Pandora's Box (DVD)

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Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc. Louise Brooks as Lulu. No two actresses of the silent era have been so celebrated for a single performance, not even Clara Bow as the "It" Girl. Falconetti's performance in Carl Dreyer's masterpiece "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is still spoken of in reverential tones by hardcore cineastes, but Falconetti herself has drawn scant attention from scholars, seemingly appearing out of thin air (actually, she was an accomplished stage actress) as Joan, and disappearing just as quickly (she never made another film).

Louise Brooks, however, refused to fade out gracefully even though she made only one noteworthy film after "Pandora's Box" (1929), the superb "Diary of a Lost Girl" (1929). Though Brooks, a former Ziegfeld girl, was a rising star in America, her Hollywood career never really got off the ground, in no small part due to what her employers might have euphemistically called "willfulness." After a bitter contract dispute, Brooks' career could easily have lapsed into obscurity if not for the fact that German auteur G.W. Pabst had spied her in a minor role in "A Girl in Every Port" (1928) and declared that she was his perfect Lulu. It was a bold decision. Lulu, the free-spirited creation of playwright Frank Wedekind, was a national icon in Weimar Germany. Were there no German actresses worthy of the role? As legend has it, a young Marlene Dietrich was waiting in Pabst's office to take the role when Brooks' acceptance telegram arrived. Kansas born Louise Brooks was now a German movie star.

Today the choice seems inspired. Louise Brooks is so electric, so seductive, and yet so naturalistic that critics and scholars have devoted volumes to explaining her magnetic screen presence. She is stunningly beautiful, that's no mystery, but there's far more to her mystique than that. Her radiant smile is one of the most indelible in film history, springing to life so suddenly and so fully, it almost has a physical impact on the viewer, not to mention a deadly effect on the men (and women) around her. Her piercing eyes flash the intelligence and indomitable spirit that have inspired generations of feminists to adopt Louise Brooks as an icon. But a sum of parts analysis cannot adequately explain the Louise Brooks phenomenon, the quality that once inspired Henri Langlois to exclaim: "There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks!"

There is no single answer, but I will offer a simple one as partial explanation. Brooks was trained as a dancer from a young age, and her mastery of physical movement lends her a naturalistic grace that stands in marked contrast to the more histrionic stage actors in the cast. Others gesticulated; Brooks simply moved. So often it is the athletes, the dancers, and other "kinesthetically gifted" performers who really stand out on screen. Brooks was a splendid physical actor with a style of motion (and facial expression, and posture) all her own. To paraphrase Paul McCartney, there's "something in the way she moves" that attracts viewers like no other actress.

Brooks' independent spirit was also a perfect match for the role. Lulu is a working girl who entertains men not just for their money, but because she absolutely adores them. She especially adores the control she has over them, even if this control is ultimately proven to be transitory. She is the kept woman of the older and more respectable Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) who wants to maintain her as his mistress after he marries a more "appropriate" spouse. Lulu will have none of that, and arranges a scenario in which the good doctor, embarrassed in front of his fiancée and son, will be forced to marry her. And that's just the beginning. At the wedding celebration, Lulu also captures the heart of Alwa (Franz Lederer), the doctor's son, and even the hopelessly enamored Countess Geschwitz (Alice Roberts). Both lovers will come in handy quite soon after Lulu is found guilty of her husband's murder and must flee to safety. Alas, there is no such thing as safety in Lulu's world, not for a working girl in Germany.

The film's indictment of German society is far-reaching, but is best seen in the parade of pathetic male protagonists who represent the patriarchy. Dr. Schön is a hypocrite and a weakling; his son Alwa is a coward and degenerate gambler. The closest thing Lulu has to a father figure is Schigolch (Carl Goetz), her once and future pimp. Everywhere Lulu goes, men want to have her or use her (often both), yet what makes her performance so memorable is the way that Lulu remains an autonomous figure even while being bought and sold by the men in power. Though married, sentenced to jail, and nearly sold to an Egyptian prince, Lulu still makes her own way through life, adapting as best she can, using whoever she can along the way. Whatever Lulu wants, Lulu gets, as best she can in a world where all the rules are stacked against her.

In the end Lulu flees to London, where she meets a strange fate that will strike many contemporary viewers as far too random by standard narrative conventions. For the sake of readers encountering "Pandora's Box" for the first time on this Criterion release, I will not reveal the ending. I will only suggest that it makes a certain perverse sense that the ultimate trouble-magnet would attract the ultimate trouble-maker. And the most marvelous aspect of it all is how even at the end, when Lulu is at her lowest point, she still has that sweet and innocent smile.

"Pandora's Box," like many classics, was not well-received during its release, though extenuating circumstances partly explain its cool performance. In Germany, Pabst was vilified for allowing a pretty little American girl to play German Lulu. Abroad, the film was brutally censored with the lesbian overtones of the Countess Geschwitz relationship removed in one edited version; in another, Lulu was found innocent and joined the Salvation Army to repent for her sinful ways. Lulu's real fate is grim enough, but only a true pervert would consign her to the Salvation Army!