Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: The Blue Bird

The Blue Bird (1940)

It’s always risky for a performer to go against type. Silent movie fans didn’t like it when Mary Pickford stepped out of her little girl roles. When Bill Murray played it straight in the remake of The Razor’s Edge (1984), it tanked big time. The same thing happened to the 1940 version of The Blue Bird when Shirley Temple, at the age of 12, played a selfish, mean spirited little girl. It was her first box office failure and marked the end of her career as a child star.

That’s too bad because if you enjoy old school fantasy films then The Blue Bird has a lot to offer. Essentially the film is 20th Century Fox’s answer to The Wizard of Oz. Shirley Temple was to have originally played Dorothy but the deal fell through when Jean Harlow died so Fox dusted off the Maurice Maeterlinck fantasy which had been made into a celebrated silent film in 1918 (which is still the best version and also readily available).

The story concerns two children, Mytyl and Tyltyl, who are sent on a quest to find the Blue Bird of Happiness. Along the way they visit the Land of Memory where they visit their dead grandparents (“We’re only dead when we’re forgotten” says the Grandmother), the Land of Luxury (where they have everything but are still unhappy), and the Kingdom of the Future (where they meet children who have yet to be born). They eventually find the Blue Bird but where they least expect it.

The production design is sumptuous recalling the paintings of Arnold Bocklin and Maxfield Parrish and the supporting cast of Eddie Collins, Gale Sondergaard and Nigel Bruce is exceptional. The musical score by Alfred Newman is memorable as is the cinematography. It’s no Wizard of Oz but The Blue Bird doesn’t deserve its current obscurity. You can rent the DVD locally or from Netflix or see it on a big screen in Hendersonville on September 30 (see Hendersonville Film Society listings).

Michelle Keenan’s Pick: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)

Salmon Fishing in Yemen was a delightful film out earlier this year. Everyone I know who saw it thoroughly enjoyed it, but with a title like that, I don’t think many people really went to see it. Now available on DVD, I’m making the oddly titled flick my pick of the month. This charming little film isn’t one of the best film’s of the year, but it is one of my personal favorite films of the year thus far. It also has a broader appeal than one may think.

When it’s time to spawn, salmon perform the challenging feat of swimming upstream to do procreate. When mild mannered British fisheries expert Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) receives a proposal from investment consultant, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, (Emily Blunt) on behalf of a sheikh (Amr Waked) to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen, he finds the idea ludicrous and politely declines. However, when the Prime Minster’s press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) gets wind of the idea, she seizes the opportunity for a good will story, makes it a matter of state, and there is no turning back. The result is an upstream journey to make the impossible possible.

Fred is the central figure and the narrative voice. Bonding over the love of fly fishing, Fred is charmed by the sheikh and won over by his faith in life and his belief in the impossible. As Fred, Harriet and the sheikh work together friendships are forged and it seems nothing will get in the way of making the sheikh’s dream come true. That is nothing except maybe civil unrest, terrorism and a war.

There is an underbelly to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, that is ever present and serves as a sad but true political commentary. While said belly is mostly played out in satire, it’s and odd but fitting tone. It’s a tone that I didn’t initially think they pulled off, but over time it has become less of an intrusion and more a part of the landscape of the film.

Ewan McGregor gives one of us his best performances in years. Emily Blunt is perfect as Harriet, and she and McGregor play well off of one another. Amr Waked is lovely as the philosophical, fly fishing sheikh. But the scene stealer in this film is Kristin Scott Thomas. She plays the brash, over zealous press secretary with wicked abandon and is a horrid hoot to watch

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a delight. If you didn’t get a chance to see it in the theatre, by all means rent it and enjoy.