Pandora's Box (1929) Die Büchse der Pandora [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Writers: Frank Wedekind (plays), Ladislaus Vajda (scenario)
Stars: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer

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.




Score #1: Orchestral Score (Stereo) - This is silent-film music specialist Gillian Anderson's approximation of what a European 'cinema palace' orchestra might have played for the film
Score #2: Cabaret Score - Composer Dimitar Pentchev created this whimsical, innovative score in the style of Weimar-era cabaret
Score #3: Modern Orchestral Score - One of the most prolific composers of the German cinema, Peer Raben, best known for his work with Rainer Werner Rassbinder, presents a more updated take on Pandora's Box
Score #4: Piano Improvisation - Stephan Oliva performs this pensive, impressionistic piano score.

Commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane (in English only)

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