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Pandoras Box
Background Information: Pandoras Box Pandoras Box was a German silent film directed by G,W. Pabst & released in 1929. The title is a reference to Pandora of Greek mythology, who upon opening a box given to her by the gods released all evils into the world, leaving only hope behind. Louise Brooks stars as Lulu, a young impulsive vaudeville performer whose raw sexuality & uninhibited nature bring about the downfall of almost everyone she meets. She meets her doom in London as a victim of Jack the Ripper. The film is based loosely on Frank Wedekind s play Die Büchse der Pandora, which was also the source for Alban Berg s opera Lulu. DVD Extras: Pandora's Box on DVD is a clean, crisp transfer in the classic 4:3 ratio, & the mono soundtrack brings out all the detail of Peer Rubens' Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. Dialogue intertitles can be read in either English or German. We also get an outstanding 60-minute documentary, Looking for Lulu, about Brooks' life & career: warmly narrated by Shirley MacLaine, it features excerpts from an interview with Brooks from 1976.
Made at the very end of the silent era, Pandoras Box is one of the last flowerings of German cinemas greatest decade. It also marked the highpoint of two careers: Austrian director GW Pabst & American actress Louise Brooks. A merge of two linked plays by the decadent German playwright Frank Wedekind, its the story of Lulu, the archetypal femme fatale . At once sensual & innocent, a force of uninhibited sexuality, Lulu brings ruin on all her lovers both male & female, & ultimately upon herself. Hollywood never knew what to do with Brooks who, with her fierce intelligence & her open delight in sex, refused to play the coy flappers then in fashion. In Pabst, whose genius, she wrote, lay in getting to the heart of a person, she found the director she needed, & he brought out her a screen persona with a depth of eroticism thats still breathtaking to see. The film features some of the finest German acting talent of the period, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, but its Brooks luminous performance that rivets the eye & makes her a great screen icon. Though the action is nominally set in the late-19th century, Lulu ends up in a shadowy London where she encounters Jack the Ripper, Pandoras Box breathes the gamey air of the Weimar Republic, vividly captured by Günther Krampfs pungent photography. This release runs well over two hours & includes, for the first time in decades, over 30 minutes of cut footage, restoring the film to something very close to Pabsts original masterpiece. Fritz Kortner was an Austrian -born stage & film actor. His original name was Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music & Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 & then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year he made his first appearance in a silent film. He became one of Germany s best known character actors. His speciality was playing sinister & threatening roles. The coming of the Nazis to power forced Kortner to flee Germany in 1933 & he emigrated to the United States, where he found work as a character actor & play director for a time before returning to Germany in 1949. Upon his return, he became noted for his innovative staging & direction, particularly of classics such as his Richard III in which the king crawls over piles of corpses at the end.
Editors Choice: Pandoras Box, View DVDology
Louise Brooks was an American actress & one of the most famous faces of the silver screen. Born Mary Louise Brooks in Cherryvale, Kansas. This beautiful dark-haired actress is primarily known for her roles in Silent Films made during the late Roaring Twenties in the USA & three films made in Europe in 1929 & 1930 & her trend-setting bob hairstyle. Her parents were somewhat ethereal & although they inspired her with a love of books & music - her mother was a talented pianist who played the latest Debussy & Satie for her - they failed to protect her from childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a neighborhood predator. This single series of events was a major influence on her life & career - she once claimed she was incapable of real love. A natural actress & dancer, she was destined for great highs & lows. She began her entertainment career as a talented dancer, appearing in her teens with the revolutionary Denishawn modern dance company whose members included Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis & Ted Shawn.
Editors Choice: Pandoras Box, View DVDology
Biography: Georg Wilhelm Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst was a film director. Born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, the son of a railroad employee. On a travel back from the USA, he was in France when the First World War began. He was interned there near Brest until 1919. One of his most famous films is the 1929 Pandoras Box, which starred Louise Brooks. Pabst died in Vienna, Austria & was interred at the Zentralfriedhof, in Vienna. Die Büchse der Pandora, aka Pandoras Box, aka Lulu.
Editors Choice: Pandoras Box, View DVDology
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