Pandora’s Box is the 1929 German silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst that features Lulu. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, an alluring and impulsive performer whose relationships and choices drive the film’s tragic plot.
The film is loosely based on Frank Wedekind’s plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. It is not a direct screen adaptation of the ancient Greek myth. The title uses Pandora as a symbolic reference to desire, danger, and consequences rather than presenting the gods, jar, and release of evils from Hesiod.
Pandora’s Box was initially controversial and received mixed responses, but it later became a major work of silent cinema. Brooks’s performance and the film’s visual style helped establish its reputation among film historians and restoration audiences.
The film’s English title is often written with an apostrophe as Pandora’s Box. It should not be confused with other movies using the title, including a 1951 French film and later adaptations inspired by the same phrase.