In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, Frank Wedekind’s two dramas provide the source material.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s film draws on Wedekind’s Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, both centered on Lulu. The movie reshapes the theatrical material into a silent-film narrative, using visual performance, editing, and location work to express Lulu’s rise, relationships, downfall, and eventual murder.
Wedekind’s Lulu plays were written across different periods and were controversial because of their frank treatment of sexuality, exploitation, and social morality. Their combination into one film allowed Pabst to create a broad portrait of a woman viewed differently by each social circle around her.
A frequent error is to identify the Greek myth as the film’s direct source. The title evokes Pandora’s myth, but the plot comes from Wedekind’s Lulu dramas. The film is also distinct from the 1951 fantasy movie Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, which has different characters, creators, and themes.