In Frank Wedekind’s Lulu cycle, the play Pandora’s Box gives the 1929 film its title. The film, directed by G. W. Pabst, adapts material from Wedekind’s plays about Lulu, a controversial and destructive central character.
Wedekind’s two major Lulu dramas are Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. Together they trace Lulu’s relationships, social rise, exploitation, and eventual downfall. The plays were provocative when written because of their treatment of sexuality, gender, social hypocrisy, and power.
The stage play Pandora’s Box was first performed in 1904, several years after Earth Spirit. Pabst’s film compresses and reshapes the dramatic material for cinema, so it should not be treated as a scene-by-scene reproduction of the play.
The title also echoes the ancient Pandora myth without retelling it literally. In both stories, Pandora’s name suggests the release of destructive consequences, but Wedekind’s work relocates the theme to modern society and human relationships.