Pandora's Box - Criterion Collection Reviews

• The Highwater Mark Of German Silent Cinema.

  
  By A3QIW6ULPIPM2V on 2006-11-30
  This is not my personal opinion (I prefer F. W. Murnau's FAUST) but it is the general consensus regarding this groundbreaking adult film which made a screen icon out of Louise Brooks and assured G.W. Pabst his place in cinema history. The movie is based on two plays (EARTH SPIRIT and PANDORA'S BOX) by controversial German playwright Frank Wedekind who wrote them at the dawn of the 20th Century with the deliberate intent of shocking his middle class audience by talking bluntly about the consequences of sex, violence, and hypocrisy. Austrian composer Alban Berg would later use them as the source of his unfinished opera LULU.
  
  G.W. Pabst already had a reputation as a director of German neo-realism thanks to the 1925 Greta Garbo film THE JOYLESS STREET (influenced by D.W. Griffith's ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL of 1924). In the sound era he would make the film version of THE THREEPENNY OPERA (1931). PANDORA'S BOX mixes realism and German expressionism in equal amounts to tell the story of a naive dancer/prostitute and the tragedy she brings to everyone who tries to become close to her. It's amazing how Pabst saw something in Louise Brooks that no one else did and then brought it out so effectively onscreen. From the performances to the lighting, the editing and the camerawork, to the relentlessly downbeat mood, PANDORA'S BOX is a true landmark of the cinema (silent and sound) that anyone seriously interested in film should experience.
  
  Finally available in the U.S. on DVD, this Criterion 2 disc set is all that you could ask for. The print for its age (1928) looks great and you get the choice of 4 different background scores which show how important music is to silent cinema. Each one makes it a different viewing experience. My personal favorite is Peer Ruben's modern orchestral score although you also get classical, cabaret, and piano to choose from. It also comes with 2 documentaries on Louise Brooks, informed commentary, and a 90 page booklet. Now that's the way to treat a cinema classic!
  
  

• The best DVD release of 2006!!!

  
  By A1Z1NQJUJQ5CRO on 2006-12-02
  I recently received my copy of the newly released version of "Pandora's Box" from Criterion and I can honestly tell you this is my vote for THE best release of 2006,bar none!!
  To start with just picking this set up is impressive in itself!It comes in a handsome light and dark gray cardboard slip case almost an inch thick and inside it contains a two disk set absolutely loaded with fabulous and unexpectedly surprising extras AND a thick booklet!
  The two disc set itself has the nice light and dark gray theme carried on for IT'S covering.When you slip the DVD into your player the screen gives you the usual surround and stereo audio options.However it also gives you your pick of FOUR(yes FOUR!!)different scores in which to choose from when viewing the movie.This is totally unprecedented in my experience.The scores are piano,orchestral(an approximation of what the late 20s European theater goer might have experienced),cabaret(a light and whimsical small band style) and modern orchestral.All these choices are absolutely wonderful but my favourite is the piano.However just having these options in the first place helps place this collection right at the top of the heap.
  And if this wasn't enough film studies professor T.Elaessan and author Mary Ann Doanne together offer up a nice and very informative optional commentary on the film....one which I recommend at some point you give a listen to.And things don't stop there my friends!!
  Two wonderful documentaries are also included.First is one I had heard of but had never seen called "Lulu in Berlin" produced back in 1984 by Richard Leacock and Susan Woll.It's a delightful film and mainly revolves around an interview of Louise in her home in Rochester,N.Y. a few years earlier.This comes in at around 48 minutes.
  The other documentary is one that many Brooks fans will know that has come and gone on both DVD and VHS called "Louise Brooks:Looking for Lulu".That's right the self same documentary made by Hugh Hefner back in 1998 with commentary by Shirley MacLaine!!!This finishes in at about 60 minutes.
  If this hasn't put you flat on your back by now I'm going to execute the coup de'gras.There are also two other interviews included here.One is with Richard Leacock the co-producer of "Lulu in Berlin" and the other with G.W.Pabsts' son Michael.Criterion went back about a year ago and interviewed these two just for this upcoming collection!
  Next is the astounding and beautifully bound 98 page(from inside cover to inside cover) booklet.The booklet contains information relative to the movie plus three super articles.The first is by Village Voice film critic J.Hoberman,the second a reprint of Kenneth Tynans'article on Brooks "The Girl in the Black Helmet" first published in "Sight and Sound" magazine in June/79 and lastly Louises' own piece titled "Pabst and Lulu" taken from her own book "Lulu in Hollywood".The booklet throughout is lavishly illustrated.A great primer for the novice or a great read for the seasoned Brooksie fans!
  The only soft spot in this entire release is on the techincal side.Even though it could be considered minor or "picky" by some I think in all fairness it should be brought to your attention.The print itself I don't think is quite as good as it could have been.It is a composite print from the Munich Film Museum/Pabst Collection who's two main sources seem to be Nero and Janus films.When I saw Janus appear on the screen my heart sank because I have never known Janus to release anything but severely slashed and inferior product.In fact the 1986 VHS release by Embassy was a Janus print and it came in at about 110 minutes.
  The blurb in the included booklet reveals just a small portion of the restoration process on the print which included removing dust and dirt but that's about all.It's a shame the same care that was lavished on Kinos' "Metropolis" release(see my review on that) wasn't extended to this one because it would certainly have made a difference.While this print does show its' age with the usual scratches and streaks evident in many films of this era(maybe a bit more than I'd like!) the most disappointing defect however is the recurring problem of the film going in and out of focus periodically.This is usually a sign of film shrinkage and its' uneven traversing during processing.I have only seen prints of this film like this and was hoping that this release would somehow come from another superior source which would have no such problem.While the Munich Museum doesn't seem to have such a print in its' hands it certainly doesn't totally rule out its' existence.Having said that however I must admit that they certainly did the best they could with what they did have on hand and they have also released the longest print of Pandoras Box I have ever seen which comes in at two hours and 11 minutes!! All inter-titles are in German with English sub-titles.
  In conclusion Criterion,as usual,has gone the extra mile and delivered a product everyone at every level of its' issue can be proud of.The above mentioned technical flaw aside this release is to me without doubt the BEST release of 2006.This is a higher priced set to be sure as are most of Criterions' products but you can be sure that a Criterion product is a superior product and with all the extras you are getting in this release in many ways it is a steal.And it is a release that no serious collector should be without!
  
  

• Still fascinating today

  
  By A20EEWWSFMZ1PN on 2006-09-03
  The story is timeless and still holds your attention today. I was amazed as to how modern the film is its self. Probably the best know of G.W. Pabst's works. Being a film from the silent era gives this film a collector's value; yet five minutes into viewing and you do not realize it is silent.
  
  LuLu (Louise Brooks) an amoral entertainer in 1928 Berlin, is having fun taking men for all they have and snubbing those that may care for her. After moving to London she is still in the habit of entertaining men at her place. She is about to open Pandora's Box as she has no idea who she has lured up to her place.
  
  If you are looking for an ending with a moral statement you will be disappointed as it is more of a Quid pro quo.
  
  If it is not already included on the media you picked for this film there is an available separate documentary Produced in 1998 for Turner Classic Movies called "Looking for Lulu", narrated by Shirley MacLaine, which is almost as interesting as this film.
  
  
  

• One of a Kind Silent Film Star

  
  By A2LKJUO0CXBMKQ on 2006-10-11
  I bought Pandora's Box on VHS from Amazon some time ago and was impressed with Brook's subtle and disaffected but altogether timelessly erotic performance, made all the more amazing considering its great age (although Berlin in the late 1920s was totally unlike Hollywood, or even New York, in terms of liberal lifestyle). I had already seen Brooks' similar performance in Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), along with her charming flapper-girl-next-door appearance in The Show Off (1926). But I didn't really warm up to the actress until I read the engaging, articulate essays she had penned in the latter part of her fascinating life. In my opinion, her inciteful and thoroughly entertaining writing style confirms that she could have been both an extraordinarily successful actress and writer if she hadn't been what many have viewed as a self-destructive loner. However, Brooks consistently disdained fame, money, success and all the other outward prerequisites of conventional happiness in order to be a truly liberated human being. For better or worse, she succeeded in the effort, and expressed no regrets.
  
  It is all too easy to become infatuated with the ghost of Louise Brooks, who in my opinion is the most beautiful actress who ever lived. But to truly understand this person you'll want to read her essays (collected in "Lulu in Hollywood," with an introduction by Kenneth Tynan) along with Barry Paris' excellent book, "Louise Brooks - A Biography." Paris' 600-page biography of Brooks is a scholarly masterpiece -- comprehensive, well researched, and brilliantly provocative, and I guarantee that you will know Brooks personally when you have finished reading it.
  
  As a Christian, I cannot recommend the lifestyle Brooks advocated and led. But if you (like me) love silent films and are fascinated with the impossibly-distant world of the 1920s, I think you'll find that Louise Brooks epitomizes both more than any other star of that era.
  
  As for the 2-disc DVD set, it's simply great. The digitally remastered Pandora's Box is the best I've seen to date, and the four separate musical scores really add to the film. The filmed interview with Brooks late in her life is worth the DVD's price alone. This and the many other extras make Pandora's Box a fantastic bargain and a treasured addition to any silent film collection.
  
  

• LEGENDARY CLASSSIC FINALLY ON DVD.....

  
  By A1GF7BR6K22GZD on 2006-09-03
  This film is a must for silent film lovers and connoiseurs of film in general. G.W.Pabst directed and co-scripted a mesmerizing story (based on two plays) and filmed it in Germany with the stunning American actress Louise Brooks. She plays Lulu, a beautiful child/woman who doesn't understand the effect (and destruction) her open sexuality has on those around her. Considered daring in it's day, "Pandora's Box" still carries the emotional and sexual charge it did in 1928, thanks to Brook's striking beauty and performance and Pabst's straight-on directing of the story and it's subject matter---including a Lesbian countess who also falls for and helps Lulu when she's arrested for murder. Lulu is more or less an innocent in that she sees nothing wrong with sex therefore she can't understand the problems she unwittingly causes because others take her seriously and seek to possess her. Criterion is presenting a two disc set of this legendary film and it's been a long time coming. See also Pabst's other excellent German silent with Brooks made the following year (1929) "Diary of a Lost Girl", available from Kino. It's a fine companion piece to "Pandora" with Brooks playing another beautiful and misunderstood waif who ends up in a bordello. Both are collector's items and deserve viewing by modern audiences who are interested in the evolution of film as art.
  
  
• Pabst Revisited
  By AJEML4EIUM0MS on 2006-11-12
  G.W. Pabst is perhaps the most underrated of all the early German film makers. Unlike his contemporaries, Lang and von Stenberg, Pabts never successfully transitioned to Hollywood and was declared a traitor for creating films under the Nazi regime, although he would continue to make films in Germany for the rest of his life. Pabst was not a political man, but a great auteur able to capture the condition of social exile within the changing culture of his time. Based on the controversial plays by Wedekind, Lulu is Pabst's towering masterpiece. She is a symbol of tradition battling modernity, the emergence of the New Woman, the corruption of the old European establishment after WWI and most important, the outsider who is devoured by the forces of legitimate policy and law. However, Lulu is no martyr. She represents the threat of the marginal and its ability to creep into the fragile constructed social reality. She exposes the weakness of this aparatus and lives on as image in the mind of the viewer. Like Pabst, Lulu rises above the compressing political and cultural views of the times, the people and the regimes that followed to become one of early cinema's most potent icons.
  
  
• Pabst's Unblinking Look at Weimar Germany Embodied by the Iconic Brooks
  By A13E0ARAXI6KJW on 2007-02-06
  There is no argument that Louise Brooks was a galvanizing presence during her relatively brief movie career, and no one knew how better to capture her mercurial personality and timeless beauty than German director G.W. Pabst. Certainly the deluxe royal treatment given this silent classic in the double-disc 2006 Criterion Collection DVD package would portend a masterpiece, but due to a combination of factors, the 1929 film just misses its mark. Part of the challenge is the deliberate pacing and extensive 133-minute running time. Based on two plays by Frank Wedekind, "Erdgeist" and "Die Büchse der Pandora", the screenplay by Pabst, Joseph Fleisler and Ladislaus Vajda is refreshingly frank in its treatment of sexual ambiguity and promiscuity and provides intriguing insight into the social decadence of Weimar Germany. At the same time, the film keeps its epic length focused on the whims and travails of an amoral, rather unsympathetic showgirl/prostitute named Lulu, and the net effect can be somewhat enervating in spite of the potent combination of Pabst's creative vision and Brooks' charisma.
  
  The plot begins with Lulu leading a comfortable life as the mistress of newspaper mogul Dr. Peter Schön. A vivacious and unapologetic flirt, she also tantalizes Schön's naïve son Alwa and the mannish Countess Geschwitz, but she becomes determined to marry Peter when he announces his engagement to the respectable daughter of a government official. As she readies to take the stage in a musical revue, she jealously throws a temper tantrum to prevent Peter from marrying, an overlong episode that exposes his lustful feelings for Lulu in front of his fiancée. Through this twist of fate, Lulu becomes socially prominent, but fate deals harshly with her as she is arrested for murder and sentenced to prison. She manages to escape to a gambling boat where shorn of her famous pageboy bob, she is blackmailed and then winds up walking the streets of London where she eventually meets her destiny.
  
  As Lulu, the stunning Brooks is credible as a tart though not quite to the Shakespearean degree demanded by the story. She has moments of enigmatic power when Pabst's vision becomes palpable, but she never quite transcends the tawdry dimensions of the story. Her severe coquettish look has inspired subsequent generations of actresses from Liza Minnelli in "Cabaret" to Drew Barrymore in "Fever Pitch". The supporting cast is filled with typically excessive performances, in particular, Carl Goetz as the gargoyle-like pimp Schigolch and Alice Roberts as the smitten Countess. The expressionistic look of the film adds invaluably to the story's emotionalism thanks to Günther Krampf's striking cinematography and Andrej Andrejew and Gottlieb Hesch's modernist sets. The first disc has a satisfactory print with some overexposure evident at key moments.
  
  There is an informative if rather academic commentary track by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Anne Doane. You can listen to their comments or select among four different musical scores (although the orchestral accompaniment tends to be too overpowering). On the second disc are three solid documentaries - an hour-long 1998 TCM biography, "Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu", narrated by Shirley MacLaine; a new feature, "Shadow of My Father", where Pabst's son Michael discusses his father's idiosyncratic filmmaking techniques; and a fascinating 48-minute interview with a particularly tough-minded Brooks produced a year before her death in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll. The best extra is the 98-page booklet which includes noted film writer Kenneth Tynan's 1979 New Yorker essay, "The Girl with the Black Helmet", which launched Brooks' renaissance.
  
  
• Louise Brooks didn't need Technicolor or sound....
  By AOSIEAVE18JCA on 2007-02-10
  G.W. Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX is not a perfect film. It's not even close to perfect. By contemporary tastes, it is too long and too slow. But none of that matters because this is the movie that made Hollywood rebel Louise Brooks a timeless, international film icon.
  
  Norma Desmond's line in SUNSET BLVD (1950)--"We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!"--could have been written with Louise Brooks of Cherryvale, Kansas, in mind. Her face, like an object of Art Deco, framed with the "black helmet" hairdo, was perfectly symmetrical, a face no camera could catch from a bad angle even if it tried. On film, her use of that face--or, rather, how Pabst used it in PANDORA--is endlessly fascinating. The line of her profile is extraordinary. Her eyes can flash from flirty to fatal with the bat of a lash. Her expressions, whether pouty, seductive or simply blank--onto which the viewer can write anything--are ample evidence that Louise Brooks was born for a love affair with the lens. While Brooks and Hollywood never hit it off, that face and the camera hit it off right away.
  When you watch Brooks in PANDORA'S BOX, you are a voyeur, watching a great love affair between a camera and a soul.
  
  Blessed with beauty beyond measure, Brooks said, perhaps because of that beauty, that she was seen "in Hollywood...(as) a pretty little flibbertigibbet whose charm for the executive department decreased with every increase in my fan mail." Savagely nonconformist--after appearing in 13 movies within the studio system that were, to her keenly intelligent mind, no more than fluff--she walked out on Paramount chief Budd Schulberg. She left for Germany in response to director G.W. Pabst's call to star her in PANDORA'S BOX.
  Leaving Hollywood behind, she crossed an ocean and walked into screen history.
  "In Berlin," Brooks would later say,"I stepped to the station platform to meet Mr. Pabst and became an actress."
  
  It was, she said, "as if Mr. Pabst had sat in on my whole life and career and knew exactly where I needed assurance and protection."
  
  The result of that assurance and protection is on the screen in aces. With skin of alabaster---as if illuminated from within---Brooks is Lulu, the good-time girl, the prostitute who flits from affair to affair, blending ammorality and innocence, blithely unaware of the tragedies she leaves in her wake. That is, until her world crumbles. Convicted of murder, she flees the courtroom in the ensuing fracas. From there, we follow her to the final moments of her life. Brooks herself described the final scene in PANDORA'S BOX this way: "It is Christmas Eve, and she is about to receive the gift that has been her dream since childhood: death by a sexual maniac."
  
  When the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris held a Louise Brooks retrospective in 1955, founder Henri Langlois, standing in front of a huge banner emblazoned with Brooks's image, exclaimed to the crowd: "There is no Garbo. There is no Dietrich. There is only Louise Brooks!"
  
  Many have asked whether Louise Broooks was a great artist or only a dazzling creature whose beauty traps the viewer into attributing complexities to her of which she is unaware? But complex she was and that projects onto the screen as well. A reader of Schopenhauer, Proust and other writers rarely found in the bookcases of Hollywood stars, she also is said to have had a marvelous voice and could have returned to Hollywood in the age of sound pictures and had a glorious career. But she grew tired of making movies---"tired of doing the same thing over and over"---and made her last film at the age of 32.
  
  She devoted her later years to painting and writing essays on Hollywood with a frankness of opinion, a lucidity in her observation of people and a habit of speaking her mind with total candor. But she finally gave up her writing; without mincing words, she wrote to a friend on a Christmas card: "I shall write no more. Writing the truth for readers nourished on publicity rubbish is a useless exercise."
  
  
  
  
  
• Pandora's Box
  By A34D06JL7LC6MU on 2007-01-28
  I'm still relatively new to silent film. I've only seen 3 silent films (City Lights, The Gold Rush, and Broken Blossoms), this being my 4th, and I've yet to get used to the surreal style and lack of dialogue that they contain. "Pandora's Box" was a film made during the days of German expressionism with an American actress named Louise Brooks and it is, I can safely say, a great film. The Criterion Collection did a fantastic job with the DVD, so you're probably wondering...Why three stars? Some movies you need to see more than once and maybe I need to see this film again. But right now, it's just not a film that clicked with me. The film is, as I said, a silent film and like all silent film it's got intertitles. This movie is almost entirely told through images. There is, technically, a lot of intertitles but for a movie that runs 2 hours and 13 minutes...There's few. Brooks plays Lulu, a woman who may or may not be a prostitute. The movie leaves it up to us to make our own judgements. The films terrific opening involves Lulu talking to her meter reader when Schigolch shows up. Schigolch is an old man, who Lulu claims is her father, but seems like he may be her pimp as well. While Schigolch is there, another man named Schon arrives. He's about to be married and tells Lulu that he wishes to break off their relationship. The man is depressed and is even more depressed when he discovers Schigolch hiding behind the furniture with a bottle. Even though this is only the first scene, I'm not going to divulge much more of the plot other than the rest of the movie slowly moves along as we see more and more of Lulu's misadventures. She gets sentenced to a prison term, she's almost sold to an Egyptian, and finally meets her demise at the hands of what appears to be Jack the Ripper. Brooks is an absolute wonder of an actress. I don't think I would've stayed with this film if not for her. She doesn't look like she belongs in this film, the way most actresses of that period look as if they could be nowhere else. Brooks looks completely modern, Roger Ebert himself remarked that she (I'm paraphrasing) looks like "Winona Ryder or Demi Moore digitally transplanted into old scenes." That's fairly accurate. She's got that shining black helmet of hair and that porcelain skin, that really makes her look timeless. She makes this film great. As I said, this is a great film. I acknowledge that and I enjoyed several parts of the movie. Problem was, I just really couldn't get into it. I kept asking myself "when is this going to end?" As I said, I've only seen 3 other silent films and maybe I need to see more before I'm able to completely enjoy one. This "review" is used only to express my opinion and not to sway your judgement one way or the other. If you want to seek it out go ahead. If you don't. Don't.
  
  GRADE: C+
  
  
• Louise Brooks Was Something Else
  By A214CH9J48HOSY on 2006-10-03
  I am delighted that Criterion is doing the dvd edition as it
  will be done right. Anything they do shows touches of excellence. Brooks was simply fabulous as the wanton Lulu
  who is out to have a good time no matter what. The extras
  promised on the dvd include LULU IN BERLIN which was Brooks
  herself talking about Hollywood and an excellent documentary
  that ran on TCM and was narrated by Shirley MacLaine. Christmas is coming early.
  
  
• Another silent classic
  By AI0OAQ6E2O8VF on 2007-01-18
  This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film
  
  Pandora's Box released in Germany as Die Büchse der Pandora is a classic film from the German silent era starring the American dancer and silent film star Louise Brooks.
  
  It is the story of a showgirl and prostitute who tries to start a career.
  
  As the film's original score has been lost, four new ones were created for this DVD release there are two orchestral scores, a cabaret score, and improvised piano solo.
  
  The special two disc set contains some fine special features.
  
  Disc one contains the filn with it's four soundtracks and audio commentary by film scholars, Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane.
  
  Disc two contains a photo gallery, 1998 documentary on the life of Louise Brooks titled "Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu", a 1971 Interview with Louise Brooks, and new interviews with Brooks documentarian, Richard Leacock and director G.W. Pabst's son Michael. Also included is a booklet of other material.
  
  
• Pandora's Box - The Criterion Collection DVD Set
  By A3V3MJG0DMGWZI on 2007-01-09
  The film is much cleaner and easier to follow with the new subtitle cards. The only complaint I have about it is the absence of the hauntingly beautiful piano music score from the Kino VHS release by Stuart Oderman.
  
  Mr. Oderman's score completely conveys the darkness and hopelessness of the film with his haunting score. This score compliments this film in the same way as the score for the film "The Piano" did. I don't understand why Criterion didn't make it a part of the DVD release.
  
  
  
• Die Bücshe der Pandora
  By A1T3O2LILVK0C4 on 2008-07-28
  Georg Wilhelm Pabst's 1929 film Pandora's Box is a masterful melodrama. Based on Frank Wedekind's character Lulu, Pandora's Box is a classic of German cinema detailing the life and downward spiral of a sexually vivacious yet innocent young woman. The original plays (Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box) which served as inspiration, were vast and rambling accounts of Lulu's many relationships. G.W. Pabst felt that theatregoers would lose interest in what would have been for the time a terribly long film, so screenwriter Ladislaus Vajda greatly edited the original stories. Rather than focusing on Lulu's multiple relationships, Vajda uses those with Dr. Schön and his son, Alwa as the principal examples of Lulu's unintentionally destructive sexual appetite. However the eroticism of the film isn't ever directly shown, rather it is implied through longing glances, physical gestures and even in the costume design.
  
  The film tells the story of Lulu, an irrepressible and irresistible young woman, who inadvertently uses her naïve sexual charms to seduce men into giving her what she wants. Though, she is clearly aware of her affect on men (and women), Lulu is oblivious to the disastrous consequences that her unrestrained affection causes. At first her flirtations help her to get ahead and Lulu is given a part in a musical revue, but when one of her lovers, Dr. Schön, tries to kill her in order to keep their affair a secret, he is accidentally killed instead. Lulu must flee the country or else suffer the legal penalty. She spends time on a gambling barge where Dr. Schön's son looks after her, but he has developed a serious gambling habit and they are being blackmailed. A man who knows of Lulu's identity says that he will inform the German authorities of her whereabouts if they do not pay him. After Alwa is caught cheating in a card game, trying to win the money, there is a riot and the boat catches fire and all aboard are evacuated. Alwa and Lulu end up in London where she becomes a prostitute and on Christmas, out of charity, she offers herself to a handsome stranger. This man turns out to be a conflicted killer (Jack the Ripper, in fact) and he murders Lulu. The irony being that Lulu in life was selfish in giving herself away to men and accepting their tokens of affection, all the while their lives fell apart and now Lulu gives herself away out of charity and she pays the price. But it is ultimately this final act that redeems her.
  
  When the film was released it was unfairly criticized. German audiences were outraged that an American actress was playing the quintessentially German Lulu, and most critics felt the film to be emotionally shallow and the story to be disjointed. Only recently has Pandora's Box become so beloved by critics and film historians. The main reason for its current success is the rediscovery of Louise Brooks' naturalistic performance. One must remember that during the silent age many actors were stiff and gave forced performances while Louise Brooks was effortless and breezy, a true breath of fresh air.
  
  The 2006 Criterion Collection edition is spectacular. The film has never looked so sharp nor sounded so good. Included are four different musical scores* and an excellent audio commentary. Also included is a fascinating book about Louise Brooks and the making of the film, a documentary by Hugh Munro Neely, a lengthy interview with Brooks, an interview with Pabst's son and a photo gallery. Overall this 2-disc Special Edition set is a must-have for fans of silent cinema.
  
  * = The six audio tracks are:
  1. & 2. Orchestral Score by Gillian Anderson (in both stereo and surround)
  3. Cabaret Score by Dimitar Pentchev
  4. Modern Orchestral Score by Peer Raben
  5. Piano Improvisation by Stéphan Oliva
  6. Audio commentary with film historians Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Anne Doane
  
  Also recommended:
  Secrets of a Soul
  Diary of a Lost Girl
  Lulu in Hollywood
  Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever
  
  
• TEN STARS
  By A27D5EVE277NP on 2007-01-15
  I bought this because I saw it on IFC channel when they showed Janus films every Tuesday. The movie is absolutely great. The Disc 2 extras which includes a TCM film about 60 min. on Louise Brooks life and career. The best part is an interview with Louise and film clips. Lulu in Berlin is also on the disc. On Disc 1 is the movie and commentary on it. A must buy. Louise Brooks is an icon. Once you see her on screen you will see why.
  
  
• "A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world." Louise Brooks
  By A2BPDFR58H9575 on 2007-11-19
  The silent black/white film made back in 1928 by G.W. Pabst is a beautiful striking gem of German Expressionism that was released by Criterion in 2006 as a wonderful set of two discs. The film comes with four musical scores, each offering its own interpretation of "Pandora Box". I decided to go with "Cabaret Score" and was not disappointed. Composed by Dimitar Pentchev, the score sets the film in a Weimar-era (1920s) cabaret, incorporates elements of popular European music of that time with the contemporary techniques of presenting it. The set also features a biographical documentary about Louise Brooks and her career that began in dancing and took her to Hollywood first, and then to Europe where she had made "Pandora's Box" for which she will be remembered as long as the movies exist.
  
  "Pandora's Box" is a screen adaptation of the play "Lulu" from expressionist playwright Franz Wedekind and it follows a showgirl named Lulu, charming, amoral yet childishly playful, innocent, and absolutely irresistible for every character in the movie, both male and female. On the road of self-destruction, Lulu unintentionally causes downfall and tragedy for every man she meets and eventually she will arrive to London just in time for a Christmas Party in a company of Jack the Ripper.. In the Pabst's film, which is a perfect modern realization of the ancient Pandora's myth, Louise Brooks plays Lulu as "a beautiful evil", "all-gifted" perfect woman-child desirable by every man (and woman), and unaware of the disastrous effects of her sex appeal. 22 years old Brooks, a native Texan, a trained dancer turned actress is extraordinary as Lulu. She made the part of Lulu her own, mixing in the performance great acting abilities and rare instinct. The 133 minutes long film is surprisingly modern, complex, controversial, and fast-moving. It's got many memorable scenes and performances. Louise Brooks' performance under G.W. Pabst's inspiring directing makes the film a real cinematic treasure and perhaps the sexiest movie ever made. You don't have to take my words for granted - just watch the film.
  
  
  
• Criterion's "Pandora's Box" Release is Absolutely Superb
  By A396VJ1TZFVUH0 on 2007-01-11
  Not only is this the restored, 133 minute original version, but it comes with a selection of four music scores from which to choose for accompaniment and an optional discussion by two scholars commenting on the film as it progresses if you like. There is an extraordinary video interview with Louise Brooks, a video biography of her and Kenneth Tynan's original 1979 "New Yorker" article "The Girl in the Black Helmet" in a little book along with two other articles one of which is by Louise Brooks herself. The content of everything is marvellous and has made viewing this film an unending delight for me. This is truly a classic rendition of an all time classic film and a must for the collection of any lover of the cinema.
  
  
• lulu at the mall
  By A22UNKKBP75RV6 on 2007-05-26
  as a product the ctiterion edition is tops;great hi-def dvd,truly interesting and informational 2nd desk,and a booklet with fine essays by real film writers.which leads me to the one big flaw;the commentary by Elaessan and Doanne could put a classroom full of ADHD teenagers to sleep.they dont offer anything we dont learn from the 2nd dvd or the booklet,and even less on Pabst.they constanly drift into lame primative marxist analysis or even worse bickering over how many heads of LuLu can you fit into a cocktail glass,during the most exquisite scenes in the film.after listening to the excellant commentary on such critierion editions as the recent Ugetsu and the Ingmar Bergman films,this was a real disappointment.as for the multi tracked sound choices;i just put on the new Soulsavers cd and cranked it up.
  
  
• Interesting, but mainly for silent film buffs and Louise Brooks fans
  By A1S1JC7LTBZAH2 on 2008-03-15
  I have to at least mildly dissent from the overwhelming number of rave reviews. This is certainly not a DVD that should be purchased by the casual film fan. It falls into the "interesting, rather than entertaining" category. The plot is convoluted, implausible, and difficult to follow. You definitely want to watch it with the commentary turned on to help you figure out what is going on. (By the way, this is the first time I've listened to a film commentary where the two film critics have significant differences of opinion about the meaning of the film.) To enjoy the film you have to appreciate the way the scenes were set up and the images were composed, more or less ignoring the plot and the overwrought acting. To some extent I could do this (with the help of the commentators), but the film has deteriorated to the point where many of the images are somewhat cloudy and obscured. A pristine print - probably impossible - would greatly improve the watchability of this film. There is no denying that Louise Brooks was beautiful and tremendously alluring, but at more than two hours, this film was definitely heavy sledding for me.
  
  By the way, [SPOILER ALERT] I don't understand why the serial killer who murders LuLu at the end of the film is referred to as "Jack the Ripper." The two commentators on the DVD make this reference, as does the Amazon critic. But the serial killer in this film is clearly not Jack the Ripper. The film is set in London in 1928 and Jack the Ripper lived in the 1880s. No one in the film refers to the killer by name. I guess at some point, a critic must have decided that since it's London and the guy is a serial killer, he must have been intended to be Jack the Ripper.
  
  
  
• mesmerizing... magical...
  By ABH4G7TVI6G2T on 2008-04-20
  One of the last great works of the silent cinema, G.W. Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX was cruelly-ignored and dismissed by both audiences and critics upon it's original release in 1929. It wasn't until the George Eastman House revived the movie in the 1950s' that it finally started to receive it's full recognition--and resurrected it's luminous star Louise Brooks from an impoverished, destitute existence in New York in the process.
  
  Based on two separate German plays written by Frank Wedekind ("Der Erdgeist" and "Die Büchse der Pandora"), Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a beautiful young dancer, full of life and vitality, and with a special talent in luring respectable men to ruin. Lulu is involved with an older newspaper magnate, Schön (Fritz Kortner), despite his engagement to another woman. Their affair blows wide open when his fiancee discovers them in a very compromising position; and Schön is forced to marry Lulu in order to avoid a scandal. On their wedding night, Schön tries to force Lulu to shoot herself, but in the ensuing struggle it's Schön who ends up dead, and Lulu is sentenced to five years in prison. Her friends create a distraction in the courtroom and Lulu flees the country with a "borrowed" passport. Accompanied by Schön's son Alwa (Franz Lederer), Lulu runs to London where her ultimate downfall is just around the corner...
  
  Louise Brooks, with her shiny black bobbed hair and lithe dancer's body, was the ultimate 1920s jazz baby, a hoofer from the Midwest who never wanted to become a movie star, but unwittingly created one of the most haunting characters in movie history with Lulu in PANDORA'S BOX. Brooks made only a handful of movies (most of her early silents have sadly been lost forever), but we can be thankful PANDORA's BOX is still here, as vibrant and as vital as it was when first released back in '29.
  
  PANDORA'S BOX is filled with lots of haunting imagery, the provocative storyline genuinely shocked audiences of the times (the film was heavily-edited following it's American debut). Perhaps most importantly, it preserves the heady atmosphere of pre-war Weimar Berlin, just a few short years before Hitler took power. According to sources, Pabst was just about to sign a young unknown called Marlene Dietrich until Brooks (in self-imposed exile from Hollywood) became available for the part.
  
  If you're a fan of silent cinema, PANDORA'S BOX will be an essential title. If you want to start exploring the slender catalogue of Louise Brooks films, it's a great place to start.
  
  
• The Fascination of Louise Brooks
  By A16FZ4XGAJVF87 on 2007-03-19
  This Criterion edition is an excellent presentation of the film (Kino offers the other film by Pabst and Brooks, "Diary of a Lost Girl") and its context. In addition, the two finest profiles of Louise Brooks are included in the set, "Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu," and "Lulu in Berlin." Plenty to enjoy.
  
  
• Great Movie
  By A1B2GTBT0VABBD on 2007-05-13
  As a growing fan of the silent film genre, I greatly enjoyed this movie. It has some very interesting scenes for the time in which it was filmed, I thought it was very well made and entertaining.
  
  
• the great Louise Brooks in a film by Pabst
  By A2RFG9LI7JDILS on 2008-02-07
  The criterion release of Pandora's Box must be applauded first and foremost by the impressive restoration.. this is a film from 1929.. and I i had to keep reminding myself that as I was watching it... The criterion transfer looks better than many films from the 50's and 60's and is also given the usual treatment with fine extras and packaging.. very much worth the price...
  
  The film itself was very satisfying.. I was very impressed with Louise Brooks acting and Pabst's direction while not as dynamic as Fritz Lang had a certain subtlety particularly in the final foggy london scenes.. but also with the earlier character scenes in Loulou's apartment which I was very impressed with... I am not as familiar with silent film as I should be... but I can say one thing - I was moved more than most sound films by this one... it proves the value of image once again...
  
  I would recommend this as a fine criterion release...and it is a movie which just about any viewer can connect with in some way...
  
  
• The Best Silent Film
  By AN22C8FECEEDG on 2007-06-07
  A great silent film. I highly recommend it. also, see "Lulu On The Bridge", a 1999 movie with references to this film.
  
  
• Pandora's Box
  By A10ODC971MDHV8 on 2007-06-20
  Tawdry, decadent, and unflinching in its portrait of the moral depravity of the Weimar republic, Pabst's bewitching "Box" might not be remembered today if it weren't for the dark charm of Brooks, one of the silent era's most erotic and stunningly sensual sirens. Playing a flirty cabaret dancer who eventually turns to prostitution to survive in dreary London, Brooks is nothing short of thrilling with her flapper-girl bob and come-hither expressiveness. Pabst surrounds his sympathetic victim-heroine with a leering old codger, a conflicted society man, and even a lesbian admirer, whom she uses to her advantage. But Lulu's light is dimmed by a fateful encounter with Jack the Ripper. Open up "Box" for a haunting risqué take on Jazz Age libertinism.
  
  
• Va va voom!
  By A3359WMAGPH680 on 2007-10-08
  Magic mirror on the wall
  Who is the fairest one of all?
  
  The mirror, with a convoluted sense of humor, (and presumably drunk), responds:
  
  
  Louise brooks nary a rival
  (Louise Brooks, brooks (to put up with) nary (not a one) rival)
  Any pretender will she stifle! (Stifle rhymes with rival? Well, kinda...)
  
  At any rate, Louise Brooks and Snow White's stepmother, (the queen),
  have a lot in common, i.e., they both metamorphosed from great beauties into
  ugly old hags. The Criterion Collection offers ample proof of this. In Pandora's Box,
  Louise Brooks appears beautiful, sensual, and vivacious. Alas, in her later years
  she is a startling train wreck of her former self. But, getting back to Pandora's Box, she
  outshines everyone else in the film like a nova. The dismal pathos so prevalent in
  german cinematography of the day, is smacked into smithereens by the radiant effulgence of Brooks.
  In the movie, her lover, a rich tycoon, slouches all over the place, his head hung in quiet despair.
  Ah, pain! Ah, angst! Aw, nuts! All the while Brooks laughs her infectious, salacious laugh,
  skimping merrily to and fro. Enjoying this wondrous woman is an experience not to be
  forgotten.
  
  
  
• The Girl in the Black Helmet
  By A1A535W556ROBQ on 2007-10-23
  You have to love silent movies and Weimar movies in particular to enjoy what a treat Pandora's Box is. It was a stroke of good fortune for G.W. Pabst to land Louise Brooks, the hottest actress in her day, for this cinematic version of Frank Wedekind's Lulu Plays. The plays were notorious in their day for bringing the more seedy aspects of German life to the stage. Pabst tones down the subject matter in a well crafted film that put Louise Brooks front and center as Lulu. It is hard to accept her as a femme fatale, more a victim of circumstance, in these 8 acts that develop the tragic life of a showgirl, who goes from riches to rags. Brooks had essentially walked out on Hollywood as the industry was shifting from silent movies to talkies, drawn to Berlin in the 1920's. Her trademark haircut had become the rage of the Art Deco era, and this film immortalized her.
  
  Criterion has packaged this set beautifully with two DVD's that also include numerous musical scores, commentaries and insightful interviews. There is a nice booklet that comes with the set that offers various critical reviews as well as photos. A super treat for anyone with an interest in this golden era of moviemaking.
  
  
• Pandora's Box - Criterion Collection
  By A3BWFLDJSOKAMR on 2007-12-29
  Hard to imagine there is anything more to know about Pandora's Box than this Criterion issue offers. The best special feature is an incredible confessional piece from Pandora herself.
  
  
• A Great Compilation
  By A57JIBFWM3L0H on 2008-07-11
  Not only do you get the classic Pabst film, Pandora's Box, but you get it with a choice of background music; a wonderful booklet, "Reflections on Pandora's Box", containing screenshots from the film and illuminating articles by Kenneth Tynan (who had an interesting relationship with Ms. Brooks in her last years) and an article by Louise Brooks herself; and a bonus DVD which includes the TCM biographical documentary "Looking for Lulu", as well as a rare filmed interview made in 1971 with Louise Brooks, and an interview with Pabst's son.
  
  Pandora's Box was the first of 2 German films Louise Brooks made for G.W. Pabst. She was a fairly well established silent screen actress before that, but in Pandora's Box, Pabst made her into an icon of innocent sexuality. In this film she is absolutely radiant..the sun which draws several men into her orbit, with tragic consequences for them, and ultimately, for herself. Louise Brooks does not act the part of Lulu. She is Lulu incarnate, and in interviews readily admits it. Pabst at one point, even told her that if she didn't reign in her personal life and take her career seriously, she would suffer the same fate as Lulu. Aside from Brooks' performance, the film was groundbreaking in it's depiction of a dissolute Weimar Republic Germany, a society drowning in it's own vice and corruption, and in it's (for the time) bold approach to both heterosexual and homosexual relations.
  
  Louise Brooks was that rare individual, who marched to the beat of her own drummer. A woman of rare beauty, intelligence, and keen wit, who epitomized the uninhibited, independent woman of the Roaring 20s. A woman who wouldn't play by Hollywood's rules, and as a result, essentially ruined her career as an actress. Later in life, she gave us a glimpse into that brilliant mind by becoming a writer for various magazines and film journals.
  
  This Criterian package would make a great gift for any film buff. The movie, book, commentaries, and tributes help establish the place of Louise Brooks in the pantheon of great talents of the 20th century.
  
  
  
  
• Pandora's Box
  By A3BQXNP89JOYE0 on 2007-07-06
  Not yet received. What happened? (I have seen this excellent film in the past.)
  
  Steven Heiblim
  
  
• The magic is still here after all these years.
  By A1ET8SZ6FNUH1F on 2007-08-08
  G.W. Pabst's masterwork of seduction, betrayal and social degradation is as real today as it was in 1929. No wonder this film has had so much to do made over it. The Criterion DVD release is excellent considering the age of the original film. Louise Brooks is simply amazing. Her appeal jumps off the screen as if she is not only seducting the characters on the screen but the viewer as well. Bravo Criterion for giving us this excellent package. Worth twice the price.
  
  

• The Conformist (Extended Edition)
• TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 (Waterloo Bridge [1931] / Baby Face / Red-Headed Woman)
• Diary of a Lost Girl
• The Double Life of Veronique - Criterion Collection
• Ace in the Hole - Criterion Collection