The Blue Bird / Sinyaya Ptitsa
Language: Russian (mono), Russian (DD 5.1), English (DD 5.1 original), French (DD 5.1 offscreen translation); Subtitles: Russian, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Swedish, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese; No zone restriction; Fairy Tale; USSR/USA, Lenfilm, 1976, 100 min. Format: 4:3; This screen adaptation of the Maurice Maeterlinck's tale was the first Soviet-American co-production. The Blue Bird is an embodiment of happiness, both immediate and distant, that every person is sure to find if he recognizes it. The children of a woodcutter, Tiltil and Mitil, found themselves, while sleeping, in an amazing country, shown to them by Fairy Light. All domestic animals and foodstuffs come alive there and turn into real people. They helped the children fulfil the Fairy's request - find the Blue Bird, although the bird proved to look different from what the brother and sister had seen in their dreams. Awards: Honorary Diploma at the Teheran IFF for Children and Youth, 1976; Director: George Cukor; Script: Alexei Kapler, Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes; Music by: Irvin Costel, Andrei Petrov; Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Cicely Tyson, Ava Gardner, Margarita Terekhova, Georgy Vitsin, Oleg Popov, Nadezhda Pavlova, Todd Lookingland, Patsy Kanzit, Leonid Nevedomsky, Will Geer, Mona Washborn, Robert Morley, Garry Andrews