Pandora’s Box is a Live Sound Cinema event featuring a live soundtrack by Mary Alouette. It is the first film in our Vamps and Virgins silent film series.

Pandora’s Box is the silent German melodrama directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst (based on Frank Wedekind’s plays Ergeist and Die Buchse der Pandora) that made silent film actress Louise Brooks a star. Providing the live score to Pandora’s Box is Mary Alouette.

Louise Brooks plays “Lulu”, a young, beautiful, and naive actress to whom life can’t seem to give a break. She is also her own worst enemy. A gorgeous silent film classic, Pandora’s Box gets down to all the dirty details we love about pre-code movies: betrayal, seduction, heartbreak, rivalry, manslaughter, lust, escape, and prostitution. Even one very famous serial killer makes an appearance. A more naturalistic approach to German Expressionism, Pandora’s Box and Louise Brooks career-making performance shouldn’t be missed.

Mary Alouette is an award-winning singer, composer, and bandleader.  Together with her four gypsy jazzmen, she’ll orchestrate hot acoustic jazz guitar and blazing horns in the style of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt that calls forth a sound that can be described as beautiful music and dangerous rhythm. 

Pandora’s Box is part of Nitehawk Cinema’s Vamps and Virgins series that explores the two sides of the leading lady spectrum in silent film.