THE BLUEBIRD
US/USSR, 1976, 99 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Ava Gardner, Cicely Tyson, Robert Morley, Harry Andrews, Patsy Kensit, Will Geer, Mona Washbourne, George Cole.
Directed by George Cukor.
The Blue Bird is based on the fairy tale by Maeterlinck. It was filmed in the late 1930s as a star vehicle for Shirley Temple.
This film was the first collaboration in film-making between the United States and the Soviet Union. Veteran director George Cukor, aged seventy-seven at the time, was chosen as director. (During the 1970s Cukor made few films but they were with Katharine Hepburn including Travels With My Aunt, Love Among the Ruins and the remake of The Corn is Green.)
Thre is a very strong star cast to enhance the reputation of the film. Elizabeth Taylor is the queen of the fairies but also acts as the mother, the witch and maternal love. Jane Fonda symbolises the night and Ava Gardner luxury. During the travels of the little girl looking for the blue bird of happiness, various animals materialise into people including Cicely Tyson as the cat, Harry Andrews as the oak, George Cole as the dog. Bread and sugar and milk also materialise – the milk turning into a ballerina.
The film was not well reviewed when it was released – perhaps it was too star-heavy, perhaps it was too sweetness-and-light, perhaps it was too heavy-handed for children. However, as an item in George Cukor’s career as well as an item in the CV of the stars, it is a cinema curiosity.
1. How enjoyable this fable? the nature of its appeal, for whom was it made? Comment on the very hostile reactions of the critics.
2. The use of colour, costumes and sets, Russian background, music, the numerous stars? Fantasy and reality?
3. The appeal of a fable and allegory? Enjoyment, concentration on the detail for the message? the importance of detail? How good a fable was this?
4. The style for the fables how clear? how difficult? The visualizing of messages? The difficulty of dramatizing fantasy and message? How well did it work? Did the audience understand the message through the entertainment?
5. What was the basic message of the fable? That the world is ordinary, that the bluebird symbolizes a quest for happiness, the nature of good and evil, time and eternity, that we must return to the ordinariness of life, that generosity is life-giving?
6. The impact of the openings the children returning home, the danger, mother and her anxiety the father, the nature of the household, the children's punishment and their going to sleep? The atmosphere to communicate the children and their quest, the role of their mother in their dreams?
7. Why did they dream? Their surprise of seeing the witch, her purpose, the mission she gave them, the quest for the Bluebird as she explained it? The attractiveness and the repulsion of the witch? Elizabeth Taylor playing the witch?
8. The significance of Milk and the others coming alive? The various personalities and styles of the characters, their correspondence to their inanimate or animal life? Comment on Milk, Bread, Sugar, Fire and Water the dog and the cat? The interaction amongst themselves? Their relationship to the children? The group that was going on the quest?
9. The importance of the witch turning into light? The significance of Light being the guide, the symbolism of this? Again the significance of Elizabeth Taylor playing the role? What kind of a person was Light, the nature of her guidance, her kindness? The fact that she later appeared as the symbolism of maternal love? Her power her lack of power, especially with Night?
10. The significance of the visit to the grandparents? Death, life after death, the timeless limbo? The memories of the past, the joy of the grandparents?
11. The significance of Night and the castle? The symbolism of blackness in costume and outlook? Cat and her plotting against the others with Night? The personality of Night, her control over things? Her attitudes towards the children? Her introduction of the various rooms, the ghosts and their fearsomeness, the spirit of war? The deceptive Garden of Dreams? The impostor Bluebird and its death? The deception associated with Night?
12. Comment on the various places that the children went, their symbolism and significance? The importance of the Garden of Dreams and Luxury, the presentation of enjoyment, pleasure and frivolity and youth, the luxury of being rich, of doing nothing, of loving oneself, the luxury of understanding nothing? The people there and their behaviour? The repulsion of such luxury? The personality of Luxury and her relationship with the children? A kindly guide, later being selfish? The contrast with the Meadow of Happiness and the encounter with the clown, the joys of being well? sunny hours and winter fires, fair and falling rain, home and spring, loving one’s parents? The contrast with the brooding forest, the oak and his revenge against the human race, the terrors of the forest? What did the children learn in these places?
13. The presentation of time and eternity? The humour of Father Time, and yet his impersonal cruelty in sending people to be born? The children, the children being parted from friends, not wanting to be born etc,?
14. The contrast with Motherly Love and the hope that this gave the children?
15. The discovery that the Bluebird was continually elusive? The climax of finding the Bluebird and learning about it?
16. How sad was the return home, all things going back to their ordinariness, the devotion of Milk and Sugar, Fire and Water and Bread and their explanations of themselves, the devotion of the dog, the cattiness of the cat? The significance of Light herself putting the children to bed and disappearing?
17. The importance of waking up to reality? Of love of mother and family, of ordinary things?
18. The symbolism and generosity of giving away the Bluebird? Of wanting the sick girl to smile? The escape of the bird and the continued quest?
19. How valuable are moral fables? What do they teach, how do they teach, how does the message remain?
