2019/20 SEASON!
Thursday, December 05, 2019 - Thursday, December 05, 2019
Pandora's Box (1929)
Thursday, December 05, 2019 @ 6:45 PM
Plaza Theatre - 1133 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB
$12 General | $10 Members/Seniors/Students | $40 5-Pack Punch Pass | $99 Season Pass
Featuring an iconic performance by Louise Brooks, G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box displays the silent film era's notions eroticism and femininity.
When German director G.W. Pabst decided to cast his now-legendary film Pandora’s Box (1929), little did he know the striking Louise Brooks, an actress known only from underseen supporting roles in Hollywood, would define his legacy. With her role as the amoral Lulu, the fun-loving, Charleston-dancing temptress, Brooks has come to definitively embody our cinema’s notions of femininity, charisma, and eroticism in the silent film era. Based on a series of social gothic plays by Frank Wedekind, Pandora’s Box follows the adventures of Lulu, her pimp/possibly father, her husband, the son of her husband, and a lesbian countess (Alice Roberts), all of whom fall prey to Lulu’s effortless and vibrant magnetism. Pabst’s mesmerizing expressionist visuals and hypnotic editing rhythms ensure a film for the ages. And in Louise Brooks, a star bathed in shimmering charm and innocent hauteur, we find an iconic “Nasty Woman.”
-Written by Scott Lang
FOCUS: SEXUALITY
Jean-Luc Godard famously once said “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” Film critic Pauline Kael seemingly echoed this statement when she titled one of her books Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Both filmmaker and critic observed the obvious relationship of sexuality and violence to cinema itself, and in both cases the amorous element comes first. Our Focus: Sexuality series explores how sexuality over the course of the last century has paralleled the development of cinematic language. Featuring films from the 1920s up to the 1990s, this globe-spanning series presents key films that consider subjects such as female sexual autonomy, gender fluidity and performativity, amorous power dynamics, and toxic predation. These are firebrand movies, emphasizing how the presentation of sexuality and human relationships on-screen is limited by the specific sociocultural framework of their era. In their emotional and cinematic power, these films are still strongly resonant and provocative today.
About Calgary Cinematheque
We are a non-profit film society dedicated to presenting significant, challenging, and essential works of cinema art in Calgary. During our season, which runs from October to April, we screen films weekly, in curated programs which situate each film in a thematic and historical context. We do this because we believe cinema is an essential form of artistic, social, and political expression. Audiences should be able to engage with a wide range of cinematic expression, not only with what is commercially viable. We believe in the power of sharing these experiences with other people in a theatrical setting and we strive to cultivate a community around that experience.
Calgary Showtimes: Pandora’s Box (1929) >
Calgary Cinematheque >
Calgary Cinematheque Facebook >
Calgary Cinematheque Twitter >
Facebook Event >
Eventbrite Tickets >