The Blue Bird

Two children of a poor family, Mytyl and Tyltyl, are sent by a fairy to look for the blue bird believed to bring happiness. Their journey leaves the ordinary world for the lands of memory, of the future and of night. They travel with companions in human form: the dog, the cat, light, fire, bread and water. Every time they find the bird they are looking for, they cannot hold on to it. The source is Maurice Maeterlinck's play. Maurice Tourneur's 1918 version is counted among the most ambitious fantasies of the silent era: sets built like a theatre stage, shadow play, double exposure and tinted frames. What the story arrives at is that happiness is found at home rather than somewhere sought. It has been filmed many times since, the best known being the 1940 version with Shirley Temple.