Restoration of Pandora's Box screens in Los Angeles TODAY

The recently released restoration of Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in the Ted Mann Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (6067 Wilshire Blvd.) in Los Angeles TODAY at 7:30 pm. This screening marks the "Los Angeles Restoration Premiere." The film is being shown as part of the Academy's series, "The Sewing Circle: Sapphic Icons of Early Hollywood." More information about the event can be found HERE. 

According to the Academy website, "Pandora’s Box chronicles the life and ultimate downfall of the charming and amoral Lulu (Louise Brooks), whose somewhat impish behavior and alluring sensuality leads to the misfortune of those who love her. The film is noted to feature one of the first depictions of a lesbian character in Countess Augusta Geschwitz (Alice Roberts). Brooks considered herself to be sexually liberated, eschewing labels; she reveled in encouraging speculation about her sexual inclinations, choosing to surround herself with notable sapphic figures of the time."

"DIRECTED BY: G.W. Pabst. WRITTEN BY: Ladislaus Vajda. WITH: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz. 1929. 141 min. USA. B&W. Silent. English intertitles. DCP. Restored in 2K from the best surviving 35mm elements at Haghefilm Conservation under the supervision of the Deutsche Kinemathek with the cooperation of George Eastman Museum, the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca di Bologna, Národní filmový archiv, and Gosfilmofond."

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation. I couldn't find any information on any musical accompaniment, which suggests there will be none.

Although this screening marks the first showing of the recently released 2009 restoration, it does not mark the first screening of Pandora's Box in Los Angeles. Of course not.... In fact, the 1929 film was first shown in Los Angeles only in 1962, some 33 years after it was first released in Germany. That screening took place on June 29, when Pandora’s Box was screened as part of a series of five “psychological masterpieces” sponsored by the UCLA Committee on Fine Art Production. The print screened then was brought to Hollywood by James Card, of the Eastman House, who possessed one of the few -- if not the only -- print of the film in the United States. Pauline Kael hoped to bring Brooks to Los Angeles for this screening, but Kael's plans fell through. 

A couple of months later, at the beginning of August, Pandora’s Box was screened at Monterey Peninsula College in Monterey, California as part of the Peninsula Film Seminar, which was organized by Philip Chamberlin. Card once again supplied the print of the film. Also in attendance at the Monteray screening -- the first for the film in Northern California -- was film critic Pauline Kael, film curator Tom Luddy, and San Francisco poet Jack Hirschman, among others.

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.