I'm really not a big fan of German expressionism in film, nor silent movies for that matter, so I regard PANDORA'S BOX as an interesting but highly flawed study of female perversity embodied by Lulu, as played by LOUISE BROOKS. She seems to be a woman without a conscience--and rather than compare her to Greta Garbo or any other screen greats I would say her Lulu character resembles Rita Hayworth's amoral nature in GILDA--a woman of mystery with loose morals.
The story is just plain awful, heavy-handed stuff about an amoral girl during the Jazz age in Europe who seems to attract men like moths around a light. And women too. LOUISE BROOKS has a very natural way of expressing herself and even in close-ups does not give in to that stylized way actresses had in silent films. She is reminiscent of the very sexy CLARA BOW but she's an even better actress.
Interesting to see FRANCIS LEDERER as the young man (he died only a couple of years ago at 100) and he too does a nice job of natural acting as the son of the wealthy man she marries. The story has each man she forms a relationship with meet an unhappy fate, while her own life takes on a tragic turn when she is accused of murdering her husband but manages to escape after a guilty verdict. From then on, she is a woman in hiding and her fortunes take a downward spiral until she is living in poverty in the London slums.
During the latter portion of the film she takes up with a man who, unknown to her, is the man who has been terrorizing London with a series of brutal murders, played with appropriate menace by GUSTAV DIESSL. Her demise at his hands is apparently supposed to be the price she pays for a life of sin.
It's about as downbeat as any of the expressionist films of that era, including those by Fritz Lang, but the weakness lies in a storyline that is weak and a lack of subtitles for many wordy scenes so that the viewer is never sure just what is going on between characters heavily engaged in conversation. This is a huge mistake.
Summing up: Notable only for watching the screen presence of LOUISE BROOKS. Otherwise, quite a dud dramatically and not likely to appeal to contemporary audiences except as a vehicle in which to view the actress who today has quite a reputation as a screen siren of the '20s.
The story is just plain awful, heavy-handed stuff about an amoral girl during the Jazz age in Europe who seems to attract men like moths around a light. And women too. LOUISE BROOKS has a very natural way of expressing herself and even in close-ups does not give in to that stylized way actresses had in silent films. She is reminiscent of the very sexy CLARA BOW but she's an even better actress.
Interesting to see FRANCIS LEDERER as the young man (he died only a couple of years ago at 100) and he too does a nice job of natural acting as the son of the wealthy man she marries. The story has each man she forms a relationship with meet an unhappy fate, while her own life takes on a tragic turn when she is accused of murdering her husband but manages to escape after a guilty verdict. From then on, she is a woman in hiding and her fortunes take a downward spiral until she is living in poverty in the London slums.
During the latter portion of the film she takes up with a man who, unknown to her, is the man who has been terrorizing London with a series of brutal murders, played with appropriate menace by GUSTAV DIESSL. Her demise at his hands is apparently supposed to be the price she pays for a life of sin.
It's about as downbeat as any of the expressionist films of that era, including those by Fritz Lang, but the weakness lies in a storyline that is weak and a lack of subtitles for many wordy scenes so that the viewer is never sure just what is going on between characters heavily engaged in conversation. This is a huge mistake.
Summing up: Notable only for watching the screen presence of LOUISE BROOKS. Otherwise, quite a dud dramatically and not likely to appeal to contemporary audiences except as a vehicle in which to view the actress who today has quite a reputation as a screen siren of the '20s.