Pandora's Box - Lulu murdered?
Arne Herl|v Petersen
so I'll repost it:
Arne Herløv Petersen wrote:
>
> I have just watched Pandora's Box by Pabst and am quite mystified. The version I watched was the
> British Tartan PAL video, which runs 131 minutes and thus should be fairly complete.
> But the thing is that the two crucial events of the movie - the two murders - are very murky and
> unclear.
> It does not seem entirely clear that Lulu actually shot Schön. At 0:54:12 Schön hands her the gun
> and orders her to kill herself. She refuses. They are apart. He goes to her, and at 0:56:50
> carresses her head. At 0:57:05 he suddenly slides to the floor. Lulu laughs. Alwa rushes in.
> Schön points at him at says: Beware, Alwa! You are next! Only now - at 0:57:35 blood trickles out
> his mouth and we realize he is shot. (But he COULD have wrestled the gun from Lulu and killed
> himself)...
> Next Jack the Ripper and Lulu. At 1:47:00 we see Jack the Ripper walking through the fog. He is
> not identified at the time. He talkes to a Salvation Army woman and we (or at least I) wonder who
> he is and what he has to do with the picture.
> At 1:57:25 we see the warning poster about him. A moment later Lulu meets him and propositions
> him. At 1:59:10, while they are walking up the stairs, he says he has no money. She sayts: Come
> anyway! I like you!. At 2:00:25 his hand slackens and he drops his knife,.
> At 2:06:00 they kiss under the mistletoe. He holds her, albeit with a somewhat mad gleam in his
> eye. At 2:06:25 he sees a knife on the table and seems terrified (of himself?). At 2:06:35 he
> smiles (with relief?), but takes the knife. She smiles.
> >From 2:07:15 the screen is plunged into darkness. We only see a very short glimpse of the
> candlestick. At 2:07:45 Jack walks out and passes Alwa, after which the movie ends at 2:10:35
> after we have seen Lulu's first lover carousing and Alwa grieving.
> But WAS she murdered? It doesn't seem too clear. If I didn't know she was murdered, I could just
> as well have imagined that Love conquers all and that Jack overcomes his terrible obsession
> through the sweetness of Lulu.
> I should like very much to hear of others' experience of this movie.
thomasg
In the American video version of this film, it is clear that Schon
accidently shoots himself while trying to force Lulu to kill herself.
This incident is not explicitly seen, but only suggested via the
struggle, puff of smoke and the slumping Schon. Schon did put the gun
in Lulu's hand, but Lulu did not willingly pull the trigger. Perhaps
this scene could also be read as suicide by Schon = Lulu as femme
fatale.
In the Jack the Ripper scene, Lulu is murdered by Jack (in the
American video version). He then leaves the scene of the crime. In an
essay on 'Pandora's Box,' Louise Brooks wrote that the Lulu character
was murdered in the end of the movie.
Of course, this movie was censored and altered in its day; that may
explain why there are different versions circulating.
for further reference, check out the script of 'Pandora's Box' which
was published as part of the Classic Film Scripts series
thomas gladysz
the louise brooks society
http://www.slip.net/~thomasg/brooks.html
a virtual fan club in cyberspace devoted to Louise Brooks
thomasg
>Perhaps it is too forgiving to say that Lulu pulled the trigger
>"unwillingly". One of the best things about that scene is its ambiguity.
>She may or may not have deliberately killed Schon (but don't WE want him
>dead?). The film seems to say that whether she did or not, her trial was
>a farce. This is, perhaps, still a timely observation.
>Bill Routt
for more info on Pandora's Box and Louise Brooks in general, please
check out the Louise Brooks Society at