The 1929 film Pandora’s Box was adapted from Frank Wedekind’s plays about Lulu.
Wedekind developed Lulu in the dramas Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. The character is a magnetic and controversial woman whose relationships expose social hypocrisy, sexual double standards, and the destructive pressures surrounding desire.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s film does not reproduce every element of the plays, but it retains Lulu as the narrative center. Louise Brooks’s performance made the screen version especially influential and helped establish Lulu as one of the best-known female figures in silent cinema.
The character is sometimes confused with other literary women named in European drama, including Hedda Gabler and Salome. Those characters come from different works and authors. Lulu belongs specifically to Wedekind’s dramatic cycle and is the direct source for Pabst’s film.