G. W. Pabst

Pandora’s Box

Pandora’s Box

One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst seemed to have an innate talent for discovering actresses. And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst’s lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora’s Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone around her. Daring and stylish, Pandora’s Box is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality.

Die Büchse der Pandora

Film Info

  • Germany
  • 1929
  • 141 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • German
  • Spine #358

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration
  • Four musical scores, by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, and Stéphan Oliva
  • Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
  • Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a documentary by Hugh Munro Neely
  • Lulu in Berlin (1971), 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
  • PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman, notes on the scores, Kenneth Tynan’s 1979 “The Girl in the Black Helmet,” and an article by Brooks on her relationship with Pabst

    New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration
  • Four musical scores, by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, and Stéphan Oliva
  • Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
  • Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a documentary by Hugh Munro Neely
  • Lulu in Berlin (1971), 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
  • PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman, notes on the scores, Kenneth Tynan’s 1979 “The Girl in the Black Helmet,” and an article by Brooks on her relationship with Pabst

    New cover by Eric Skillman
Pandora’s Box
Cast
Louise Brooks
Lulu
Fritz Kortner
Dr. Schön
Francis Lederer
Alwa Schön
Carl Goetz
Schigolch
Krafft-Raschig
Rodrigo Quast
Alice Roberts
Countess Geschwitz
Daisy d’Ora
Dr. Schön’s fiancée
Gustav Diessl
Jack
Michael von Newlinsky
Marquis Casti-Piani
Siegfried Arno
The stage manager
Credits
Director
G. W. Pabst
Screenplay by
Ladislaus Vajda
Based on the plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora by
Frank Wedekind
Director of photography
Gunther Krampf
Art direction by
Andrei Andreiev
Art direction by
Gottlieb Hesch

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