a review of 潘多拉的魔盒

1st Annual Criterion Challenge Week 27: The 1920s Sometimes when I look at old photographs from around the turn of the 20th century, I'll notice somebody who seems arrestingly "modern." Not just in how they look or carry themselves, but in how they engage with the camera itself, in stark contrast to all of the stiff, uncomfortable-looking people we tend to see in historical photos. Louise Brooks gave me that same feeling every minute she appeared onscreen in this movie. Naturally part of it is just a self-fulfilling loop, where once someone becomes a style icon they just keep appearing again and again through the years. But at the same time Brooks also seems to be giving something resembling a more modern kind of performance, with less of the standard silent-film mugging and stagey body language and more nuance and subtlety.