“‘The first time the Dutchman Hendrick van der Zee (James Mason) appears before us...he is painting a portrait for which he has no model.... Swimming nude out to his ship (anchored off the village of Esperanza), Pandora (Ava Gardner) arrives aboard to discover her own features delineated in the picture....she looks exactly like the woman to whom the artist was married, hundreds of years before' (J.H. Matthews, ‘Surrealism and American Feature Films').
“A collector of surrealist art and a friend of Man Ray's, Albert Lewin set out to make a surrealist film. According to J.H. Matthews, Pandora is much influenced by the paintings of Chirico and Delvaux: ‘As utilized to surrealist effect by Buñuel and Lewin, the technique of composition by images is essentially an act of deliberate provocation.' Ado Kyrou finds in ‘the dazzling Ava Gardner the perfect example of the amorous woman. Throughout the film, Lewin has emphasized the predestination of a great love...his stubborn faith in love.'” --James Brook