G. W. Pabst

Pandora’s Box

Pandora’s Box

One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). 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 she comes in contact with. Daring and stylish, Pandora's Box is one of silent cinema's great masterworks and a testament to Brooks's dazzling individuality.

Film Info

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

Special 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
  • Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a 60-minute documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley
  • Lulu in Berlin (1971), a rare interview with Louise Brooks by vérité documentarian Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll
  • Interviews with Leacock, about Brooks, and Michael Pabst, the director's son
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Stills gallery
  • PLUS: Kenneth Tynan's 1979 essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet," an article by Louise Brooks on her relationship with Pabst, and a new essay by critic J. Hoberman

    New cover by Michael Boland

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

Special 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
  • Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a 60-minute documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley
  • Lulu in Berlin (1971), a rare interview with Louise Brooks by vérité documentarian Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll
  • Interviews with Leacock, about Brooks, and Michael Pabst, the director's son
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Stills gallery
  • PLUS: Kenneth Tynan's 1979 essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet," an article by Louise Brooks on her relationship with Pabst, and a new essay by critic J. Hoberman

    New cover by Michael Boland
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 fiancee
Gustav Diessl
Jack
Credits
Director
G. W. Pabst
Based on a play by
Frank Wedekind
Screenplay
Ladislaus Vajda
Cinematography
Gunther Krampf
Producer
Heinz Landsmann
Editing
Joseph Fleisler
Art direction
Andrej Andrejew
Art direction
Gottlieb Hesch

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