Frank Wedekind created Lulu in the source plays adapted by the 1929 film Pandora’s Box.
Wedekind was a German playwright whose Lulu cycle consists chiefly of Erdgeist, or Earth Spirit, and Die Büchse der Pandora, or Pandora’s Box. These plays supplied the central character and much of the dramatic material for G. W. Pabst’s film. Lulu is portrayed as a charismatic and socially disruptive figure whose relationships expose the hypocrisy and vulnerability of the society around her.
The film is therefore not a straightforward retelling of the ancient Greek myth. Its title borrows the Pandora association, while the narrative comes from Wedekind’s modernist theater. Louise Brooks’s performance helped establish the cinematic version of Lulu as distinct from the stage character, although both derive from Wedekind’s work.
Wedekind’s name is sometimes confused with other German-language dramatists active around the same period. The specific source of Lulu is Frank Wedekind, whose plays were first performed before the film adaptation appeared in 1929.