The 1929 silent film adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays was released under the title Pandora’s Box.
Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, the German film stars Louise Brooks as Lulu, a charismatic woman whose relationships and social rise lead to destructive consequences. It adapts material from Wedekind’s stage dramas Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora, whose German title literally means “The Box of Pandora.”
The film is often discussed as a major example of Weimar-era cinema. Its visual style, psychological drama, and Brooks’s performance helped it gain lasting critical recognition, even though the film was controversial and commercially difficult when first released.
Despite the title, Pabst’s film is not a direct retelling of Hesiod’s Greek myth. It uses the Pandora image metaphorically, linking Lulu with danger, desire, and social catastrophe. This is a common source of confusion when the title is treated as though it described the ancient story itself.