In short, this film is about the rise and fall of Lulu, an a-moral and a somewhat naive young woman. Her carefree and erotic appearance has a lustful and destructive effect on everyone who comes in her neighborhood.
I spent two hours and twelve minutes watching the fantastic performances of all actors and actresses involved in this production. Louise Brooks, in the role of Lulu, acts very naturally. A reviewer said, when the film came out, the emotions were sometimes difficult to read from her face. Also, all other actors and actresses stay away from the big gestures that were so common in the silent movie period. Only Fritz Kortner's death scene is somewhat over the top.
Louise Brooks en Fritz Kortner
Lulu has a great appeal to me. That's not just because she's very pretty, that too, but mostly, I dare to say it's because she lives the way she wants it, regardless of what others think of her or what effect she has on others. She is self-centered and manipulative yes, but at a time when a shrinking morale prevailed, I must admire her because she seems the only one that is completely free.
Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind wrote the original story and Ladislaus Vajda made it a scenario. I think it's a story that is still standing today. It might have become a dated melodrama in the hands of another director, but director Georg Wilhelm Pabst shows that Lulu is very well able to take care of herself.
Alice Roberts and Louise Brooks
Not only was Lulu's sexual unrestrained behavior shocking in 1929, the year that Pandora's Box played into the cinemas, but in this film was also the first appearance of a lesbian. Brooks said that Alice Roberts, who was playing this lesbian, found out on the set that her character was a lesbian and did not want to play her at all. Pabst persuaded her by standing next to the camera so that Roberts could play her flirting scenes to him. Nevertheless, you may notice that she is uncomfortable with the character she has to play.
Asta Nielsen as Lulu
What not many people know is that an other film of Pandora Box was already made before this iconic version in 1921 with Asta Nielsen in the role of Lulu. A musical and various plays of this story also had already been made. Pabst took from these earlier versions what he liked, making his own unique story and made an even iconic star of Louise Brooks. Never in the whole film history is an actor so identified with a role as Louise Brooks with Lulu. She was so right for the part because she not only had something innocent about herself, but she was also able to project sexuality, without coyness or premeditation. Brooks almost didn’t get the part. Brooks was Pabst's first choice, but because she was still under contract in America, Pabst had offered the role to Marlène Dietrich. Dietrich was already waiting in Pabst's office to sign the contract when Pabst received a phone call from America that Brooks had broken her contract and wanted to take on Lulu's role. Pabst happy Brooks happy, Dietrich was perhaps disappointed, but that would not be too long because in the following year she would play another iconic role, that of Lola in 'Der Blaue Engel'.
Marlène Dietrich in Der Blaue Engel
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