Pandora's Box (1929)

04 Sep 2023

Rating: 5/5

You won't kiss me just because you're getting married?

Lulu is a woman whom boys keep messing up their lives for, and she’s the one who pays the price — well, and that guy she kills in self-defense. And there’s the Countess Augusta Geschwitz, who is clearly in love with Lulu, and they should have ended up together!

The film is a fast-paced drama that never rests in one place for long. Though the movie is over two hours, it never feels like it overstays its welcome

The lighting is stunning— the way the light catches Louise Brooks’s hair, the way she has literal stars in her eyes, the way every face can be read by how much shadow is on it

Her close-ups look so modern, despite her 20s bob haircut — which she popularized! — The frame is so striking and artfully composed in every shot

I adore this — a testament to just how much silent movies were and are capable of, even as entertaining stories for general audiences

Contemporary casting of my remake:


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