The Blue Bird (1976 film)

Last updated
The Blue Bird
Blue bird 1976 movie poster.jpg
Theatrical film poster
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Aleksei Kapler
Lyrics by Tony Harrison
Screenplay by Hugh Whitemore
Alfred Hayes
Story byIrina Golovanj
Irina Tarsanova
Based on The Blue Bird
1908 play
by Maurice Maeterlinck
Produced by Paul Maslansky
Starring Elizabeth Taylor
Jane Fonda
Cicely Tyson
Will Geer
Todd Lookinland
Nadezhda Pavlova
Ava Gardner
Cinematography Jonas Gricius
Freddie Young
Edited byStanford C. Allen
Tatyana Shapiro
Music by Irwin Kostal
Andrey Petrov
Production
company
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Release date
  • April 5, 1976 (1976-04-05)
Running time
99 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Soviet Union
LanguagesEnglish
Russian
Budget$12 million
Box office$3.5 million (US/ Canada) [1]

The Blue Bird is a 1976 American-Soviet children's fantasy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes, and Aleksei Kapler is based on the 1908 play L'Oiseau bleu by Maurice Maeterlinck. It was the fifth screen adaptation of the play, following two silent films, the studio's 1940 version starring Shirley Temple, and a 1970 animated feature. It was famous as one of the few cinematic co-productions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. However, unlike prior adaptations, the film received little-to-no critical praise and was a flop at the box office.

Contents

Plot

Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl are peasant children who are led on a quest for the Blue Bird of Happiness by the Queen of Light. She gives them a hat with a magic diamond that allows them to call forth the souls of all things, both living and inanimate.

On their journey, they are accompanied by the human personifications of a dog, a cat, water, sugar, bread, milk, and fire. They visit the kingdoms of the past and future and the queendoms of night and luxury, absorbing more wisdom at each place. Eventually, they discover that the blue bird they have been seeking has been in their own backyard all along.

Cast

Production

Edward Lewis optioned the film rights to The Blue Bird in 1968 and worked with Tower International to try to secure a co-production with the Soviet Union through a cultural exchange program in the United Kingdom. In 1974, Lewis reached an agreement with Lenfilm to create an international co-production co-written by Alfred Hayes and Aleksei Kapler. Lewis initially hired Arthur Penn to direct, but Soviet authorities deemed him "too liberal" and as a compromise George Cukor was hired as a "non-political" American director. Lewis convinced the Soviet studios to co-produce the film with the promise that Marlon Brando would be cast in a role, but this never materialized. Katharine Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine initially were signed to star, but both dropped out of the production before shooting began. [2] Taylor approached David Bowie to star in the film but he turned it down. [3]

The film was shot on location in Moscow and Leningrad. At times, both work and living conditions bordered on the primitive, and the non-Russian cast found it difficult to cope with the severe weather and mostly inedible food. James Coco, originally cast as Tylo, could digest only bread and butter and eventually suffered a gall bladder attack that necessitated his being replaced, and Elizabeth Taylor dealt with amoebic dysentery throughout filming. After viewing her appearance in the first week's dailies, Taylor flew to London and demanded that the director of cinematography Jonas Gricius, a Soviet Lithuanian cinematographer who was inexperienced in shooting with color film, be replaced. All of Taylor's scenes were reshot in post-production. [2] Gricius became a member of the second unit crew while Freddie Young became the cinematographer. [4] Communication between the English and Russian-speaking crews was nearly impossible, and George Cukor frequently resorted to sign language in a feeble effort to make himself understood. According to Cukor, Jane Fonda "was grim when she arrived but soon relaxed." [5] He encountered more difficulties with Cicely Tyson, whom he accused of trying to jinx the production by casting voodoo spells on the set. [6] When these issues caused the production to be delayed by a month, 20th Century Fox replaced Lewis with Paul Maslansky, who had experiences filming in the Soviet Union from The Red Tent and spoke Russian, as producer. Principal photography took place from January 20 to August 11, 1975. [2] Taylor spent $8,000 buying additional costumes for her roles. [7]

Critical reception

The film premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., on May 5, 1976. [2]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film as "two films that want to compete but don't, everyone being polite, accepting compromise, effectively neutered. One of these films is blandly American, like the sort of processed cheese sold in jars that can later be used as water glasses. The other is dimly Russian but without any real Russian character, except for the sets, which aren't great. They look like stuff left over from the Bolshoi Opera's last road tour...Spectacle for spectacle's sake no longer is the rage in this country. It can still work sometimes if it's put on a large patch of ice, but the romantic notions that motivate The Blue Bird are enough to send most American children, to say nothing of the ancients who may accompany them to the film, into antisocial states beginning with catatonia and ending in armed rebellion...Mr. Cukor...seems to have had less chance to direct in this case than to act as the goodwill ambassador who got his actors on and off the sets on time...None of the English-speaking actors can do much but behave as if he was in a very unlikely pageant...The Soviet cast members, who speak in badly dubbed English, are no better except when they are given a chance to dance." [8]

Variety wrote "Nobody's going to laugh in ridicule at any of it (it's that good) but nobody's going to be strongly moved (it's that bad)." [9]

Time Out New York called the film "a desperately pedestrian, hideously glitzy version of Maeterlinck's delicate fantasy" and added, "You'd never believe in a month of Sundays that Cukor directed it." [10]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and said that its production problems "show on the screen. Elizabeth Taylor has never looked uglier than she does portraying the spirit of light. She wears a '50s-spangled gown topped by a lava-like tiara. The Russians in the cast appear as interlopers, their speeches badly dubbed. The two starring children are as disingenuous as most movie children. Artistically grotesque moments abound. The film couldn't have its heart in a more right place, but what's up on the screen make this "The Blue Bird" one of unhappiness." [11]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film but lost to The Holes .

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Fonda</span> American actor (1905–1982)

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. On screen and stage, he often portrayed characters that embodied an everyman image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenfilm</span> Russian production company and film studio

Lenfilm is a Russian production company with its own film studio located in Saint Petersburg. It is a corporation with its stakes shared between private owners and several private film studios which operate on the premises. Since October 2012, the Chairman of the board of directors is Fyodor Bondarchuk.

<i>The Blue Bird</i> (play) 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck

The Blue Bird is a 1908 play by Belgian playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck. It premiered on 30 September 1908 at Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, and was presented on Broadway in 1910. The play has been adapted for several films and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera based on Maeterlinck's original play, and Maeterlinck's inamorata Georgette Leblanc produced a novelization.

<i>Kolberg</i> (film) 1945 Nazi propaganda film

Kolberg is a 1945 Nazi propaganda historical film written and directed by Veit Harlan. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it was intended to bolster the will of the German population to resist the Allies.

<i>Somethings Got to Give</i> 1962 unfinished film

Something's Got to Give is an unfinished American feature film shot in 1962, directed by George Cukor for 20th Century Fox and starring Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. A remake of My Favorite Wife (1940), a screwball comedy starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, it was Monroe's last work, but from the beginning of its production it was disrupted by her personal troubles, and after her death on August 4, 1962, the film was abandoned. Most of its completed footage remained unseen for many years.

A bluebird is one of several species in the songbird genus Sialia.

Aleksei Yakovlevich Kapler was a prominent Ukrainian filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and writer. He was known as screenwriter of many Soviet movies, such as Lenin in 1918, Amphibian Man, The Blue Bird and Striped Trip, as well as one of the anchors and directors of TV program Kinopanorama. In 1941, Kapler was awarded the Stalin Prize.

The Blue Bird is a 1910 silent film, based on the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck and starring Pauline Gilmer as Mytyl and Olive Walter as Tytyl. It was filmed in England.

<i>The Blue Bird</i> (1918 film) 1918 film by Maurice Tourneur

The Blue Bird is a 1918 American silent fantasy film based upon the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck and directed by Maurice Tourneur in the United States, under the auspices of producer Adolph Zukor. In 2004, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry.

<i>The Blue Bird</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Walter Lang

The Blue Bird is a 1940 American fantasy film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Walter Bullock was adapted from the 1908 play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck. Intended as 20th Century Fox's answer to MGM's The Wizard of Oz, which had been released the previous year, it was filmed in Technicolor and tells the story of a disagreeable young girl and her search for happiness.

The Blue Bird is a 1970 Soviet animated feature film based upon the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck. It was directed by Vasily Livanov and made at the Soyuzmultfilm studio.

<i>Maeterlincks Blue Bird: Tyltyl and Mytyls Adventurous Journey</i> Japanese anime television series

Maeterlinck's Blue Bird: Tyltyl and Mytyl's Adventurous Journey is a 1980 Japanese animated television series directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa, with character designs from Leiji Matsumoto. It is based on the 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck. The series was 26-episodes long when aired on Japanese television. The series was made in Japan between 1978 and 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiroshi Ōtake</span> Japanese actor and voice actor (1932–2022)

Hiroshi Ōtake was a Japanese actor and voice actor, represented by 81 Produce. He was best known for his roles as Nyarome in Mōretsu Atarō, Daisho in Himitsu no Akko-chan, Boss in Mazinger Z, Pāman 2 (Booby) in Pāman, King Nikochan in Dr. Slump, and Buta Gorilla in Kiteretsu Daihyakka. Ōtake died at the age of 90 on August 1, 2022, due to acute heart failure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluebird of happiness</span> Bird as harbinger or symbol

The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomiko Suzuki</span> Japanese voice actress

Tomiko Suzuki was a Japanese voice actress who was born in Aichi Prefecture and was affiliated with Aoni Production at the time of her death. Suzuki's last film was Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker, released only a week and half after Suzuki's death from a heart attack on July 7, 2003, at the age of 47.

Hiroshi Sasagawa is a Japanese creator of several anime and manga series. His name is romanized in some sources as Hiroshi Sasakawa.

<i>Loiseau bleu</i> (opera) 1919 opera by Albert Wolff

L'oiseau bleu is an opera in four acts by the French composer and conductor Albert Wolff. The libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck is based on his 1908 play of the same name. Boris Anisfeld designed the sets.

Yoshinobu Nishizaki was a Japanese film producer best known as one of the two co-creators of the anime series Space Battleship Yamato. He was sometimes credited as Yoshinori Nishizaki. He was born in 1934 and graduated from the Nihon University Art Department. He also founded the studio Academy Productions which produced the 1980 anime series; Space Emperor God Sigma for Toei Company.

Mari Okamoto is a Japanese actress and voice actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Collins (actor)</span> American actor (1883–1940)

Edward Bernard Collins was an American actor, comedian and singer. He is best remembered for voicing Dopey in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and for portraying Tylo in the Shirley Temple film The Blue Bird (1940).

References

  1. Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN   978-0-8108-4244-1. p233. Please note figures are rentals accruing to distributors and not total gross.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "The Blue Bird". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  3. Jones, Dylan (2017). David Bowie: A Life. Crown Archetype.
  4. Medved & Medved 1984, p. 127.
  5. Thomas, Kevin (October 26, 1975). "Out of Cukor's Nest, a 'Bird' of Love and Faith". Los Angeles Times. p. 29.
  6. McGilligan, Patrick, George Cukor: A Double Life. New York: St. Martin's Press 1991. ISBN   0-312-05419-X
  7. Medved & Medved 1984, p. 130.
  8. New York Times review Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  9. Variety review
  10. Time Out New York review
  11. Siskel, Gene (May 31, 1976). "'Won Ton Ton' can't save bad script". Chicago Tribune . Section 2, p. 9.

Works cited