Frank Wedekind’s two Lulu dramas inspired Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box.
The film draws on Wedekind’s plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, which together tell the story of Lulu. Wedekind’s Lulu is a provocative, sexually independent figure whose relationships and social position drive the drama. Pabst adapted this material for cinema while reshaping it for the visual language of late silent film.
Although the film shares the name Pandora’s Box with the Greek myth, it is not a straightforward adaptation of Hesiod. The connection is thematic: Lulu’s presence unleashes destructive consequences, echoing the broader cultural meaning of opening a forbidden or dangerous container.
The playwright is sometimes confused with other German-language dramatists who wrote for the stage and influenced early cinema. Wedekind, however, is specifically associated with the Lulu cycle and its two principal plays.