Which Frank Wedekind plays form the literary source for the 1929 film Pandora’s Box?

Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays form the literary source for the 1929 film Pandora’s Box.

The film draws on Wedekind’s two connected dramas, Erdgeist, commonly translated as Earth Spirit, and Die Büchse der Pandora, or Pandora’s Box. Together they develop the character Lulu and the destructive chain of relationships surrounding her.

G. W. Pabst’s film is therefore a cinematic adaptation of Wedekind’s theater, not a straightforward filming of Hesiod’s myth. The ancient title supplies a symbolic framework, while the plot, characters, and social tensions come from the modern German plays.

The Lulu material has also influenced later stage and operatic works. Alban Berg’s opera Lulu is another major adaptation of Wedekind’s plays, but it is separate from Pabst’s 1929 film.