The Blue Bird (1918)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Maurice Tourneur

Writers:

Maurice Maeterlinck (play) and
Charles Maigne (writer)

Release Date:

31 March 1918 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy

Plot:

Two peasant children, Mytyl and Tyltyl, are led by Berylune, a fairy, to search for the Blue Bird of Happiness...

Plot Keywords:

Happiness | Bird | Diamond | Bread | Fairy

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Tula Belle	...	Mytyl
Robin Macdougall	...	Tyltyl
Edwin E. Reed	...	Daddy Tyl
Emma Lowry	...	Mummy Tyl
William J. Gross	...	Grandpa Gaffer Tyl
Florence Anderson	...	Granny Tyl
Edward Elkas	...	Widow Berlingot
Katherine Bianchi	...	Her daughter
Lillian Cook	...	Fairy Berylune
Gertrude McCoy	...	Light
Lyn Donelson	...	Night
Charles Ascot	...	Dog
Tom Corless	...	Cat
Mary Kennedy	...	Water
Eleanor Masters	...	Milk

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Movie Connections:

Remade as Sinyaya ptitsa (1970)

A Prodigious Silent Work

As it is well-known among silent film connoisseurs, the fine Arts were an essential influence on silent films in general and Herr Maurice Tourneur's work in particular. His beautiful oeuvres gave him fame and prestige around the world from his French period in the mid 10's to his career in the USA.

"The Blue Bird" (1918) tells the story of two poor children, Mytyl and Tyltyl, who are led by the fairy Berylune in the search, around a fantastic world, for the blue bird of happiness. The film belongs to Herr Tourneur's American silent film period, and in this movie it is possible to watch all his artistic virtues in full display. This early astounding production is striking even today for its great artistic merits. The film was based on a book written by the Belgian poet Herr Maurice Maeterlinck and maybe Herr Tourneur during his young days could have illustrated it due to his earlier career as a book illustrator or… MEIN GOTT!!! Perhaps he even read it! In any case, Herr Tourneur adapted and transferred the fairy tale story to the silent screen in a superb way.

The film exudes classicism and even romanticism, artistic subjects that Herr Tourneur know very well how to employ in the world of fantasy. There is amazing art direction, elaborate decors and costumes and witty technical effects, not to mention the inventiveness that can be seen in every shot of the film and in the beautiful, exemplary photography of Herr John van den Broek and Lucien Andriot that captures the atmosphere of the classical fairy books through a cinema lens in a masterly way.

Probably the story can be considered as affected, even innocent in this modern time but even that has a special value in artistic terms for this film; that baroque taste and out of date atmosphere fit perfectly in the story that moves from the real to the dream world, from the real to the unreal. Herr Tourneur's interpretation of this fantastic universe is a prodigious work, imaginative and inventive and shining with brilliant artistic merits.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must listen to the gracious caw of the Schloss crows.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/