Wow this was good! It’s 1929 and the dazzling Louise Brooks stars as Lulu in G.W. Pabst’s silent melodrama about a show girl who exudes a magnetism no one can resist.
But what starts as a seemingly light hearted comedy, heads towards tragedy in a series of lurid events that takes Lulu and everyone she knows on a downward spiral to destruction.
From the opening scenes of her illicit affair with the ageing newspaper tycoon to the passion that his son Alma (Francis Lederer) feels for her and the infatuation of Countess Geschwitz (Alice Roberts) we know that there’s nothing coy about her and she smiles devilishly at the camera with an uninhibited sexual energy. But what makes her interesting is a playful innocence, an element of grace and funny sauciness that stops her from being a classic femme-fatale, and keeps our sympathy She’s our heroine and our villain.
The beautiful costumes, contemporary apartments and lavish parties of high society Berlin are left by way of murder, a trial, blackmail, people traffickers and more,as they escape by boat to foggy, impoverished London squalor; where news bulletins warn women of a murderer stalking the streets. Prostitution seems to be the only hope for survival for Lulu, but then her streak of kindness gets in the way when she still accepts a customer even though he has no money, because she likes him. . .
This restored version is long, just over 2 hours, but it’s divided into manageable ‘acts’ and it’s never dull! I see that Pabst is well known for making films about the plight of women and I’m looking forward to watching more, in particular The Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) again with Louise Brooks. I watched Pandora’s Box on YouTube and here’s the BFI trailer.