Continuing my interest in movies from the silent era, I happened on this 1929 feature directed by the celebrated Austrian director G W Pabst starring American actress Louise Brooks.
Usually with silent movies, allowances have to be made for things like technology and technique both in front of and behind the camera. To some extent, that is still the case here, but of all the recent silents I've watched, this seemed to be the most watchable. Director Pabst presents the narrative in a surprisingly modern manner, his camera moving freely from scene to scene with no ugly jumps or edits. Sometimes the best technique is no technique and of course that applies in particular to Ms Brooks's performance. There have been many screen sirens in prominent roles often exploiting their sexuality, you only have to think of Dietrich (considered for the part), Harlow, Russell, Monroe, Hayworth, Fonda, Welch and Bardot to name but several, but I can't ever recall before being quite as transfixed and beguiled by an actress as this. In truth more Eve than Pandora, she lights up the screen with her every entrance and you immediately wish her back whenever she exits. With her bob-cut, diaphanous clothing but most of all, her disarming personality, she effortlessly exudes sex-appeal, effectively seducing the viewer just as easily as she does the various men who cross her path.
The story is distinctly pre-Code as we immediately drop in on her having an affair with her sugar daddy, a wealthy press baron with a grown-up son but who's engaged to a much more socially acceptable fiancée. Lulu however puts paid to that plan as she compromises him in her dressing room just as her rival puts her head in the door, the first of several times she will entrance any man who comes into her orbit but yet even she's unable to prevent herself from falling headlong into trouble in this man's man's man's man's world. In fact, you can add women to that list as we witness the infatuation of her lady-friend admirer which I think it's fair to say goes more than skin-deep.
Unfortunately, scandal and danger follow Lulu wherever she goes, her biggest fault being her own compliant and trusting nature as man after man lines up in different ways to take advantage of her.
Told over nine distinctly titled acts, it all ends up rather melodramatically when, now reduced to prostitution, she encounters a John who turns out to be a Jack, the Ripper, no less. Even here though, Pabst's expressionist camera work and dramatic chiarascuro lighting make her demise compelling and tragic.
The overdramatic ending apart, this was a fascinating and entertaining document of Weimar-era Germany before the rise of Nazism containing at its heart a remarkably alluring performance by its leading lady.
Usually with silent movies, allowances have to be made for things like technology and technique both in front of and behind the camera. To some extent, that is still the case here, but of all the recent silents I've watched, this seemed to be the most watchable. Director Pabst presents the narrative in a surprisingly modern manner, his camera moving freely from scene to scene with no ugly jumps or edits. Sometimes the best technique is no technique and of course that applies in particular to Ms Brooks's performance. There have been many screen sirens in prominent roles often exploiting their sexuality, you only have to think of Dietrich (considered for the part), Harlow, Russell, Monroe, Hayworth, Fonda, Welch and Bardot to name but several, but I can't ever recall before being quite as transfixed and beguiled by an actress as this. In truth more Eve than Pandora, she lights up the screen with her every entrance and you immediately wish her back whenever she exits. With her bob-cut, diaphanous clothing but most of all, her disarming personality, she effortlessly exudes sex-appeal, effectively seducing the viewer just as easily as she does the various men who cross her path.
The story is distinctly pre-Code as we immediately drop in on her having an affair with her sugar daddy, a wealthy press baron with a grown-up son but who's engaged to a much more socially acceptable fiancée. Lulu however puts paid to that plan as she compromises him in her dressing room just as her rival puts her head in the door, the first of several times she will entrance any man who comes into her orbit but yet even she's unable to prevent herself from falling headlong into trouble in this man's man's man's man's world. In fact, you can add women to that list as we witness the infatuation of her lady-friend admirer which I think it's fair to say goes more than skin-deep.
Unfortunately, scandal and danger follow Lulu wherever she goes, her biggest fault being her own compliant and trusting nature as man after man lines up in different ways to take advantage of her.
Told over nine distinctly titled acts, it all ends up rather melodramatically when, now reduced to prostitution, she encounters a John who turns out to be a Jack, the Ripper, no less. Even here though, Pabst's expressionist camera work and dramatic chiarascuro lighting make her demise compelling and tragic.
The overdramatic ending apart, this was a fascinating and entertaining document of Weimar-era Germany before the rise of Nazism containing at its heart a remarkably alluring performance by its leading lady.