Reviews on movie The Blue Bird (2)

' Blue Bird' filmed at the studio '20th century Fox' as an answer ' The Wizard of Oz' mistakenly considering the success of the classical musical the beginning of the universal demand for children's fantasy. Even the first 20-plus minutes are filmed in black and white (the transition to color, however, is less interesting than in Oze' and having appeared once - the color no longer disappears from the film). In one of the roles starred characteristic actress Gail Sondergaard, auditioned for the role of the Witch in the film Fleming.
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As a child, I had a big such fool - a fabulous encyclopedia of palpable gravity, which I stuffed into the cooler and took to the dacha to my grandfather and grandmother, and there was a fairy tale Maeterlinka about ' Blue Bird' and frankly, the fairy tale did not go at that time. Here'Country of Oz' is my topic. If you've never come to a bookstore and asked ', do you have a book by Ruth Plumley Thompson?', and you've never been looked at as a dick from the planet Nibiru, you've never been me. As far as I understand from the reviews of people who read Materlinck’s fairy tale: something was added to the Shirley Temple film, and many key characters were removed so as not to overshadow the young actress. As for the secondary storyline associated with military operations (after all, the film of the 1940th), then I guessed it myself about some of its foreignness, it was felt.
There were no musical scenes at all, except for a short scene with Shirley, in which she performs yodel, so as not to disappoint her fans, whom she fell in love with as a musical actress. However, this circumstance did not help the film and at the box office it failed, as many were dissatisfied with the image of Shirley - a kind of rebellious and selfish girl in the prologue of the picture, while she was associated with something infinitely bright.
In general, there is a lot of age-old, timeless and genuine wisdom in the film, I would say. Like a scene where the deceased grandparents in the form of a fantasy meet with the main characters and the grandmother says that ' we are alive as long as we are remembered' These are very touching moments. Or when the main characters fall into the heavenly elysium, in which they meet the souls of unborn children.

In addition, in the film a lot of picturesque shots ... There are, of course, some absurd points, but they do not spoil the impression. If the child is not afraid of the mention of the cemetery and several related scenes, you can safely watch. There are no nightmares like bats or zombies.
In the finale, the character of Temple undergoes a mental change and realizes that first, a poor person and a person who does not have a lot of money are two big differences, and secondly, you can not be unhappy without making others unhappy. . .

8 out of 10

Oh, Shirley Temple, Shirley Temple. If I had known about such a wonderful actress, I would have watched a few pictures with her long ago. To my shame, I met the actress only yesterday, watching the film adaptation of The Blue Bird by Maurice Meterlink, one of my favorite works.

I can’t believe that back in 1940, almost at the dawn of the development of cinema, it was so beautiful, colorful and interesting to shoot an immortal story about brother and sister Mitil and Tiltil, who in Russian translation for some reason lost the “soft sign” at the end of their names. Perhaps for a sophisticated viewer, such special effects will seem antediluvian, but they have an undoubted charm that takes the viewer to the burning forest, then to the cemetery, then to the chic palace of Mr. and Mrs. Luxury and even raises to the sky, where little children wait for their hour: on the ground of their arrival, their mother is waiting...
History is instructive in itself. At the very beginning of the picture, we see a spoiled and rather capricious girl who reproaches her parents with poverty. She does not show her envy for children who live better than them, but deep down she blazes with rage: why do some get everything and others (particularly them) get nothing? In the New Year's Eve episode, Mitil refuses the food offered with his head held high: "We are poor but proud." And throughout the picture, we watch the girl's pride descend to "no." Especially after meeting Mr. and Mrs. Luxury. Even to her Dog she says a phrase that changes the attitude of the viewer: "Mom and Dad are not poor, they simply do not have money, and this is not the same."
But most of all, I remember the episode with the Kingdom of the Future, where a brother and sister get acquainted with their future sister, who immediately warns them that they will not be together for long (apparently hinting at their imminent death), there they also see a heart-wrenching scene between two lovers who, at the behest of Grandfather Time, have to part, and forever. At the moment when a little child wants to come down to the ground early, to his mother, and Time does not let her, it is simply impossible not to smile.
After all these journeys, Mitil and Tiltil have a reassessment of values that we see in the final scene. Adventures in the middle of the night became the starting point in the formation of the character of each of the characters. Parents do not cease to be surprised by the pleasant changes in the souls of their children, and children do not cease to rejoice in the most banal things that hitherto they would simply ignore.

What about the Blue Bird? Did Mitil and Tiltil find her? Are there blue birds in nature? Watch this wonderful story before you go to sleep. In the morning you will find the answer to the main question of this story.

10 out of 10