Pandora's Box

I recently finished watching the new Criterion edition of Pandora's Box. This is a fantastic movie. It's amazing to think that it had been largely unavailable to audiences for decades, even though it is one of the seminal films of the Weimar era (up there with Metropolis). DVD continues to revolutionize the ability of the ordinary (if avid) viewer to become further acquainted with the history of film, and Criterion continues to lead the way. The quality of the picture is surprisingly good, and I've just started to listen to the commentary, which so far is also surprisingly good. The commentary is by Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane. Elsaesser is at the University of Amersterdam and the author of Wiemar Cinema and After (among other books). (His site is at http://home.hum.uva.nl/oz/elsaesser/.) Doane is at Brown University and the author of Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis (among other books). The DVD has been getting excellent reviews all over the place, and Dave Kehr of the New York Times hit upon the best possible description: "a definitive edition of a seemingly inexhaustible film."

The story is rather simple in its basics: Lulu is an object of universal desire; she also seems to need a father figure of sorts and yet seeks satisfaction of this need in the wrong places. Further, the jealousies and dependencies and enabling of those who want her shape an ultimately tragic course for her. Lulu's tragic end is especially well-done. While I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't yet seen the film, I can perhaps safely say this: in the end, Lulu, an iconic image of the desirable, comes face-to-face with one whose primary desire is to destroy such images.

(Photo copyright: Criterion Collection 2006)