Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786303918471 Format: Color, NTSC ISBN: 6303918476 Label: Kino Video Manufacturer: Kino Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Kino Video Release Date: June 27, 2000 Running Time: 122 minutes Sales Rank: 3298 Studio: Kino Video Theatrical Release Date: October 15, 1951
Amazon.com: There are few films that can be acclaimed as truly mad, but Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stands rather wonderfully in this category. Its combination of lust and erudition is inspired by mythology but seems peopled by characters from some hybrid novel co-authored by Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is a singer in a coastal town in Spain, where her hobby is attracting the devoted love of powerful men made helpless in her presence. (A race-car driver blithely pushes his one-of-a-kind vehicle over a cliff, just to earn her trust.) While fending off other suitors, including a bullfighter, she becomes intrigued by the mystery man (James Mason) whose yacht is moored offshore. Since he is Dutch, perhaps he is related to the mythical, immortal Flying Dutchman? Don't think it can't happen in this overheated affair. Gardner and Mason are not at their best (she looks ultra-glamorous, of course), but their movie-star wattage is high. The real star is the Technicolor cinematography by the great Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes); the throbbing colors are just right for the unreal scenario playing out before us. Writer-director Albert Lewin, probably best known for his Picture of Dorian Gray, had a literary bent, and in this movie that means people are constantly planting their feet and reciting snippets of poetry toward the moonlit sea. Somehow this fits in perfectly with the rest of the delirium. --Robert Horton
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Rating: - Classic Ethereal Fantasy
Albert Lewin's independently produced and directed UK film PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951) is one of the most ethereal and haunting love stories ever filmed. Lewin directs with keen eyes and doesn't often stray from the ethereal atmosphere, to the viewers delight. We get truly superb performances by the entire cast, particularly Ava Gardner, who delivers a heart-felt and very memorable performance. Not to mention the other-worldly photography, which is beautifully shot by two-time Oscar winner, the master cinematographer, Jack Cardiff (BLACK NARCISSUS,THE RED SHOES). Another major addition to this film is the musical score by classical composer Alan Rawsthorne, which is dream-like and uplifting, yet blended with a sense of melancholy. The score also blends poetically with the other-worldly visual richness to extraordinary effect. Fans of classic fantasy films are sure to be delighted. Highly recommended.
Rating: - Challenging, Intriguing, Entertaining, and Sensual
Albert Lewin, the writer/director of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, had a distinctive style that was unique in Hollywood. His surrealist references, the choreography-like blocking of his characters, and his fascination with existential/psychological themes may have been more obvious in his films of the 1940's (The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Moon and Sixpence) but they are all present here as well. Blended with the lush sensuality of the Spanish Coast, mirrored in his heroine, Pandora, they are less obvious and more richly illustrated.
Lewin was never interested in a naturalistic style of film making; he lets the theme dominate the characters, moving them like chess pieces toward their fate. In this case, the theme is human passion. In the opening scenes we are introduced to the theme through the suicide-for-love of one of Pandora's suitors counterpointed by the impassioned flamenco dancing of La ... Read More
Rating: - ACE
Speedy delivery as always. DVD was delivered in perfect condition and is being well enjoyed. Hope to do more business with you in the near future.
Rating: - confusing, Curdled elements. Not the one I originally saw !
Many , many years ago , in Britain, I saw a DIFFERENT version of this movie which was riveting and fascinating. (I have NEVER forgotten the lines about "The moving finger writes and having writ moves on...."!) The end of the movie was in B+W, with them both leaning over the rail of the Flying Dutchman and mist and sea spray adding to the "DOOMED" aura. This version was both disappointing and almost embarassing in its flamboyant, self-indulgent, self-consciousness....PLUS the over saturated color-work. However, as it happens I can find no reference to the copy I originally saw....??
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- Classic Ethereal Fantasy
- confusing, Curdled elements. Not the one I originally saw !
