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Made in Germany, released on the 23rd of November, 1928.
Gay: 2 out of 9 |
Lesbian: 9 out of 9 |
Trans: N/A |
Queer: N/A |
Augusta Geschwitz, the countess, is openly lesbian. In the musical revue, the men dressed as Romans carry women in their arms, except for one in the rear who’s carrying another man.
Lulu (Louise Brooks) is the quintessential corrupting seductress. She lives with Dr. Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner), her latest affair, in his opulent apartment, while he tries to shed himself of her and the scandal she’s causing. He’s engaged to Charlotte Adelaide (Daisy d’Ora) and through with Lulu, but she makes it perfectly clear only death will ever part them.
An old familiar returns to Lulu’s life, a man named Schigolch (Carl Goetz), with news of a variety show and a part open in it for her. Schön hears of it, but, even though he wants her out of his life, he still loves her and wants better for her. His son, a stage director named Alwa (Francis Lederer), creates a part in his musical revue. Alwa is Lulu’s best friend, perhaps, she imagines, because he’s the only one who’s never loved her
Alwa asks his father why he doesn’t marry Lulu, the two of them being so obviously in love. “One doesn’t marry that kind of woman,” he says. “It would be death.” Schön intends to marry Adelaide, but when she catches him with Lulu in the prop closet at the theatre, she breaks the engagement. Instead, he marries Lulu.
A party is held on their wedding night, with Schigolch, who is revealed to be Lulu’s father, present and very drunk, along with Alwa and Countess Augusta Geschwitz (Alice Roberts), a lesbian. The treatment of her character is very modern: she’s unquestionably out, and everyone acknowledges it, yet it’s not taken as anything at all unusual and has no bearing on the story. Alwa, who is leaving that night, falls for Lulu and begs her to come with him. Schön returns, stern-faced, and sends him away. Alone with Lulu, he gives her a gun and instructs her to kill herself. There’s a confused scuffle, the gun goes off. Schön kisses Lulu before slumping to the floor, dead.
Lulu stands trial for murder. The prosecutor likens her to Pandora: beautiful, charming, flattering, but a heedless bringer of evil to every life she comes into. She’s found guilty, but of the lesser crime of manslaughter, and sentenced to five years. Geschwitz, Schigolch, and Rodrigo Quast (Carl Raschig), the director of the variety show Schigolch told Lulu about, have prepared for this eventuality. Just as the verdict is read, a conspirator pulls the fire alarm in the court house and everyone is sent into a panic. During the confusion, Lulu escapes.
Lulu goes back to Schön’s apartment, where she meets Alwa. They decided to leave the country together, Geschwitz lending Lulu her passport. On the train, a man recognizes her, the Marquis Casti Piani (Michael von Newlinsky). Alwa pays him the reward money of 5000 Marks to prevent him from going to the police. In return, he offers to take them somewhere safe and discreet.
They go to a ship docked at a remote port. Alwa develops a gambling problem and is steadily losing all their money, meanwhile everyone comes to collect their debts from Lulu at once. Quast threatens to turn her in if she doesn’t find 20,000 Marks to fund his next show. Quast is in love with Geschwitz, and she with the greatest hesitation agrees to lead him on and keep him busy in the hopes Alwa will soon win the money at the poker table. When he’s caught cheating, Lulu is nearly sold into slavery in a Cairo brothel. The police raid the ship. When searching the cabins, they discover a very frazzled Geschwitz and Quast dead on the floor. Lulu is nowhere to be found: she escaped with her father and Alwa in a lifeboat. They run away to London.
In London, they live in a garret, where Lulu supports them as a prostitute. It’s Christmastime, and plastered all over the city are warnings to lone women of a serial killer, Jack the Ripper, on the loose. Though Alwa is wary, Lulu picks up a man on the street (Gustav Diessl). She takes him to the garret. Behind his back, he pulls a knife in the stairwell, but drops it when he sees Lulu smile. They go inside and they kiss under the mistletoe. With Lulu in his lap, the kerosene lamp starts to flicker out and his eye catches a knife on the table. He struggles against himself, but in the end grabs it.
He passes by Alwa on the way out. A parade goes by, and after it, Alwa is alone. He walks away into the night.
Cast and crew
Subpages
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