Film Archive

Pandora's Box (Buechse der Pandora, Die)

Dr. Schoen, owner of a large newspaper, has fallen under the spell of the beautiful florist Lulu. Not concerned with what others may think, he marries Lulu. Shortly thereafter, Lulu can no longer stand him, shoots him and is prosecuted. She then flees to Paris with Schoen's son Alwa and another friend. But soon Lulu falls into the hands of a blackmailer and Alwa becomes a cardsharp. Once again, Lulu has to escape, this time her goal is London, where she finally meets her fate. She becomes a prostitute and, on Christmas Eve, Jack the Ripper's next victim.

Georg Wilhelm Pabst was born in 1885 in Raudnitz (former Czechoslovakia) and died in 1967 in Vienna. He worked as a theater set designer and theater actor before he began his film career. In 1921, he appeared in Carl Froelich's Im Banne der Kralle, after which he served as assistant director on Froelich's next two films. Pabst's debut film was The Treasure (Der Schatz, 1923). His critical analysis of bourgeois society and moral of the time is evidenced in The Street of Sorrow (Die freudlose Gasse, 1925) as well as in his films Pandora's Box (Die Buechse der Pandora, 1928) and Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, 1929). In 1930, he became president of the "Dacho" organization of German filmmakers, and together with H. Mann, E. Piscator and others, he founded the Association of Film Arts. A selection of his most well-known films includes: The Western Front 1918 (Westfront 1918, 1930), Comradeship (Kameradschaft, 1931), The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper, 1931), Queen of Atlantis (Die Herrin von Atlantis, 1932), Don Quichotte (1933), The Comedians (Komoedianten, 1941), Paracelsus (1943), The Trial (Der Prozess, 1948), The Last Act (Der letzte Akt, 1955), It Happened on July 20th (Es geschah am 20. Juli, 1955), and many more.
 

Genre Drama, Literature
Category Feature Film Cinema, Silent
Year of Production 1929
Director Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Screenplay Ladislaus Vajda
Director of Photography Guenther Krampf
Editor Joseph R. Fiesier
Music by Peer Raben, Willy Schmidt-Gentner
Production Design Andrej Andrejew, Gottlieb Hesch
Producer Seymour Nebenzahl
Production Company Nero-Film/Berlin
Principal Cast Louise Brooks, Daisy d'Ora, Gustav Diessl, Carl Goetz, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Krafft Raschig, Alice Roberts
Length 120 min, 3,255 m
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.33
Original Version silent with German intertitles
Intertitled Versions Czech, English
German Distributor Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen/Berlin

World Sales
Atlantic-Film S.A.
Martin Hellstern
Muenchhaldenstrasse 10
8034 Zurich/Switzerland
phone +41-1-4 22 38 32
fax +41-1-4 22 37 93
email: info@praesens.com
http://www.praesens.com/