Albert Lewin’s gloriously Technicolor modern myth “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” is almost unique — a staid yet outlandish star-vehicle that is also an exercise in by the book surrealism.
The movie, which stars Ava Gardner and James Mason in the title roles, is at the Quad Cinema, digitally restored to sensational effect. A more transgressive surrealist like Luis Buñuel might have found “Pandora” hilariously sanctimonious but it casts a spell just the same.
Based on the legend that inspired Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman,” “Pandora” has the doomed-to-wander sea captain cast anchor off the coast of a picturesque Spanish town, circa 1930. On shore and mad with desire, the men of the expat community are metaphorically sipping champagne from the slipper of the Indiana-born American singer, Pandora Reynolds (Gardner).
One hapless suitor kills himself, another demonstrates his adoration by pushing a beloved racing car off a cliff. Moments after agreeing to marriage, Pandora spots the mysterious yacht and impetuously dives into the sea. Swimming nude to the boat, she discovers its sole occupant, a dourly enigmatic Dutchman (James Mason), painting her portrait.
An arrogant matador (Mario Cabré, a former torero who had an onset affair with Gardner) further complicates the plot as the various love stories unfold amid a clutter of surrealist bric-a-brac — disembodied hands entwined in a tangled fisherman’s net, a racing car speeding past a headless Greek statue, a geometric chess set designed by Lewin’s friend Man Ray (who also painted Gardner’s portrait).
Lewin, an MGM producer who took a break from the epic “Quo Vadis” to make “Pandora,” a movie he wrote as well as directed, was not only a serious art collector but an English major at Harvard. Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” and “The Rubaiyat” are among the movie’s literary references. More evocative are the bullfights and Lost Generation shenanigans — a madcap cabana party with men in evening attire and women wearing swimsuits dancing the Charleston by the sea — seemingly cribbed from “The Sun Also Rises.” Pandora is sister to Lady Brett Ashley (a role Gardner would play in the 1957 Hollywood version of the Hemingway novel).
None of this sat well with the movie’s original critics. The closest to a mixed review was written by Howard Thompson in The New York Times. Thompson noted the “brilliance and invention” of the cinematography and name-checked the camera man Jack Cardiff, celebrated for his ravishing work in Michael Powell’s “Black Narcissus” and “The Red Shoes.”
“Pandora” has an abundance of local color (including one of the longest flamenco numbers in any movie without the name “Carmen” in its title) but color itself is a greater attraction. Gardner shows up at a bullfight wearing an outfit of seafoam green that is so intense it may as well be the only green in the movie or maybe the universe.
Reviewing “Pandora” on DVD in the Times, Dave Kehr felt the colors were off, noting “that pixels can’t always restore what fading chemicals have taken away.” In this new restoration they have.
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Friday through Feb. 13 at the Quad Cinema, Manhattan; 212-255-2243, quadcinema.com.
Rewind is an occasional column covering revived, restored and rediscovered movies playing in New York’s repertory theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
