The Blue Bird-1918-Maurice Tourneur-One of the most beautiful films of all time-Full movie
"
The Blue Bird" is a
1918 silent film directed by
Maurice Tourneur in the
United States, under the auspices of producer
Adolph Zukor and is one of the most beautiful, captivating phantasy films of all time. 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.
When poor old widow Berlingot asks Tyltyl and Mytyl, the young son and daughter of her more prosperous neighbors, for the loan of their pet bird to cheer up her ill daughter, Mytyl selfishly refuses. That night, when the children are asleep, the fairy Bérylune enters their home in the semblance of Berlingot, before transforming into her true beautiful appearance. She insists that the children search for the bluebird of happiness. She gives Tyltyl a magical hat which has the power to show him the insides of things. As a result, the souls of fire, water, light, bread, sugar and milk becoming personified, and their pet dog and cat can now speak with their masters. Before they all set out, Bérylune warns the children that their new companions will all perish once their quest is achieved.
The fairy then takes them to various places to search. At the
Palace of
Night, the traitorous cat forewarns the
Mother of Night, having heard the fairy's prediction. The dog saves Tyltyl from one of the dangers of the palace. In a graveyard, the dead come alive at
midnight, and Tyltyl and Mytyl are reunited with their grandmother, grandfather and siblings. They receive a blue bird, but when they leave, it disappears.
Next, they visit the
Palace of Happiness. After seeing various lesser joys and happinesses, they are shown the greatest of them all: maternal love in the form of their own mother.
Finally, they are transported to the
Kingdom of the
Future, where children wait to be born, including their brother.
Nowhere do they find the bluebird.
Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. Mytyl gives the bird to Berlingot. She returns shortly afterward with her daughter, now well. However, the bird escapes from the daughter's grasp and flies away. Tyltyl comforts the upset neighbor girl, then turns to the audience and asks the viewers to search for the bluebird where they are most likely to find it: in their own homes.
The film was shot in
Fort Lee, New Jersey, when many early film studios in
America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the
20th century.
The New York Times gave the film a highly favorable review, calling it a "hit on screen", and stating that "seldom, if ever, has the atmosphere and spirit of a written work been more faithfully reproduced in motion pictures." Of the actors, the critic wrote, "Tyltyl and Mytyl are as delightful as children, real or imaginary, ever are.
Robin Macdougall and
Tula Belle make them so", and "all in the play were thoroughly pleasing."
Cast:
Tula Belle as Mytyl
Robin Macdougall as Tyltyl
Edwin E. Reed as
Daddy Tyl
Emma Lowry as Mummy Tyl
William J.
Gross as
Grandpa Gaffer Tyl
Florence Anderson as
Granny Tyl
Edward Elkas as
Widow Berlingot
Katherine Bianchi as Widow Berlingot's
Daughter
Lillian Cook as Fairy Bérylune
Gertrude McCoy as
Light
Lyn
Donelson as Night
Charles Ascot as Dog
Tom Corless as Cat
Mary Kennedy as
Water
Eleanor Masters as
Milk
Charles Craig as
Sugar
Sammy Blum as
Bread
S.E. Potapovitch as
Fire
Directed by Maurice Tourneur
Written by
Maurice Maeterlinck
Music by
Edward Falck,
Hugo Riesenfeld
Cinematography
John van den Broek
Editing by
Clarence Brown
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) March 31, 1918
Country United States
Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org
New soundtrack and dubbing: Cinemateca
Music:
Kevin Mac Leod (incompetch.com) licensed under
Creative Commons licence:
Attribution 3.0 Unported (
CC BY 3.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
3.0/