Asta Nielsen starredin a film adaptation of Wedekind's tragedy before the now better-known Pabstversion with Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box). Nielsen incarnated the femme fatalebut in a manner completely different (if more menacing) than that of Brooks. Thegreat theorist Béla Balázs wrote of this film in a 1923 articletitled "Asta Nielsen's Eroticism": "Nielsen's gestures, the wealthof her mimic expressions, is fascinating°.The extraordinary artistic standard ofAsta Nielsen's eroticism stems from its absolute intellectual quality. It is theeyes, not the flesh, that are of most importance°.This spiritualized eroticism isdangerously demoniacal as it comes through all clothing." The director,Leopold Jessner, was a pioneer of expressionist theater and imposed a style onthis tragedy that brought it close to the claustrophobic neighborhood ofCaligari, while exploiting its implicit voyeurism.