Pandoras Box Blu-Ray

In a role that was once intended for Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel), 22-year-old Louise Brooks (Diary of a Lost Girl), with her delicate beauty and iconic dark bob hairstyle, gives a performance that was decades ahead of its time and immortalized her as an icon. The film was largely condemned and censored when it was released for its bold treatment of sexuality and female desire, but Brooks' discreet yet erotically charged performance remains one of the most modern of the silent film era.Pandora's Box, which is an adaptation of a couple of plays by Frank Wedekind, tells the story of sex worker Lulu, a free spirit whose open sexuality creates chaos in her wake. When Lulu's latest lover, newspaper editor Dr. Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner, The Hands of Orlac), announces his plans to leave her to marry a more respectable woman, Lulu is devastated. Lulu gets a role in a musical revue written by Schon's son Alwa (Francis Lederer, Dracula's Return) and seduces Schon once again—only to have her affair exposed and Schön's plans for a more socially acceptable marriage shattered. Schon has no choice but to marry Lulu, but their wedding night ends in tragedy. Lulu is brought to trial for the incident and faces several years in prison. With the help of her former pimp (Carl Goetz, Tom Sawyer), a lesbian countess in love (Alice Roberts, The Merry Widower), and Alwa, she flees toward a fate of ever-increasing misery and danger, finally crossing paths with Jack the Ripper on Christmas Eve.

Pandora's Box, which was despised and belittled at its premiere, has since been recognized as one of the masterpieces of early German cinema. It is a gritty melodrama made with great style, confirming G. W. Pabst as a balanced and important director and Louise Brooks as one of cinema's most exquisite and distinctive actresses. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present Pabst's masterpiece in a new restoration on Blu-ray.

BLU-RAY FEATURES:

1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a final 2K digital restoration | Optional English subtitles | Orchestral music by Peer Raben | Audio commentary by critic Pamela Hutchinson | The New Woman & The Jazz Age: The Dangerous Feminine in Pandora's Box - Visual appreciation by author and critic Kat Ellinger | Godless Beasts - Video essay by David Cairns | Lulu in Wonderland - Video essay by Fiona Watson | Restoring Pandora's Box - Interview with Martin Koerber | PLUS: A 28-page booklet with an essay by film critic and historian Imogen Sara Smith, author of Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City

PRESS

"Louise Brooks is the poster girl for an entire generation." - Cosmopolitan

"One of the great masterpieces of the silent film era" - Huffington Post

"???? There is something hypnotically unhinged about Brooks' performance" - Irish Times

"????? It's like lightning in a bottle - remarkable and endlessly fascinating." - Times

"???? An intensely erotic classic from the silent era." - Guardian