DVD & Blu-ray: PANDORA'S BOX / DIE BUCHSE DER PANDORA (1929) - Criterion Collection

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst seemed to have an innate talent for discovering actresses. And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst’s lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora’s Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone around her. Daring and stylish, Pandora’s Box is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality.

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

DVD & Blu-ray: G.W. Pabst's PARACELSUS (1943) Starring Werner Krauss

BUY FROM AMAZON

Product Description: A physician, alchemist, and spiritual guru, Paracelsus (1493-1541) was one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of science. And, like its subject, this 1943 film is shrouded in mystery, even though it was directed by one of the supreme stylists of the German cinema: G.W. Pabst. Werner Krauss (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) stars as the Swiss-born scientist, who faces the seemingly impossible task of protecting the German people from a coming plague, and calming a rising tide of mass hysteria. Despite being called “a remarkably interesting film” by The New York Times’s Vincent Canby (when it received its belated U.S. premiere in 1974), Paracelsus continues to be overlooked, along with most all of the films made in Germany during World War II. With fresh eyes, however, we can see that Paracelsus is not a propaganda film, but the work of an oppressed artist attempting to convey a humanist, possibly subersive message under the gaze of Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

Classic Movies: KAMERADSCHAFT (Comradeship - 1931) - Criterion Collection

<< BUY NOW >>

Product Description: When a coal mine collapses on the frontier between Germany and France, trapping a team of French miners inside, workers on both sides of the border spring into action, putting aside national prejudices and wartime grudges to launch a dangerous rescue operation. Director G. W. Pabst brings a claustrophobic realism to this ticking-clock scenario, using realistic sets and sound design to create the maze of soot-choked shafts where the miners struggle for survival. A gripping disaster film and a stirring plea for international cooperation, Kameradschaft cemented Pabst s status as one of the most morally engaged and formally dexterous filmmakers of his time.

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

Classic Movies: WESTFRONT 1918 (1930) - Criterion Collection

<< BUY NOW >>

Product Description: G. W. Pabst brought the war movie into a new era with his first sound film, a mercilessly realistic depiction of the nightmare that scarred a generation, in the director s native Germany and beyond. Digging into the trenches with four infantrymen stationed in France in the final months of World War I, Pabst illustrates the harrowing ordeals of battle with unprecedented naturalism, as the men are worn away in body and spirit by firefights, shelling, and the disillusion that greets them on the home front. Long unavailable, the newly restored Westfront 1918 is a visceral, sobering antiwar statement that is as urgent today as when it was made.

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.