Summary
In this 1917 cinematic adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s provocative source material, Lulu emerges as a primordial force of nature, a circus performer whose very existence defies the rigid, suffocating stratifications of early twentieth-century society. She is a creature of pure impulse, unburdened by the bourgeois morality that eventually seeks to domesticate her. While her heart remains tethered to the tragic clown Alfredo—a symbol of her bohemian origins—she finds herself ensnared in the orbit of Henri von Reithofen, a nobleman whose status is as fragile as his constitution. The narrative charts a harrowing descent as Henri, blinded by an all-consuming obsession with Lulu’s mercurial charm, systematically dismantles his own fortune and dignity to sustain her extravagant caprices. The film culminates in a bleak tableau of ruin, where the collision between aristocratic decadence and Lulu’s untamable liberty results in Henri’s self-annihilation, leaving behind a wreckage of social standing and a haunting meditation on the cost of unchecked desire.
The circus dancer Lulu is a thoroughly liberal being. Although she loves her former savior, the clown Alfredo, she begins a relationship with the noble Henri von Reithofen. Henri kills himself ruined by the horrendous expenses for Lulu.
