Even if she was unfairly cast as a femme fatale by Nietzsche, she became nigh on
frozen into the role by the German playwright Frank Wederkind (pictured left) who
based his central character 'Lulu' on her. Lulu was the lead female in his stage
play; 'Pandora's Box' (1894) and was modelled on LAS after Wedekind made affectionate
advances in her direction when he met her in Paris in 1894 (Wedekind's stage play
was adapted for the opera of the same name by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. The
opera played in London in May-June 2005). HF Peters describes LAS at the time of
her meeting with her Wedekind as: "Occasionally her bright blue eyes had a gleam
of hardness. By way of softening her angular appearance she preferred to wera large
soft collars or wide sleeved peasant blouses. For the rest she dressed simply, shunned
stays and corsets and those other fashionable devices which imprisoned the bodies
of most women of her generation". (Peters, 1963: p192). Wedekind had taken refuge
in French capital after his disturbing & grotesque play The Spring Awakening caused
a minor scandal in Germany. The play tackled a range of themes about adolescence
including scenes of violent sexual perversion: spanking, rape and suicide. Lou's
rebuttal of Wedekind's advances in Paris were recounted in her novel Fenitschka. In
the novel the suitor is portrayed as foolish and apologetic for his ungentlemany
behaviour having tried to seduce the heroine Fenitschka. Wedekind, executed his
own literary rendering of the event with his character 'Lulu' which has sometimes
been translated literally as 'Lou Lou', seemingly emphasising her. Lulu became Germany's
favourite femme fatale and Louise Brooks played her in the 1928 film of Wedekind's
stage play. It was a part that Marlene Dietrich had sort to secure for herself. The
film director GW Pabst had been the first to make a serious film about Freud in 1926
Secrets of the Soul and so the film of Pandora's Box was under pinned by Pabst's
already primed psychological interest in Freudian models of sexuality.
Pandora’s Box continues to be a cult classic. It was revived in 2 film festivals
in 2003. 17th International Leeds Film Festival 2003 Pandora's Box (Büchse der
Pandora, Die) Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Germany, 1929, 100 mins
The classic silent film Pandora's Box is the ultimate cinematic treatment of obsession.
Boasting superlative direction by Pabst and an iconic performance by the dazzling
Louise Brooks, the film is an adaptation of F. Wedekind's Lulu plays. Lulu's irresistible,
but innocent sexual allure surrounds her with lovers and admirers, ruthless competitors
for her affection who drive her away from Berlin to London and eventually into the
arms of Jack the Ripper. Screening with live organ accompaniment by City of Leeds
organist Simon Lindley.
Belfast Film Festival 2003
Pandora's Box (with new live music score) 1929 - Germany - 110 min. - Feature, B&W,
Silent
Featuring a new live score by artist John Matthews and musician Barry Cullen.
G.W. Pabst's most famous film featured his first, star-making collaboration with
American actress Louise Brooks in a complex exploration of sexual psychology and
Weimar Germany's social decadence. Working from Frank Wedekind's play in Pabst's
trademark realist style, Pandora's Box has since come to be seen as a hypnotic masterwork,
remarkable for its frank treatment of sexuality and the sympathetic, inscrutable,
fascinating presence of Brooks
Left are the cover images used for the Freud-Lou correspondence. Lou was portrayed
as a young, beautiful and somewhat wistful, while Freud shown to be a serious frowning
older man. The images suggest a relationship between a serious wise old man and
a younger woman. In fact at their time of meeting in 1910 both were of a similar
age (circa 50). Below are the portraits that would have more accuratley captured
the meeting of the two of them. The portraits convey something altogether more genuine,
that LAS, while still beuatiful, was wordly and probably more battle weary than Freud. Freud,
though still posed with trademark cigar in hand, was perhaps less serious, believing
his greatness to be still ahead of him.
It was Nietzche's idea that the 'holy trinity' (himself, Ree and Lou) should be photographed
for posterity, with Lou kneeling in carriage holding the reigns whipping the men
along. The finishing touch was a sprig of lilacs fastened to the whip. The holy
trinity image was a forerunner of the type of sado-masochistic entanglement between
the sexes that would so repel and yet fascinate Lou. That she was cast as a dominatrix
was unconventional even by the standards of Germanic bohemian life and it was an
imago which was later transposed into the lasting image of Lou as a sort of intellectual
groupie and femme fatale. At least this was how the gossip mongers of European society
had her cast. When she finally dashed Nietzsche's dream of marrying her because
she was neither ready to be nurse maid or disciple, Nietzsche's contempt manifest
itself in forceful backlash because he believed her to have led him on. He always
located his Zarathrustra arising out of the Lou affair; it was his riposte.
Settings & Constraints