Author Daniel Kehlmann in person with a screening of Pandora’s Box (1929)

Name: Author Daniel Kehlmann in person with a screening of Pandora’s Box (1929)
Start: 2026-03-03T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Cinema Arts Centre

Schedule

Tue, 03 Mar, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Cinema Arts Centre | Huntington, NY

Screening & Author Talk
AUTHOR DANIEL KEHLMANN IN PERSON with PANDORA’S BOX (1929) & a discussion of his new book, THE DIRECTOR
Tuesday, March 3rd at 7 PM
Film only: $20 Public | $13 Members
Film & Book: $48.50 Public | $41.50 Members
Join award-winning author, Daniel Kehlmann, for a screening of Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 silent film, Pandora’s Box, and a discussion of Kehlmann’s new novel, The Director. Kehlmann will be joined in conversation with Richard Salomon. Copies of The Director will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Theodore's Books.
ABOUT THE FILM: PANDORA’S BOX
G. W. Pabst’s sensationally modern and controversial melodrama, Pandora’s Box, defined the legendary persona of star Louise Brooks, solidifying her as ‘the' icon of the Jazz Age, and propelling her to international acclaim. Brooks is unforgettable as the brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, a young woman so beautiful and alluring that few can resist her siren charms. The men drawn into her web include respectable newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner), his musical producer son Alwa (Franz Lederer), circus performer Rodrigo Quast (Krafft-Raschig) and Lulu's seedy old friend, Schigolch (Carl Goetz). When Lulu's charms inevitably lead to tragedy, the downward spiral encompasses them all. Daring and stylish, Pandora's Box is one of silent cinema's great masterworks and a testament to Brooks' dazzling individuality. (Germany, 1929, 133 mins, Silent with English intertitles | Dir. G. W. Pabst)
ABOUT THE BOOK: THE DIRECTOR
An artist's life, a pact with the devil, and the dangerous illusions of the silver screen.
G.W. Pabst, one of cinema's greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him.
When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. Pabst, his wife, and his young son are suddenly confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. So, when Joseph Goebbels--the minister of propaganda in Berlin--sees the potential for using the European film icon for his directorial genius and makes big promises to Pabst and his family, Pabst must consider Goebbels's thinly veiled order. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.
Kehlmann's latest oeuvre explores the complicated relationships and distinctions between art and power, beauty and barbarism, cog and conspirator.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich in 1975. His novels and plays have won numerous prizes, including the Candide Prize, the Doderer Prize, the Kleist Prize, the Welt Literature Prize, and the Thomas Mann Prize. His novel Tyll was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, and Measuring the World has been translated into more than forty languages and is one of the biggest successes in post-war German literature. He currently lives in Berlin and New York.
Film presented courtesy of Janus Films. Restored from the best surviving 35mm elements at Haghefilm Conservation under the supervision of the Deutsche Kinemathek with the cooperation of George Eastman Museum, the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca di Bologna, Národní filmový archiv, and Gosfilmofond.