Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

Plot synopsis:
Aged emissary Hitu arrives by Western sailing ship to the island of Bora Bora, a small island in the South Pacific, on an important mission. He bears a message from the chief of Fanuma to the chief of Bora Bora: a maiden sacred to their gods has died, and Reri has been given the great honour of replacing her because of her royal blood and virtue. From this point on, she is tabu: "man must not touch her or cast upon her the eye of desire" upon penalty of death. This is painful news to Reri and the young man Matahi, who love each other. Matahi cannot bear it. That night, he sneaks her off the ship, and the couple escape the island by outrigger canoe.
Eventually, they reach a French colony, half dead. They recover quickly, and Matahi becomes the community's most successful pearl diver. They are happy with their new life together. However, Matahi is unfamiliar with the concept of money, so he does not understand the bills he signs for drinks for everyone during a celebration.
The local policeman receives a notice from the French government announcing a reward for the return of the couple, but Matahi bribes him with his last pearl. Then, Hitu arrives on the island and sees Reri alone, informing her that she has three days to give herself up or Matahi will be put to death. Without telling Matahi of her meeting with Hitu, Reri decides they must flee once more. However, when Matahi goes to buy tickets on a schooner, the shopkeepers instead take the money as partial payment of his debt.
That night, Hitu returns with a spear. Reri first throws herself in front of the sleeping Matahi, then agrees to return to Bora Bora to save his life. When Matahi stirs, Reri pretends to be asleep. Matahi gets up and decides to get money by getting a pearl from a tabu region of the lagoon, a perilous place guarded by a shark that has already taken the life of one diver. While he is away, Reri writes a farewell note, and leaves with Hitu. Matahi manages to get a pearl while fending off the shark. When he returns, however, he finds the note. He swims after Hitu's boat. He manages to grab a rope trailing from the boat, unbeknownst to the sleeping Reri, but Hitu cuts it. Undaunted, Matahi continues swimming after them until he eventually tires and drowns.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
For discerning fans of classic filmmaking, the surviving work of director F.W. Murnau remains some of the most significant and stunning of the silent era.
Filmed entirely in Tahiti, `Tabu' would prove to be Murnau's last film (he died in a tragic car accident on March 11, 1931, just weeks before the film's premiere) and most unusual - he actually collaborated with director Robert Flaherty (`Nanook of the North') in this tale of two doomed lovers that unintentionally transports `Romeo and Juliet' into the South Pacific.
Unlike his landmark expressionist titles such as `Nosferatu' and `Faust,' Murnau's `Tabu' is set mostly outdoors and features dazzling images of beautiful young native men and women at home in their Polynesian paradise in the first part of the film, with haunting images used to chronicle tragedy and paradise lost in the second half of the 81 minute classic.Although no members of the cast were professional actors, the performances by Matahi (as a young pearl fisherman) and Reri (as the `tabu' island girl) are moving.
In fact, the film's luxurious black-and-white cinematography garnered cameraman Floyd Crosby an Oscar.
People with prejudice against silent films should see "Tabu"; it´s a masterpiece of cinema.
The storyline is superb, a struggle not between good and evil, but between human will and fate; there´s a beautiful love story of natives of the South Seas, mystery and suspense; and, to boot, some of the most wonderful sights you´ve ever seen in a b&w flick.
This is a unique blending of ethnographic documentary and expressionist drama, from two directors who were masters of these forms.The actors are real Polynesians and their ceremonies and rituals are faithfully captured, and interwoven with a tragic love story.
Murnau, away from his usual studio sets, manages to create the same sense of danger using natural light - especially moonlight - and real locations.The performances are very strong - especially Chevalier as the girl, and the old man is as scary as Nosferatu as he haunts her dreams at night.Sadly this was Murnau's last film - he died in a car crash just before the premiere.
Flaherty (of Nanook of the North (1922) fame), Tabu uses the beautiful, untouched landscape of the South Pacific and employs non- professional natives to tell the beautiful story of love found and lost, and ultimately the death of paradise.
Murnau died in an automobile accident shortly before the film's premiere and, thus, was his last gift to the movie-going world.
Though it doesn't come close to the iconic expressionist horror of Nosferatu (1922) or the dark, satirical humour of The Last Laugh (1924), Murnau's epitaph is a simple, yet heart- wrenching cinematic poem.The best spear-fisherman on Bora Bora is a handsome young man billed simply as The Boy (Matahi).
His legendary status and unparalleled skill makes him popular amongst the islanders, and soon he has caught the eye of The Girl (Reri - who went on to star on Broadway as Anne Chevalier).
The couple brave storm and sea to escape, an arrive in a French-colonised island, where Matahi start work as a pearl diver.
But their happiness is fleeting, and Reri is soon haunted by the image of Hitu, terrified she may have angered the gods.The plot is hardly anything new, but Floyd Crosby's Oscar-winning cinematography makes Tabu more socially aware that the film may have you believe.
It is one of the last great silent films, a reminder that sound can be an unnecessary distraction, and that picture's can sometimes genuinely speak louder than words.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com.
A teenage island native, played by a young man named Matahi, and his love interest, Reri (Anne Chevalier), live happily in a South Seas paradise, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation, waterfalls, and majestic mountains.
I guess that would be the one thing I would have changed.Even for viewers who don't care for silent films, "Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas" might be appreciated for its documentary style visuals.
For viewers familiar with silent cinema, this is a must-watch film, Director F.W. Murnau's last..
Heavy-handed "plot" about a doomed beauty on primitive Bora Bora who flees her island home and family with her lover, unable to escape her unlucky fate, is cast with real islanders so you cannot fault the authenticity; however, there's nobody in the film who leaves an impression.
The movie began life as a documentary, but director F.W. Murnau pushed for a fictional storyline to propel the visuals, and this may have been a mistake.
I saw this film just last night on a double bill with "Nosferatu." Considering that Nosferatu is a !*&@#%$ masterpiece, it was hard to compare this with the movie I just saw, plus my friend who was watching it with me was only thinking of "Mystery Science Theater" comments the whole time, but I had the mature response and I really liked this movie.
It may not be as good as "Sunrise," but it's one of the last great silent films, and also great as a semi-documentary of Polynesian life.
The south-seas love story could seem incredibly hackneyed, but the sensitive silent presentation makes it all seem believable.
The roles are played by actual villagers under their own names.This was originally going to be a documentary like Nanook of the North, but Murnau got so fascinated by Polynesian legends told by the locals that he decided to incorporate them into the story.
Nowadays we think anything so beautiful couldn't be genuine, but Murnau and Flaherty seem to have constructed an accurate document.The tragic love story has its parallel in real life, as  Murnau was killed in a car-crash days after the film's completion.The MTV generation is better able to appreciate silent films than the 60's crowd, so I recommend to viewers interested in something different..
In one island of Bora Bora lagoon, a young fisherman, Matahi, is in love with Reri.
and then came a car accident that left us without another three or four decades of genius.On the bright side, cinematographer Floyd Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on this film.
In "Tabu", he uses the camera to tell a story without words -- body language and eye movement tell us almost everything we need to follow the plot.The film was not a box office success upon release, grossing just $472,000 worldwide, which failed to recoup Murnau and Paramount's investment.
Flaherty (the man who also made "Nanook of the North") was also at the helm but slowly got pushed away by F.W. Murnau as filming progressed.
It's the reason why the movie at times looks as if its a documentary about the natives and at others the movie follows obviously a story.
But having said that this is no way near close to being F.W. Murnau's best, says nothing about the quality of this actual film.
He was one of the most influential directors of the silent film era, even though this last movie doesn't fully does justice to this reputation.The movie just wasn't always much interesting to me.
The movie of course looks visually good and shows lot of the customs and lifestyle of the natives but the story just doesn't ever get off the ground.
This beautiful and simple story of a South Seas love and loss romance might be the last great silent from the era.
Along with City Lights (made the same year) it may well be credited as the apogee of the silent period even with the writing on the wall ( microphones in the plants) since 1927.On the island of Bora Bora experiencing the full bloom of youth and beauty a girl and boy find love.
FW Murnau's last film was fraught with budget and personality difficulties as he and his co-director Robert Flaherty did not see eye to eye.
Distilling to a native crew and relying on Floyd Crosby's outstanding capture of the island paradise, it's people and the unabashed joie de vivre of a life in the sun Murnau movingly follows his doomed duo stranded in Eden, hunted by a stoic resolve that builds to a dire crescendo.
Floyd Crosby's superb cinematography won him a richly deserved Oscar for F.W. Murnau's "Tabu".
love story of the kind we have become accustomed to hearing since love stories first were told; boy loves girl, girl loves boy but they can't be together because, in this case, the girl is decreed to be a sacred virgin by the island chief.The subtitle of the film is 'A Story of the South Seas' and Murnau, together with Robert Flaherty, made the film on the island of Bora Bora.
The cast is made up entirely of non-professionals; the leads are native islanders and if often feels like a documentary rather than a work of fiction.
Flaherty's documentary style with F.W. Murnau visual sensibilities.
W. Murnau's films are always interesting and amazing to watch.
But, for 1931, doing the film as a silent just seemed a bit old fashioned and out of date--something Murnau NEVER was when directing such classics as NOSFERATU, THE LAST LAUGH and FAUST.
While it does have a very interesting story, excellent on-location filming and nice music and sound effects, the film looks like it was made pre-1930 because there were no voices.
Plus, in 1928 (three years before TABU) a very similar film, WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS was made and Murnau's tale is of about equal quality..
Director F.W. Murnau wisely stuck with the silent film medium he knew so well to cover this story of native islander life in the South Seas.
A tale of forbidden love, TABU is best-remembered today as legendary German director FW Murnau's last film - he was killed in a car accident only one week before its New York premiere.
Murnau had been working in Hollywood since the mid-1920s, and had already directed several films in the United States, but of these, only the famous SUNRISE (1927) was a success.
Only one scene directed by Flaherty remains in TABU - the opening spearfishing sequence - and sad to say, the quality of this scene is no match for Murnau's exquisite footage.
After a period of mutual discontent, Murnau bought out Flaherty, sent the entire Hollywood crew back to California, and took over the project completely - even training Tahitian natives in film-making techniques so he could employ the locals as his crew.
With the exception of Anne Chevalier - a local French/Tahitian woman whom Murnau discovered performing in a bar in Bora Bora - the entire cast and crew save Murnau and his cinematographer was made up of nonprofessionals.The film which resulted from this choice is a unique hybrid of documentary and fiction, with a mythic, fantasmatic air about it that is very hard to define - there is no other movie like TABU.
Certainly, the fact that we are watching actual Tahitian natives going about their daily business rather than professional actors lends the film a patina of authenticity and realism which makes it impossible to categorize TABU as some sort of Western-colonial-white people's fantasy of the South Seas - in fact, the film's depiction of tribal culture is quite complex and thought-provoking, as we will see...The plot of TABU is diagramatically simple - the idyllic lives of a Bora Bora fisherman (called Matahi) and his beloved, Reri (Anne Chevalier) are destroyed when tribal elders decree that Reri is so perfect a specimen of local womanhood that the gods have selected her for the honor of becoming their sacrificial victim.
Reri immediately becomes TABU - forbidden - to Matahi as she must come before the gods untouched by man.
Unfortunately, this particular island has been taken over by Western civilization and thus the innocent Matahi and Reri have to navigate some very unfamiliar and peculiar customs - like debt and credit.
The film's treatment of native culture is extremely complex - unlike the "noble savage" cliché so popular among Western audiences and seen most recently in AVATAR, Murnau's Bora Bora seems like Eden on the surface, but is governed by a rigid code of conduct which squashes individuality and personality.
Matahi and Reri's innocent love is doomed from the beginning, as they are caught between two worlds and unable to find a place in either.
TABU is in many ways a terrifying film, where pure love is doomed in the face of money and authority, and even the gorgeous purity of the Tahitian Islands seems tainted by human greed and foolishness.
This masterpiece will haunt you for a long time after you have seen it, partly because of the riveting story, and partly because of the exquisite cinematography by Floyd Crosby, who deservedly won an Academy Award for his efforts.
An Innocent and Tragic Love Story in the South Seas.
But Matahi abducts and escapes with her to an island ruled by the white man, were their gods would be harmless and powerless.Chapter 2 - Lost Paradise: Matahi is an excellent diver, getting many pearls from the bottom of the ocean, but he does not know the meaning of money, promoting a feast to the villagers and signing the bills the smart Chinese businessman presents to him.
However, the Chinese charges the bill and Matahi, without any money, goes to a forbidden sea with sharks trying to get a huge pearl to pay for his debts and escape with Reri.
But Matahi swims after their boat, dying of exhaustion in the sea."Tabu: a Story of the South Seas" is an innocent and tragic love story.
The film-makers say at the outset that the cast consists entirely of South Sea Islanders, some Chinese, and "half-breeds." The story is a tragedy set in the "untouched" paradise of Rora-Rora.
Matahi, a handsome youth gifted at spearfishing, pearl diving, and everything else, is in love with Reri (Ann Chevalier), but then she's chosen to be the next maiden whose task and honour it is to attend the gods.
Reri writes a note telling Matahi she's going with Hitu to save his life; at the same time he dives on a tabu reef, battles the shark that protects the place, and finds a rare dark pearlbut Reri's gone.
Anna Chevalier (Reri, the young girl), Matahi (the young man), Hitu (old warrior), Jean (policeman), Jules (captain), Ah Fong (Chinese trader).Written, produced and directed by F.
Filmed over a period of 18 months in the South Seas, on the islands of Bora Bora and Takapota, "Tabu" is a silent film, with a synchronized music score and sound effects.Flaherty disclaims the film.
Basically, a silent film, it was fleshed out with sound effects and a wonderful music score by Hugo Riesenfeld.
"Buddy" Erickson.When producer William Fox decided to expand the dialogue content of City Girl, Murnau left the production and Buddy Erickson took over the direction.Murnau then formed a partnership with the famous documentary film- maker, Bob Flaherty.
Together they journeyed to the South Seas, to the island of Bora Bora, then untouched by the "advances" of civilization.
They wrote a simple but emotive script that brilliantly utilized their surroundings and commenced filming with an all-native cast, headed by the lovely Anna Chevalier (who is actually billed as "Reri" to disguise her French parentage).At some stage, Murnau and Flaherty had a serious disagreement.
Murnau completed the film by himself, then took the rushes back to Hollywood where he supervised the editing in collaboration with his friend, Edgar G.
Murnau set sail for Bora Bora in 1929 to produce what would be his last film.
It differs from actual silent era films with synchronized musical/sound-effects scores in that it survives virtually unknown without its RCA-Photophone soundtrack..
Absolutely stunning and sumptuous in every way, this shows the every day play and work of the happy go lucky south sea natives and the growing love between a young man and girl, threatened to be separated forever when it is commanded by the order of the local chief that she be made the honorary virgin of the volcano, untouched by man.
Any attempts to take away the virgin or deflower her is a curse for all, but young love, even among the superstitious allows no such circumstance to be separated, putting the two on the run for their lives.Ending up on a nearby port, the two lovers do their best to hide from those looking for them, even having fun in a modern native dance, nothing like they've ever seen before.
This is F.W. Murnau's masterpiece, filled with reminders of the dangers these free loving people faced, through nature, through superstition, through chance.
The Kino DVD features an extremely memorable musical score that really helps the emotions of the film tell the story until its completion..
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas.
This was one of the titles listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew nothing about it, but having this recommendation I was willing to give this silent film a go and hope for the best, from director F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horrors, The Last Laugh, Sunrise), his last film before his death.
Basically, set on an island of Bora Bora lagoon, the maiden sacred to their gods has died and has been replaced by The Girl (Anne Chevalier), and young fisherman The Boy (Matahi) is in love with her, and vice versa, despite the fact that she must stay untouched.
She is tabu (taboo), and if this rule about touching is broken she and her lover will be killed, but they go against the law of The Old Warrior (Hitu) and escape to an island ruled white men, where their gods do not rule over them.
I will confess that I found it a bit difficult to follow, apart from the basic forbidden love story, but all the culture disputes and activities or events going on I slipped in and out with, it certainly looks good though with the locations, so I suppose it is not a bad silent drama.