Pandora’s Box is a wonderful black-and-white film made in 1929, starring the incomparable Louise Brooks (and her famous bob). I’m sure Colette and Anaïs Nin both loved it, if they saw it. Pandora’s Box was one of the first films to dare a lesbian subtext, along with The Wild Party (also 1929, starring another pin-up, Clara Bow), and before Mädchen in Uniform (1931). Louise Brooks stars as Lulu, a woman so seductive that everyone she meets is immediately bewitched by her.
Lulu has been the mistress of more than one man, so she is outside respectable society. She is charming and has an endearing innocence, but will be the doom of several men. Her current lover is the middle-aged but dapper Dr Schön. His handsome son, Alwa, is Lulu’s age and in love with her, as is Countess Geschwitz, who dresses in tweed skirt suits (for the time, they were “mannish” skirts) and ties, and would surely be more at home in a jacket and trousers.
The story begins when Dr Schön announces that he is engaged to Charlotte, a respectable lady. Distraught, Lulu decides to become a stage-girl. At the opening performance, Dr Schön and his legitimate lady go backstage, where Lulu is parading about in a flimsy silver dress. Lulu has hysterics and refuses to dance in front of Charlotte. Meanwhile, the orchestra and other dancing girls are ready and the audience waiting. Lulu runs to her dressing room, and the show’s producers implore Dr Schön to reason with her. He reluctantly agrees, goes to her room and tries to calm her. She is in a frenzy, kicking her feet so much that her dress reveals her knees, and hitting him so much that her dress threatens to reveal her bosom, until (of course) he is overcome with passion and embraces her. Charlotte and the producers choose that moment to enter the room, and Lulu smiles triumphantly at Charlotte. Since he has been seen kissing her, Dr Schön now has no choice but to marry Lulu.
At the wedding reception, Lulu dances a tango with Countess Geschwitz. The Countess smoulders with repressed passion, closing her heavily made-up eyes as they dance, while Alwa watches longingly. Lulu smiles knowingly at the people watching them, as if aware of their desire for her and that the dance is suggestive. Dr Schön is so taken with the spectacle that he immediately breaks in and claims his new wife, and it is now the Countess’ turn to yearn for Lulu. This wonderful scene was originally deleted by British and American censors, but has now mercifully been restored to the film. The story ends in tragedy (a temptress can never go unpunished), but Pandora’s Box is still marvellous inspiration for writing about the 1920s.
