“The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.” Look at that description. Weimar cinema was LIT. This movie felt overlong to me and a little meandering at times–the movie has seven or eight acts, as I recall? And the movie ends with the main character randomly running into Jack the Ripper? But before it outstayed its welcome, I adored this movie’s frank and modern approach to sexuality. And Louise Brooks just has this WAY about her; I don’t know what to tell you. Her acting style is totally without pretense or affectation. She acts without the standard silent tropes of mime or theater, and just feels so fully fleshed out as a human being on screen. Hers has been the most startling performance I’ve seen so far in this 100-year retrospective.

The original title of the film is Die Büchse der Pandora.