In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, American actress Louise Brooks plays Lulu.
Lulu is the central character in G. W. Pabst’s German silent film. She is portrayed as magnetic and socially disruptive, attracting a series of relationships that lead the story toward tragedy. Brooks’s performance made the character one of the most recognizable figures in silent cinema.
The role originated in the stage works of Frank Wedekind, especially Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. The film adapts and combines material from those plays rather than retelling the ancient Greek myth directly.
Brooks’s short bob haircut and expressive acting became strongly associated with the film. Although Pandora’s Box was not immediately treated as a universal commercial success, later critical rediscovery established it as a major work of the silent era and helped secure Brooks’s lasting reputation.