Jon Mirsalis on Piano (A stunning tinted print recently restored from the nitrate original.) Maurice Tourneur was one of the first self-consciously "artistic" film directors. His works are remembered for their studied pictorial beauty and sense of cinematic composition. His adaptation of Maeterlinck's The Bluebird was perhaps his greatest and most prestigious success. Writing in 1918, Tourneur took pride in the fact that in The Bluebird he had "brought stylization to the screen" and that, in abandoning realistic for impressionistic sets, he had "tried to sound the note of fragile phantasy." Critics echoed his own judgment of his accomplishment. Variety: "...it is safe to assert that nothing quite like director Tourneur's work has ever been shown on the screen. There are any number of new tricks of the camera, some unique tinting and toning and a wealth of imaginary creation. A carefully chosen and competent cast was selected, with no individual effort in the way of acting permitted to stand out beyond the ensemble effects for which all are responsible. The recent strides made in the art of moving pictures made it possible to produce a work of art of this sort, which requires any number of multiple photographic exposures as well as the construction of huge settings." Part of the credit for The Bluebird's visuals must go to art director Ben Carré, who created the fantastic painted backdrops, with silhouettes and flat designs striving poetically towards abstraction. Treasures from the Eastman House (PFA, 1972)