Lulu is Pandora’s name in the 1929 German film commonly known as Pandora’s Box. Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring Louise Brooks, the film centers on Lulu, a charismatic woman whose relationships and choices lead to tragedy.
The movie is based primarily on Frank Wedekind’s stage dramas Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora. Its English title refers to the second play and invokes the older Pandora myth, but Lulu is not a direct retelling of the Greek story. Instead, the film uses the Pandora association as a symbolic framework for desire, scandal, social repression, and destructive consequences.
Louise Brooks’s performance became especially influential after the film’s later rediscovery. Lulu’s short black bob and expressive screen presence helped make the role an enduring landmark of silent cinema. Viewers sometimes assume that the title character is literally the mythological Pandora; the film’s protagonist is instead the fictional modern figure Lulu.