In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, which author created the Lulu character?

Frank Wedekind created the Lulu character used in the 1929 film Pandora’s Box.

Wedekind was a German playwright whose Lulu story unfolds across Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. The two plays form a dramatic cycle about Lulu, a woman whose relationships expose the hypocrisy and instability of the society around her. Georg Wilhelm Pabst adapted that material for his 1929 film.

The movie changes and condenses elements of the plays, so its Lulu is not simply a filmed stage performance. Louise Brooks’s interpretation, Pabst’s direction, and the silent-film medium gave the character a distinctive cinematic identity.

Wedekind’s work was controversial when first performed because of its frank treatment of sexuality and social convention. The title Pandora’s Box refers to the destructive consequences associated with Lulu, while also echoing the older Greek myth. The film’s title therefore carries both literary and mythological associations.