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Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box (1929)

tomatometer

78

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

88

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 4,548

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Movie Info

German filmmaker G.W. Pabst's late-silent classic Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the "main chance," Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him. Eventually escaping to London with the doctor's moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her "adopted" father Schigolch

Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Joseph Fleisler

Nov 28, 2006

Moviegraphs Inc.

Cast

Critic Reviews for Pandora's Box

All Critics (26) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (2) | DVD (11)

Brooks overwhelms the lens with her magnetic eyes.

October 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Bill Stamets
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If you've never seen Brooks -- or Pandora's Box -- you've missed one of the most extraordinary personalities and films of the silent movie era.

October 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie remains one of the most insightful depictions of the elemental incongruity between man's nature and woman's.

July 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

2006 is the centennial of actress Louise Brooks, and to honor it, her greatest film, Pandora's Box, is being released in a new 35-mm print in New York's Film Forum before being taken around the country.

June 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | Comment
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Neither an exposé of social conditions nor a psychological case study and certainly not a moral parable G. W. Pabst's Pandora's Box is a tour de force of cinematic eroticism.

June 15, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There would never be another Lulu -- nor will there ever be.

June 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film...is more interested in the waywardness of almost everyone's longings and in their failures of self-preservation than it is about Lulu's particular immorality or recklessness.

January 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks | Comment
Nick Davis
Nick's Flick Picks

"Pandora's Box" is a German silent film that Paris Hilton could relate to. She wouldn't like the way it ends, though.

December 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Give all due credit to Pabst, but Brooks pretty much single-handedly raises Pandora's Box above being just another doomed-bad-girl melodrama.... She makes Lulu unfathomable, a well that always has more to give. Therefore, so is the film.

December 11, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
Mark Bourne
DVDJournal.com

Criterion's superb two-disc DVD is a veritable 'the Essential Louise Brooks' compendium. With it we get not only Pandora's Box restored to Criterion's exacting standards, but also choice extras including an interview with Brooks.

December 11, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
Mark Bourne
DVDJournal.com

Bold for its time, this restored, uncut version is a touch slow at some points, but its star glows throughout.

November 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine

Pabst was a psychologically astute filmmaker, but it's the shockingly sensual, charismatic Brooks that makes the picture.

July 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Brooks offers a brilliantly guileless performance.

June 22, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's something that should not be missed.

June 17, 2006 Comment
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

More than a little overbaked and frequently veering from the artistic to the artsy. But Louise Brooks is, herself, every inch a classic.

June 16, 2006 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Phil Hall
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Pandora's Box

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The original melodrama. Louise Brooks is sooo sexy.

April 29, 2011
jennifxu
Jennifer Xu

Super Reviewer

Brooks plays a girl who plays around with men, she doesn't want to be thought of as a prostitute or anything though, she never goes with guys she doesn't like. She marries an older man, but he believes he has ruined his reputation by doing so, so he decides they must die together. She doesn't think that's a good

October 23, 2010
ajv2688
AJ Verser

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Die Büchse der Pandora (DE)
  • Pandora's Box (Die Buchse der Pandora) (1929) (CA)
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