Key words: Albert Lewin, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, classical tradition, semiology, surrealism, cinema, Greek mythology, Ava Gardner, James Mason

Albert Lewin, a well-known Hollywood cinema director who is significantly influenced by the surrealistic movement, brings together the myth of Pandora and the legend of the flying Dutchman in order to create an exemplary love story, a crazy love story which goes beyond the limits of human reason. Bearing in mind, then, that if one wants to believe in this sort of love story must not be guided by human reason stricto sensu, he builds a world of signs, a semiologic world which this article aims at helping to interpret.