I did a rave about PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN a while back, Albert Lewin's fantastically styled delirious surreal swoonsome melodrama from 1951. Yesterday a friend and I saw it again on the big screen at a special matinee at the local art cinema, and it was a revelation. There is just so much in it to savour - those interiors, Ava's endless supply of amazing dresses and lush close-ups of her. There couldn't have been anyone more beautiful than her then, and James Mason is also magnetic as the mysterious Dutchman whose schooner arrives in that Spanish bay, as the expats enjoy the local culture, headed by playgirl Pandora and her admirers including Marius Goring drinking himself to death and motor racer Nigel Patrick who will send his beloved car over the cliff when Pandora asks him to, and then that bullfigher who wants to eliminate the competition so he can have Pandora to himself - but the Dutchman cannot be got rid of that easily, as Pandora finds out that "the measure of one's love is what one will give up for it". Jack Cardiff's photography is up there with his work on BLACK NARCISSUS. Its a movie one can sink into and watch again just to savour those moments. Its now in my top 20!
Next up on the big screen: revivals of BONJOUR TRISTESSE [more on that later with some nice photos] and maybe THE INNOCENTS [already discussed here as per label] in the current Deborah Kerr season in London.
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