Die Buchse der Pandora
GER 133m Dir: GW Pabst Key Cast: Louise Brooks
Based on: Pandora's Box and Earth Spirit by Frank Wedekind (Plays)
As viewers we tend to connect with some films more than others. For some reason I just didn't 'get' Pandora's Box.
The film revolves around Lulu, a young woman with a raw sexuality and uninhibited nature. She basically goes around seducing people with no thought beyond the here and now and this approach to life leads to be wanted for murder and eventually murdered herself. Everyone she gets involved with is dragged down with her.
The main reason the film is respected appears to be the performance of Louise Brooks as Lulu. Brooks was an American actress taking on what was considered to be a very German character so she was heavily criticized at the time but her performance is great. She is hugely successful at being a seductress and often looks directly into the camera as if she's seducing you the viewer as much as the other characters.
In many ways this is a forward thinking film with a fair bit of sexuality for the time and some violence. It also unusually features a lesbian character, something which I would never have expected to see in the silent era but is very much welcome. Of course all this material was considered controversial at the time and so the film was heavily censored for it's international release.
I thought the ending of the film was excellent with Lulu coming into contact with Jack the Ripper. It's the earliest film I've seen which attempts to go into the mind of a killer, depicting Jack as someone who wants to stop killing but can't resist the temptation when he sees a knife. It feels like a fitting end to Lulu's story too, albeit a rather bleak one.
Not a film I connected with but I couldn't help but admire the mesmerizing central performance.
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