In a narrow definition of ther term, DIE BUECHSE DER PANDORA is not a German expressionist film. Ony about six films actually qualify as real expressionist films, utilizing the style of expressionist art and theatre in their set design and acting: CALIGARI, VON MORGENS BIS MITTERNACHT, GENUINE, ALGOL, ROSKOLNIKOV, and WAXWORKS. All of them were made between 1919 and 1923. Due to a misreading of Lotte Eisner's The Haunted Screen, many Anglo-American and French critics have defined German expressionism much more broadly, identifying virtually every German film from the 1920s as belonging. This is simply not true. Expressionist cinema is "art cinema". Literarlly thousands of German films were produced in the 1920s as genre films, whether comedies, or historical epics or "Heimat films". PANDORA'S BOX is for the most part a realistic film. Its editing structure (invisible cuts on movement) certainly qualify it as realistic, as well as most of the acting. There are moments in the film, when Pabst resorts to expressionistic lighting and camera angles, and one might possibly argue that the narrative itself is expressionistic. But it borrows from expressionism the way later AMerican film noirs borrowed from expressionism. A closer reading of Eisner will confirm that she does not characterize the film as expressionist, but rather highlights Pabst's realism. Chris Jan-Christopher Horak Director Archives & Collections Universal Studios > ---------- > From: gloria monti[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Reply To: Film and TV Studies Discussion List > Sent: Monday, June 29, 1998 9:16 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: a query > > Can an argument be made for *Pandora's Box* as a German > Expressionism film? > > Gloria Monti > > ______________________________ > > gloria monti > lecturer & director of undergraduate studies > film studies program, yale university > 53 wall st., #116, new haven, CT 06510 > voice mail: 203-432-0152 > fax: 203-776-1928 > e-mail: [log in to unmask] > http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~godard/index.html > > "Ou est donc la verite? De face ou de profil?" > Jean-Luc Godard > > ---- > Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite > http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite > ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite