In G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box, Louise Brooks’s character is called Lulu.
Lulu is the central figure in the film, a woman whose beauty, independence, and relationships shape the drama. The role comes from Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, which together form the theatrical background for Pabst’s adaptation.
The name Pandora appears in the film’s title because Wedekind’s second Lulu play is titled Pandora’s Box in English. The movie does not show the Greek goddess-like Pandora from Hesiod’s myth. Instead, it transforms the idea of a woman associated with irresistible attraction and disastrous consequences into a modern European melodrama.
Louise Brooks’s portrayal made Lulu one of the most recognizable characters of silent film. The role is also important to film history because it helped define Brooks’s screen persona during the late 1920s.