Pandora's Box (DVD)
APPROX. 133 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1929 - MPA RATING: NR
" Louise Brooks is so electric, so seductive, and yet so naturalistic that critics and scholars have devoted volumes to explaining her magnetic screen presence.
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The film languished in obscurity for a few decades until it was "rediscovered," with Henri Langlois serving as one of the film's most vocal champions. Once it was rescued from oblivion, it was soon safely ensconced in the critical canon, and remains one of the most analyzed films of the silent era. Just as Lulu was many things to many men, she has many thing to many scholars, from cultural critics to feminists to anyone else you can think of. And not just Lulu, but also Louise Brooks herself who enjoyed a resurgence in popularity along with the film. Indeed, critics often conflate the character with the actress, which is somewhat understandable given Ms. Brooks' own personal life. Long after her film career was over (her last role was in 1938), Brooks still gave a great interview and had also become a fairly accomplished writer. This boxed set pays ample tribute to the off-screen Brooks as well as the on-screen beauty.
You don't need to know anything about Louise Brooks to recognize her as one of the most dynamic performers ever to appear in front of a camera. It is tempting to say she is the entire reason this seedy melodrama works, but that ignores the fact that her only other major film ("Diary of A Lost Girl") was also directed by G.W. Pabst. Brooks was the talent, an incandescent one, but Pabst was the man who knew how best to nurture that talent and allow it to flourish on screen. The lackluster roles she took back in Hollywood after her return to America are proof enough of that.
Video:
The film is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The image is picture boxed, like several recent Criterion full frame releases. Though the transfer is restored, it still exhibits some examples of damage from the source print, but this is unavoidable. The black and white contrast is very sharp.
Audio:
The DVD is presented with four optional scores to accompany the silent film, one of which is offered in 5.1, the other three in 2.0. The four separate scores are discussed in the Extras section below. Optional English subtitles are also offered for the German intertitles.
Extras:
This two-disc special edition is one of Criterion's best offerings of 2006.
On Disc One, the restored high-def digital transfer is accompanied by a choice of four complete musical scores, each so radically different it reinterprets the film. The Orchestral Score by Gillian Anderson is inspired by popular music of 1920s Germany. The Cabaret Score by Dimitar Pentchev underscores the film's saucy, exhibitionist tone. The Modern Orchestral Score by Peer Raben is intended as "an across-the-decades collaboration" with Pabst. Finally, the Piano Improvisation was performed by Stéphan Olivia at a live screening of the film in France.
The film is also accompanied by another score, or rather a commentary track by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane, both of whom are familiar names to anyone who has ever picked up a film text book. The heavy-duty film studies analysis may not be suited to everyone's taste, but I'm glad Criterion gave these two scholars free reign to demonstrate just how much a serious theoretical analysis can add to one's understanding and appreciation of a movie.
The features on Disc Two lavish most of their attention on the celebrated and enigmatic Louise Brooks.
"Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu" (60 min.) is a Turner Classic Movies documentary directed by Hugh Munro Neeley in 1998. The documentary, narrated by Shirley Maclaine, takes a fairly standard biographical approach to the subject but is still intriguing. It also offers this gem from Brooks herself: "I have a gift for enraging people. But if I ever bore you, it will be with a knife."
"Lulu in Berlin" (1984, 48 min.) is a documentary interview conducted by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll. Though the film is dated 1984, the interview was conducted in 1971 in Brooks' Rochester, NY apartment. Brooks was 65 at the time, but even more than thirty years since her last film, she was every bit as magnetic a presence on camera.
Michael Pabst discusses his father in a lengthy interview (34 min.) conducted in 2006 for the Criterion Collection. Michael does not just reminisce about his father, but takes a serious and critical look at his life's work as well.
Disc Two also includes a Stills Gallery.
To top things off, Criterion has produced one of its best insert booklets, a 96 pager which features Kenneth Tynan's well-known 1979 essay about Louise Brooks: "The Girl in the Black Helmet." An essay by J. Hoberman and an article by Brooks about her relationship with Pabst are also included.
Film Value:
This two-disc Criterion release is the complete package, impressive not only for picture and sound quality but also for its scholarship. The commentary track by Elsaesser and Doane is stellar, and the four alternate scores seem almost to be overkill. Add in the two documentaries on Louise Brooks, and you have one of the finest DVD packages of the year. "Pandora's Box" is a masterpiece of German silent cinema, and Criterion's treatment more than does it justice.
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