Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Louise Brooks as Lulu to make Blu-ray debut

BIG news. Pandora's Box, Louise Brooks' greatest screen triumph, is set to debut on Blu-ray next month. The acclaimed 1929 film starring Louise Brooks as Lulu will be released in Germany on November 15 (the day after LB's birthday) by Atlas Film GmbH. The 2 disc set -- described as a "limited mediabook" -- can be found on amazon's German site and as of now nowhere else. NOTE: this is a region B / 2 DVD/ Blu-ray release, and it may not play on all DVD/ Blu-ray players. This list price is given as 21,99 Euros. The link to the amazon.de page for this new release can be found HERE.

Earlier Atlas Film media book releases are well regarded. Visit this Atlas Film page for more information on this new release HERE.

This Atlas Film media book marks the 90th anniversary of the film. This copy of Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box is the restored 2009 George Eastman House collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française, the Cineteca Bologna, the Gosfilmofond of Russia, the Narodni Filmovy Archive Prague and the Deutsche Kinemathek. Pandora's Box is accompanied by Peer Rabens' 1997 Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. The film's run time is given as 109 minutes, with the total run time of each disc including bonus material at 133 minutes. The cover of the Mediabook is based on the original 1929 premiere poster.



According to the amazon.de page, the release includes the short documentary The Shadow of My Father: Michael Pabst on G. W. Pabst's The Pandora's Box; an extensive booklet with historical documents and information on the history of the film; and three postcards with different vintage posters for the film. IMHO, it looks good.
This is great news, and about time! Hopefully, this German release will spur Criterion or some other American company to also release the film on Blu-ray AND with lots of bonus materials!


Today, coincidentally, I was working on the Pandora's Box chapter of my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which in part, details the little known history of the film in Cuba, Indonesia, Japan, Poland and elsewhere. This Atlas Film release adds the story....


3 comments:

MarkBraun said...

Thank you for posting this! Hoping for an American release!

Louise Brooks Society said...

Thank you for checking it out! Let's all keep fingers crossed.

Unknown said...

Is this German blu ray English friendly or just German intertitles? Would love to import this!

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