Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)

Ava Gardner: Pandora Reynolds

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Pandora Reynolds : [looking at Hendrik's painting of her]  It's not me as I am at all. But it's what I'd like to be.

  [looking at Hendrik] 

  Pandora Reynolds : Why am I not like that?

  Hendrik : Perhaps because you're unfulfilled. Perhaps you've not found what you want. Perhaps you do not even know what you want, perhaps you're discontented. Discontent appeases itself by fury and destruction.

  Pandora Reynolds : [suddenly angry]  Fury and destruction! Is that your opinion? Well perhaps I can find something here to destroy.

  Hendrik : I have no doubt you will.

  Pandora Reynolds : Your painting of me, for example. Would you like me to destroy your painting?

  Hendrik : [calmly]  If it would help to quiet your soul.

  Pandora Reynolds : How long have you worked at it?

  Hendrik : [still perfectly calm]  Does it matter?

  Pandora Reynolds : Is there any reason why I shouldn't remove my face from your painting, if I wish to?

  Hendrik : None at all.

  Pandora Reynolds : [picks up a palette knife]  Shall I do it then?

  Hendrik : By all means.

  Pandora Reynolds : [Pandora uses the knife to deface the painting. Hendrik watches then calmly and wordlessly comes over to inspect the damage] 

  [stunned by his calmness] 

  Pandora Reynolds : Aren't you angry?

  Hendrik : I was angry once long ago. I can never be angry again.

  Pandora Reynolds : [pause, then quietly]  You've made me feel quite ashamed. It's a new sensation, I'm not sure I like.

• Pandora Reynolds : No one has the right to read Dutch. Unless of course you are Dutch, like Hendrik.

• Pandora Reynolds : I am Pandora Reynolds of Indianapolis and points East.

• Pandora Reynolds : [singing]  Oh, how am I to know, If it's really love, That's found its way here? Oh, how am I to know, Will it linger on, And leave me then? I dare not guess, At this strange happiness, For, oh, How am I to know, Can it be that love, Has come to stay here?

• Pandora Reynolds : What Reggie did had nothing to do with us, Stephen; only with me.

• Janet : How can you forget Reggie so easily? Have you no feelings at all?

  Pandora Reynolds : Yes, I have. I feel relieved.

• Hendrik : What would you give up?

  Pandora Reynolds : I've asked myself that question.

  Hendrik : Your life, for instance? Would you give up your life?

  Pandora Reynolds : Yes, I would. I'd die for you without the least hesitation. I know that sounds extravagant. But, I thought about it and I mean it. I'd give up my life for you. That's the measure of my love. And you? What would you give up?

  Hendrik : My salvation.

  Pandora Reynolds : But, that's even more than life.

• Pandora Reynolds : You seem to have been expecting me.

  Hendrik : Perhaps I have been. Listen to this, "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit, Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

• Janet : Why didn't you stop him?

  Pandora Reynolds : It was his life.

  Janet : He loved you.

  Pandora Reynolds : What is love?

  Janet : You're old enough to know.

  Pandora Reynolds : Oddly enough I don't.

• Geoffrey Fielding : Why do you make yourself out so bad?

  Pandora Reynolds : I don't have to. I leave that to others.

• Pandora Reynolds : Reggie was always talking about suicide. I coaxed him out of it night after night. I finally get fed up with alcoholic self-pity and threats of self-destruction. I was bored with it. It's over now and I'm not sorry. Anyhow, life is not important. Not when it's somebody else's life.

• Pandora Reynolds : There's a strange yacht in the bay.

  Stephen Cameron : It doesn't take much to set you reeling. I suppose you imagine your destiny's on board that boat - along with Nelson or the Flying Dutchman.

  Pandora Reynolds : Who is the Flying Dutchman, Stephen?

  Stephen Cameron : I haven't the vaguest idea.

• Janet : I love you, Pandora. I lie awake at night wondering what I can do to make you believe how much I love you.

  Pandora Reynolds : What would you do for me, Stephen? What perfectly, incredible thing would you do for me?

  Janet : I would do anything. Anything.

• Pandora Reynolds : If you still want me, that is. Or, do you hate me now?

• Geoffrey Fielding : The legend says the Flying Dutchman is allowed to land once every seven years, to look for the woman who can redeem him.

  Pandora Reynolds : Redeem him from what?

  Geoffrey Fielding : His curse! He's doomed to wander the sea till judgement day as the captain of a ghost ship; unless, he can find a woman who loves him enough to die for him.

• Pandora Reynolds : Hello, there. Ahoy, there on deck. - - Hello, there! - - Hello. Sailor on watch, where are you? Is there nobody there?

• Pandora Reynolds : What's wrong with you two philosophers standing here in the dark? Is your conversation so bright that you don't need other illumination?

• Pandora Reynolds : A lot can happen between now and September the third.

• Pandora Reynolds : What do you see out there? The past and the future? Or, some fabulous land beyond the maps? I'm interested in the present, tonight. The here and the now.

• Hendrik : "The Sea of Faith, Was once, too, at the full - The world, which seems, To lie before us like a land of dreams - Has really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; But we are here as on a darkling plain, Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night."

  Pandora Reynolds : I know that poem. It's an English poem.

  Hendrik : Yes.

  Pandora Reynolds : Not that a Dutchman should be able to quote an English poem. But, I got over big surprises at you a long time ago.

  Hendrik : It's a poem about the sea. I know a great deal about the sea.

  Pandora Reynolds : You love the sea.

  Hendrik : Love the sea?

  [kiss] 

• Pandora Reynolds : I've changed so since I've known you. I'm not cruel and hateful as I used to be. Hurting people because I was so unhappy myself. I know now what destructiveness comes from. It's a lack of love. It's as simple as that.

• Pandora Reynolds : You're so silent. But, it isn't easy to find words for big emotions. Although, I seem to have found them. I've bottled up my emotions for so long, I had to speak or explode. You have no idea the things I've imagined myself saying to you.

• Hendrik : What strange dream have you had to bring you here at this time of night?

  Pandora Reynolds : A dreadful dream.

• Pandora Reynolds : I'll die if I don't see him again.

  Geoffrey Fielding : You'll live!

• Hendrik : I can command the sails; but, not the wind. I thought then that I might see you again.

  Pandora Reynolds : And I was so afraid you wouldn't.

• Hendrik : How long do you think it's been since you came in here?

  Pandora Reynolds : Oh, I don't know. Not very long. It seems - timeless.

  Hendrik : Yes. Timeless. As if we were enchanted.

  Pandora Reynolds : Yes.

  Hendrik : All my centuries of solitude, when my despair was so great, I prayed to die. It's as if they'd never been.

• Pandora Reynolds : I can hardly think back, even to yesterday.

  Hendrik : Because yesterday and all that went before was imperfect, unfulfilled, unreal. But, our love is real. It has not sense of time.

  Pandora Reynolds : Darling, I think I understand what you're trying to tell me. I've no need to ask for a week, a month, a year.

  Hendrik : No need.

  Pandora Reynolds : It's as if - we're under a spell. Outside of time. Unending.

  Hendrik : Unending.