Which 20th-century German film, directed by G. W. Pabst, stars Louise Brooks as Lulu?

*Pandora’s Box* is the 20th-century German film directed by G. W. Pabst that stars Louise Brooks as Lulu.

Released in 1929, the film is a major work of Weimar-era German cinema. Brooks plays Lulu, a charismatic and destructive figure whose relationships and social position drive the drama. Pabst adapted the story from Frank Wedekind’s plays *Earth Spirit* and *Pandora’s Box*, though the film is not a literal retelling of the ancient Greek myth.

The movie is especially associated with Brooks’s bobbed haircut, expressive performance, and the visual style of late silent cinema. It was made during the transition from silent films to sound films, and it remains one of Brooks’s best-known performances.

The title invites comparison with the mythic image of a seemingly contained danger becoming uncontrollable. It does not mean that the movie depicts Pandora opening Hesiod’s jar. The other choices are influential German-language films, but *Metropolis* was directed by Fritz Lang, *The Blue Angel* by Josef von Sternberg, and *M* by Lang.