Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6957 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-06-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Dubbed, PAL, Silent, Special Edition
• Original language: German
• Dubbed in: English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 131 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
G W Pabst's 1928 silent masterpiece Pandora's Box stars the luminous and highly photogenic Louise Brooks. She plays the irresistible Lulu, a cabaret star who entices, captivates and eventually destroys all men who cross her path. Her beauty and her fetching charm draw an assortment of repressed and lonely people; Schigolch, a boozy old man who pretends he's her father; Geschwitz, a countess who has also fallen for Lulu, and Schoen, a rich tycoon who carries on an affair with Lulu even though he's to be married. His short solution is to put Lulu in his son Alwa's vaudeville show. As Alwa, too, becomes trapped in Lulu's charms, Schoen's fiancée catches Lulu and Schoen in a backstage embrace. Lulu quickly takes her place as Schoen's bride, only to drive Schoen to suicide during their wedding party. Put on trial for murder, Lulu almost gets out of it by simply batting her eyes at the prosecutor. Still, she is found guilty and Alwa, who has grown increasingly obsessed, causes a distraction to allow Lulu's escape from the courthouse. Alwa, Lulu and Schoen become desperate fugitives, eventually ending up in London where Lulu finally meets her match: Jack the Ripper. Pandora's Box offers pure cinematic delights--Pabst's luscious photography, the tense drama of its story line and, most impressively and importantly, Louise Brooks, who gives a performance that is certainly one of the best in the history of cinema. --Shannon Gee

Amazon.co.uk Review
Made at the very end of the silent era, Pandora's Box is one of the last flowerings of German cinema's greatest decade. It also marked the highpoint of two careers: Austrian director GW Pabst and American actress Louise Brooks. A merge of two linked plays by the decadent German playwright Frank Wedekind, it's the story of Lulu, the archetypal femme fatale (the same plays served as source for Alban Berg's masterly 1935 opera). At once sensual and innocent, a force of uninhibited sexuality, Lulu brings ruin on all her lovers both male and female, and ultimately upon herself.

Hollywood never knew what to do with Brooks who, with her fierce intelligence and her open delight in sex, refused to play the coy flappers then in fashion. In Pabst, whose genius, she wrote, "lay in getting to the heart of a person", she found the director she needed, and he brought out her a screen persona with a depth of eroticism that's still breathtaking to see. The film features some of the finest German acting talent of the period--Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer--but it's Brooks' luminous performance that rivets the eye and makes her a great screen icon.

Though the action is nominally set in the late-19th century--Lulu ends up in a shadowy London where she encounters Jack the Ripper--Pandora's Box breathes the gamey air of the Weimar Republic, vividly captured by Günther Krampf's pungent photography. This release runs well over two hours and includes, for the first time in decades, over 30 minutes of cut footage, restoring the film to something very close to Pabst's original masterpiece.

On the DVD: Pandora's Box on DVD is a clean, crisp transfer in the classic 4:3 ratio, and the mono soundtrack brings out all the detail of Peer Rubens' Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. Dialogue intertitles can be read in either English or German. We also get an outstanding 60-minute documentary, Looking for Lulu, about Brooks' life and career: warmly narrated by Shirley MacLaine, it features excerpts from an interview with Brooks from 1976. --Philip Kemp

Special Features
English\German
Region 0
Documentary Narrated By Shirley MacLaine
Interview With Louise Brooks

Customer Reviews

At last a restoration that does justice to a classic
Having practically grown up with various incarnations of"Pandora's Box" (from grainy 16 mm prints to VHS copies), it was gratifying to finally see this classic in a newly restored print. Combined with a newly composed score (which in itself is a model of tasteful composition), the full impact of G.W. Pabst's telling of the Wedekind tale is astonishing. No wonder Louise Brooks became an icon for generations of filmgoers. The naturalness with which she conveys the complex character of Lulu runs the gamut of subtleties (which were never really visable in previous versions owing to the murk of bad prints) and one could scarcely wonder why she didn't achieve the same status in America. Clearly, the director and actor were exploring new territory here - one which American filmakers were simply not doing.

This version of Pandora's Box is the one to have and to view over and over again. It is filled with a richness that defies age.

One helluva of a film, but Louise Brooks is something else
This is the only silent film I have seen (I have difficulty with them) that fits the medium so perfectly, spoken dialogue seems completely unnecessary. The fact that Wedekind’s “Lulu” is part of our literary and dramatic heritage, the fact we all know her from the plays, from Alban Berg’s opera and the film “The Blue Angel” undoubtedly helps.

Overwhelmingly however, it is the truly astounding and magnetic portrayal by Louise Brooks of this most fatale of femme fatales. In the midst of excellent acting and superb direction by the legendary German Director Georg Pabst she towers above everything, literally becoming the character.

To understand Louise Brooks achievement one must learn about the actress, the documentary on her life included on the DVD seems a good start. One learns that Louise was in fact a real life Lulu, thoughtless, wilful, promiscuous, captivating, highly intelligent, wayward to the degree of self destruction.

What a woman!

One of her biographies will soon be on my Amazon wish list.

Interestingly Brooks was Pabst first choice for the part, with Marlene Dietrich second. I agree with Pabst assessment when watching Blue Angel recently, Dietrich is good but lacks that final indomitable self centred detachment needed for the part.

If you find the Lulu character interesting, even if you hate silent films, give this a try. You also get a chance to become acquainted with the life of Louise Brooks.

A fine restoration with a bonus biopic of Louise Brooks
Second Sight have worked wonders with this print, backing it with a good orchestral music track. The restoration of previously cut footage, however, is always a mixed blessing and it would have been nice to have a typically cut version available (using the tricks of DVD) just so we could judge for ourselves: cuts are usually made for good reasons and a sensitive editor can tighten the cinematic experience considerably - nobody cut a Pabst film without good reason.
To compensate, Second Sight have provided a marvellous little biopic lasting around an hour including an interview with Louise Brooks herself (among many sentimental reflections from friends etc., and a sprinkling of extracts). US viewers would recognise this as "Looking for Lulu" (available on DVD on the Image label).
What's lacking - this is why I could only rate it 4 - was a leaflet of any sort. A list of chapter points would have been nice - I don't like having to stop the film just to restart it via the scene selection menu; or flick about with the remote control when I could simply key in the scene I want from the list. Further, notes on Wiederkind's two Lulu plays (from which this film was drawn) would have been appreciated. They were censored in Germany and one wonders what sort of reception Pabst received. Also, we might have gained a better insight into the character of Lulu. The interpretive notes on the sleeve are questionable, portraying her as an evil seductress discarding one lover for the next when she's got what she wants. An equal interpretation is that of a woman unable to give what people demand of her; the seeds of her downfall sown in her very naivety, ultimately leading to her degradation and death. In short, she had no measure of the anguish she was causing.
As for the film, Pabst is recognised as one of the cinema's all-time greats so there is little to say. The timing, acting, subtlety of expression, camera angles all make for a superb atmosphere; the closing scenes are classic. Louise Brooks was probably the finest Lulu Pabst could have found.
Sometimes the slight cropping (to fit 4:3 TV) does make the image seem crammed but that's a small complaint. The contrast is softer than usual for a digital restoration making it very easy on the eye. A marvellous film, it equals Pabst's other works of which "Diary of a Lost Girl" (also Louise Brooks) and "The Love of Jeanne Ney" are available on VHS (and DVD from the US, both without region-coding).

In short, an excellent and overdue offering for fans of silent cinema but lacking historic and cultural notes that fans of this genre might have found useful.