Brooks from The New Yorker Magazine and an interview with Brooks by Richard Leacock from 1984.