Two new releases of Pandora's Box coming this Fall

Two new releases of Pandora's Box, the sensational silent film starring Louise Brooks as Lulu, are scheduled to be released this Fall. Here is what we know.

Criterion has just announced they will be re-releasing Pandora's Box on DVD and Blu-ray on October 15, 2024. That is great news, as their prior release of the film is out-of-print and now sells for BIG bucks. More information on this release can be found HERE.

Criterion had released Pandora's Box on DVD back in 2006 (the year that marked the Brooks centenary). It was an excellent package, with a handful of bonus items including:

• Four musical scores, by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, and Stéphan Oliva
• Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
• Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley
• Lulu in Berlin (1971), a rare interview with actor Louise Brooks, by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll
• Interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst, director G. W. Pabst’s son
• PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman and notes on the scores
  

The 2024 release will contain the same extras. And, as both the 2006 and 2024 versions are based on the Munich Film Museum restoration (a 2K digital restoration), some may ask what is the difference? 

I would also like to point out that this restoration is NOT a new restoration, as the Criterion website claims. The Munich Film Museum restoration goes back years, and it claim it is new (and thus somehow different) is disingenuous. If I am wrong on this point, I would like to know -- as would Louise Brooks many fans.

Except for new cover art (pictured below) on the 2024 release, the two releases are the same -- except that the 2006 Pandora's Box has a 133 minute run time, while the 2024 movie has a listed 141 minute run time. I emailed Criterion to ask what might account for this 8 minute difference, but they never answered. I even held up this post waiting for an answer.... but nothing came. I was disappointed.

Also set for a Fall release in the UK is a different restoration of the film. This release comes from Eureka, as part of their "Masters of Cinema" series. Eureka had released Pandora's Box last year, in a limited edition of 3000 copies, but it too has gone out of stock. More information about that release can be found HERE.

Eureka is set to re-release Pandora's Box as a region B Blu-ray on September 16, 2024. Notably, the run-time is given as 133 minutes. More information about this forthcoming disc can be found HERE.  Its cover art and special features appear to be the same as the earlier, 2023 release. They are:

• 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a definitive 2K digital restoration
• Optional English subtitles
• Orchestral Score by Peer Raben
• Audio commentary by critic Pamela Hutchinson
• The New Woman & The Jazz Age: The Dangerous Feminine in Pandora’s Box – Visual appreciation by author and critic Kat Ellinger
• Godless Beasts – Video essay by David Cairns
• Lulu in Wonderland – Video essay by Fiona Watson
• Restoring Pandora’s Box – Interview with Martin Koerber
• A collector’s booklet featuring an essay by film critic and historian Imogen Sara Smith, author of Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City
  

When I reviewed the Eureka disc for PopMatters, I pointed out that "This release is notable on a couple of accounts. It marks the film’s first-ever release on Blu-ray in England, and it marks the first-ever release anywhere of the Hugh Hefner-funded Martin Koerber-Deutsche Kinemathek restoration completed in 2009. In all likelihood, this 133-minute, 2K digital restoration is the best version of the film we may see in our lifetime."

I emailed Eureka a few weeks ago asking if there were any significant differences between the 2023 and 2024 releases, but didn't hear back. I also asked them if they would be revising or correcting any of the errors found on the earlier release. As a silent film buff, as Louise Brooks fan, and as an admirer of G.W. Pabst's film, I am very glad that Eureka released the film on Blu-ray; however, I am just as disappointed in some of the bonus material. As readers of this blog may recall, back in January I wrote a piece pointing out the handful of factual errors and the inclusion of images that are 1) not from Pandora's Box, and 2) not Louise Brooks!

Regarding Eureka's use of images from Diary of a Lost Girl in a booklet about Pandora's Box; I should mention that Eureka is not alone in this blunder. Criterion beat them too it years ago in the booklet which accompanied their 2006 release of the film. See page 48 of "Reflections on Pandora's Box", the booklet which accompanies the Criterion box set.

I am very glad Pandora's Box is being re-released. As I have copies of both of the earlier releases, I likely won't purchase either of these forthcoming releases -- unless something new turns up. But come on Criterion. Come on Eureka. You can both do better when it comes communicating and "getting it right."

For more about Pandora's Box, see the newly revamped Pandora's Box filmography page on the new revamped Louise Brooks Society website. ==  Also, the podcast Ticklish Business just dropped a new program about Pandora's Box. Check it out HERE.

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.