Toronto Restoration Premiere-A TSFF exclusive screening
“Pure, erotic dynamism”
One of the masters of early German cinema, director 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.
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.
Brilliantly directed by G. W. Pabst, it’s dark beauty is filled with meticulous detail, fluid camera work, expressive lighting, and course, the potent performance of Brooks.
It’s a tale steeped in eroticism, greed, and violence as Lulu, driven by her desires, seduces and leaves in her wake a trail of destruction and even death until she herself becomes a victim. She is both “beautiful and damned” her glamour exuding both innocence and femme fatale in a performance for the ages.
It’s a tale steeped in eroticism, greed, and violence as Lulu, driven by her desires, seduces and leaves in her wake a trail of destruction and even death until she herself becomes a victim. She is both “beautiful and damned” her glamour exuding both innocence and femme fatale in a performance for the ages.
Today, Pandora’s Box is rightly celebrated as one of silent cinema’s greatest masterpieces and with this restoration, its full power, beauty and presence makes for a memorable experience.
Live musical accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner