Pandora's Box (1929)
G.W. Pabst's "Pandora's Box"
Whenever German films of the 1920s are discussed, it is always important to explore the context of Germany's Weimar Republic. After the first World War, Germany was in a state of chaos. Currency devaluation and extreme inflation created a separation of the classes, unlike anything the country had seen in recent history. On top of this, the fear and terror instilled in the country's people left them in a state of moral confusion. The wealthy aristocracy that was toppled in the war left a chasm of authority. Citizens turned to indulgence to satiate their restless uncertainty. With this uncertainty, Pandora's Box was unleashed. Hidden within the confines of this uncertain searching led to both freedom and control. Because the society was in a state of lavish extravagance, sexual freedoms began to become explored, such as homosexuality and sexual liberation from socially accepted monogamy. Other forms of freedom began to take shape, such as freedoms of individual expression and gender/race equalization. However, with these freedoms came a pushback - rigid control. The Weimar Republic was in a state of political upheaval, as left-wing communist socialists were constantly in a feud with right-wing nationalist fascists. These differences between repression and liberation, authority and freedom, and chaos and control are not exactly black and white. The vacillation between these elements is explored in G.W. Pabst's masterwork "Pandora's Box."
The film stars Louise Brooks as a naive, yet amoral prostitute named Lulu, who solicits clients of varying social statuses. One socialite, Dr. Ludwig Schon, is a middle-aged newspaper publisher. Dr. Schon confesses to Lulu that he cannot keep seeing her, as he is about to marry Charlotte von Zarnikow, the daughter of the Minster of Interior. One of Lulu's elderly patrons named Schigolch, who acts as a fatherly pimp figure, sets her up with a trapeze artist named Rodrigo Quast. Rodrigo allows Lulu to star in her own act. However, when Dr. Schon shows up to her show with Charlotte, Lulu causes a scene and refuses to perform in front of her. Dr. Schon ends up being seduced by Lulu in a backstage room after she throws a tantrum, to which Charlotte catches them. Defeated, Dr. Schon decides to marry Lulu, despite the social judgment he might receive. However, at their wedding celebration, Dr. Schon catches Lulu playfully cavorting with Schigolch and Rodrigo in their bed-chamber. Taking out his gun, he tries to force Lulu to shoot herself with it, framing a suicide. However, the gun goes off on Dr. Schon instead, killing him. Lulu is charged with manslaughter at her trial, until a crowd of adoring men rescues her from the scene, leaving the courtroom in shambles. Lulu runs off with Dr. Schon's son, Alwa, and his secretary Augusta, who are both also in love with Lulu. After spending several months undercover in a brothel, Lulu is sold by the brothel's proprietor to a wealthy Egyptian. Alwa tries to cheat at cards to buy Lulu back, only to be discovered cheating, forcing all the posse to flee. The group ends up living in squalor in a London garret, where Lulu once again must prostitute to make ends meet. On Christmas Eve, her client, Jack the Ripper, kills her.
One of the most important elements of the film is Lulu's self-imposed freedom. This freedom seems to stem from her naivety, as she does not understand the social taboos of the things she's doing. She is sexually liberated, and not afraid to be proudly promiscuous. She is also sexually liberated through her sexual orientation, by way of her homosexual relationship with Augusta. Another element of her self-imposed freedom lies in her obliviousness to class pretentions. Her clients are both wealthy and poor. She also behaves in a carefree way in any situation she finds herself in. During the wedding banquet scene, she dances with Augusta, despite the classist taboo of homosexual relations. She is completely oblivious to the moral outrage of the bourgeoise. Lulu is an object of feminist liberation and does not feel that she is bound to any moral or social obligations. However, Lulu is not free in the sense that she is bought and sold like cattle, as well as controlled and manipulated by the men in her life. Thus, Lulu's struggle with self-expression, sexual liberation, and social freedom is in constant conflict with the controlling of her body and image by others.
The inner freedom of Lulu, as well as her magnetic radiance becomes the object with which all of the other characters' inner desires are directed. The social dynamics, repression, and control of the surrounding characters present a sharp contrast to the freedom and carefree attitude Lulu seems to exhibit. Dr. Schon desires control, especially over Lulu. His social status, career, and even his designed marriage to Charlotte are all products of rigid control. However, his control shatters around Lulu. He cannot control his actions when he is around her. The austereness collapses due to his magnetic gravitation toward her beauty and his lust for her. He also realizes that he cannot control her either. When he discovers her in the bedroom with other men, he tries to take back control by killing her. He ultimately loses control of the gun and kills himself instead. His son, Alwa, fulfills an Oedipus complex with Lulu. He sees Lulu as a mother figure, which fills the void left behind by his deceased mother. Pabst illustrates this with the image of him nestling his head in Lulu's lap while she strokes his hair. Through Lulu, Alwa is able to explore his inner, incest-laden desires. Augusta is also able to express her inner desires through Lulu. Pabst has Augusta dressed in very masculine attire, which visually represents her repression. All of these characters are trapped by social circumstances, and Lulu's sexual freedom allows them to let out the inner elements of themselves that they hide out of shame and guilt. Through Lulu, their deep, sometimes sick, desires rise to the surface, illustrating the fabricated control they exhibit without her. Lulu, being the 'Pandora's Box' of the film's title, releases all of this supposed 'evil' and amoral behavior out of her companions. It is in this way that Pabst is exploring the repression of the self and the oppression of the individual by society. Held deep within you is lust, evil, hatred, control, love, radiance, etc., while the outer self makes sure to hold this chaos within, containing it within a metaphorical box. True freedom is chaos, including the chaos and complexity held within the self. The only reason the characters cannot be themselves is because they must conform to society. Their guilt and shame hold them down so that they can conform to the morality imposed on them. The only reason the characters end up in economic turmoil or dead is not because of their own inner nature, but because the capitalist, authoritarian society that surrounds them punishes them for being their natural, complex selves.
The attraction to Lulu is not just subject to the narrative of the film, but also to the viewers themselves. The characters in the story are so attracted to Lulu that they simply cannot control their natural impulses. These natural impulses reveal the real you hiding within all the repression you've built. The radiance, freedom, charm, and attractiveness of Lulu breaks down the imposed internal control of the individual. Like the characters, the viewer too becomes attracted to Lulu. This is achieved through Pabst's visual rendering of Louise Brooks. Her wardrobe is so revealing that the mind's eye can't help but ponder her naked form. The shimmering lighting Pabst douses her in created a shining radiance that the eye naturally becomes drawn to. Her smile, charm, and facial flirtation only enhance these feelings of attraction. The feeling in the pit of your stomach becomes undeniable, furthering Pabst's point that hidden within you is something uncontrollable. The real you is full of lust and desire, despite your prudish conceptions of what is morally acceptable, probably imposed by society and upbringing. With this, the film's themes become tangible and felt, as the confines of the film screen begin to break down all together. You become part of the story, as that indulgent feeling in the pit of your stomach runs parallel to the lack of control the characters exhibit. It is not just me who feels this attraction to Louise Brooks' Lulu. Her character has become one of the most iconic characters in film history. Her beauty, her sexual freedom, and her flapper-girl image made her an icon of the 1920s. Her visage and character traits are often revisited when exploring the 1920s. For example, her character was the inspiration for Liza Minelli's character in Bob Fosse's "Cabaret." For her portrayal of Sally Bowles for "Cabaret", she asked her father, Vincent, "what can you tell me about Thirties glamor? Should I be emulating Marlene Dietrich or something? And he said no, I should study everything I can about Louise Brooks."
The image of Louise Brooks as Lulu has become iconic. Ironically, the image of Lulu and what it represents is one of the major themes found within "Pandora's Box." In the film, Lulu is often represented through her own image. She has a painting of herself on her wall, Dr. Schon and Alwa pass images of her to each other, and her image is used in newspapers condemning her as a murderer. Even the owner of the brothel sells her to an Egyptian aristocrat only using pictures of her. Throughout the film, people are constantly trying to control her image and even commodify it. The freedom that Lulu exhibits cannot be controlled internally, but rather controlled via manipulating and distorting her image, as this is the only means of 'controlling' her. Her image can also equate to film itself, as it is merely just a manipulated image. In the 1920s, the medium of film was becoming very alluring and even powerful. It held both the freedom of expression as well as the commodification of it. If Lulu represents film, then she also represents the Pandora's Box that film could open. Lulu is entirely innocent in her actions, even to the point of amorality. She is liberated from social implementation. She can be whoever she wants to be. She also reveals the hidden truths that dwell in us all. She can manipulate us and drive us to impulsivity. Therefore, her image is incredibly powerful. However, she is continuously being imposed upon as others attempt to control her and box her in. Her image is continuously manipulated into fitting a certain narrative. Her image is manipulated, controlled, and even sold. Despite her own internal freedom, her external image is used and abused over and over again. The same can be said of the film medium. Its depths hold dark, albeit liberating truths about us as individuals and as a society. However, censorship and manipulation of images inherently distort the truth and drive ulterior narratives. The true freedom of film is chaos. Control and censorship are inherently dishonest to the true expression that film can provide.
"Pandora's Box" contains a Pandora's Box worth of themes about freedom and control. The complexity of the film mirrors the complexity of human nature. Lulu's divine image is magnetic and powerful. She is like a siren calling out to you, ushering you to reveal the chaos held within. This chaos reveals who you really are, with all your amoral complexities. In a German state in which authoritarianism and fascism were taking root, "Pandora's Box" is a thematic and visual rebellion against stagnant repression, both of the self and of society. Because of its sexual narratives and criticisms of authority and moral virtuosity, the film was ironically heavily censored. In Germany, critics panned the film for being scandalous, saying that Lulu was merely a "man-eater devouring her sexual victims." This critique completely undermined the feminist narrative of the film, making Lulu's actions inherently evil and thereby making the men of the story victims. In France, the lesbian subplot was exterminated, making Lulu and Augusta childhood friends. In this version, Lulu is found not guilty at her trial. This also undermined the point of the film that the male-dominated state authority punished Lulu for her sexual deviance. Jack the Ripper is taken out of this version as well. The point of Jack the Ripper in the original cut was that he represented serialism and the commodification of violence against women. His murder of Lulu is the final condemnation of masculine control over women, ensuring that feminist freedom still does not truly exist. The French removal of this plotline instead has Lulu joining the Salvation Army, seemingly 'redeeming' her amoral behavior.
However, Lulu cannot be contained or controlled. Even the camera in the film fails to control her. Her visual image is so chaotic and carefree that the camera must keep up with it. Despite the film industry sabotaging the film's success in 1929, the film had a major resurgence in the 1950s with film historians and scholars. It has since been designated an enduring classic. The film is ripe with themes that are heavily influenced by the societal temperament of the Weimar Republic of the 1920s. Its exploration of the self, control, freedom, sexual liberation, feminism, and authoritarian rebellion allowed the film to become of the greatest pieces of art ever produced by Germany.
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