Pandora's Box (1929) (b/w, Criterion Collection, Restored, Special Edition, 2 DVDs)

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One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst seemed to have an innate talent for discovering actresses. And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst’s lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora’s Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone around her. Daring and stylish, Pandora’s Box is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality.

DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 2K digital restoration
Four musical scores, by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, and Stéphan Oliva
Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998), a documentary by Hugh Munro Neeley
Lulu in Berlin (1971), a rare interview with actor Louise Brooks, by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll
Interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst, director G. W. Pabst’s son
PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman and notes on the scores

New cover by Eric Skillman