Sunday, January 16, 2022

German silent film Pandora's Box, starring American Louise Brooks, screened in London by French agency with Austrian partnership

On Sunday the 16th, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni in London, England screened the classic 1929 silent German silent film, Pandora's Box (aka Loulou). The Institut français is the French Agency of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in charge of promoting French culture overseas and international cultural exchanges. More info on this pan-European screening HERE.

 
Die Büchse der Pandora

134 mins

DEU | 1928/29 | dir. G.W. Pabst, with Louis Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts 

Based on Frank Wedekind’s two plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, Pabst’s cinematic interpretation is the ultimate amoral, mesmerising, and irresistible tale which deservedly found its place in the pantheon of cinema. Astonishingly modern, the film follows the downward spiral of flapper girl Lulu. Louise Brooks’s intensely erotic portrayal of the film’s heroine is seductive and innocent at the same time. 

In Weimar Germany, Lulu (Louise Brooks) is an entrancing and free-spirited girl who lives on the beneficences of the men who fall under her spell. Her current paramour is the highly-respectable Dr. Schön, who comes to believe he must marry her, even though he has been engaged to a more respectable woman. At their wedding, he becomes mad with jealousy, and tragedy ensues.

In its turbulent history, Pandora’s Box was butchered by censors to a mere 66 minutes, rediscover the film’s beauty in its full running time of 134 minutes.

The screening will be accompanied live on piano by Cyrus Gabrysch

Sun 16 Jan 4.30pm

In partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum

No comments:

Post a Comment

Relevant and respectful comments are welcome. Off-topic comments and spam will be removed, and you will be disliked henceforth.