In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, which actor plays the central character Lulu?

Louise Brooks plays Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora’s Box.

Directed by G. W. Pabst, the German silent film adapts Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora. Lulu is portrayed as magnetic, independent, and socially disruptive, and the story traces the destructive consequences of her relationships and public scandal.

Brooks’s sharply defined bob haircut and restrained screen performance helped make the film a landmark of silent cinema. Her work as Lulu became so closely identified with the movie that later criticism often treats the performance as central to its enduring reputation.

The film is not a literal adaptation of Hesiod’s Greek myth. Its title is an allusion to the idea of a person or event unleashing disaster, while the plot comes from Wedekind’s theatrical works.