Independent Films, Film Profiles

Tintin and the Blue Oranges

Tintin and the Blue Oranges (originally Tintin et les Oranges Bleues) is a 1964 French film. It was the second live-action movie, with an original story based on characters from the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, written and drawn by the Belgian artist Hergé. Tintin was played by Jean-Pierre Talbot, who also starred as Tintin in the previous film, Tintin and the Golden Fleece.The book form is rarer than its predecessor, the English version particularly so. The term of the "blue orange" is a moderately popular image among the French, and was originally inspired by Paul Éluard's strange quote "Earth is blue like an orange" as a reference to the colour of the fruit when it rots.Professor Calculus's (Feliz Fernandez) friend develops a blue-skinned orange that can grow on any kind of land and survive harsh weather (in the manner of Lue Gim Gong) and therefore solve world hunger. The Professor and his friends, however, run afoul of gangsters who also covet the fruit. The adventure takes them from their home in Marlinspike Hall (Moulinsart in French), a fictional mansion that is presumably in Belgium, to Spain, where Calculus and another scientist are kidnapped.