Tabu

A few years before the release of Tabu (1931), famed German director F.W. Murnau wrote, "Real art is simple, but simplicity requires the greatest art." Deceptively simple, Tabu is an artistic rarity of world cinema, not only in its un-Hollywood narrative style, structure and pace, but also as an early venture of risky, independent filmmakers out to make their own kind of picture, unfettered by Hollywood money. Tabu represents an unusual and seldom repeated collaboration between two heavyweight filmmaking giants, director F.W. Murnau [Nosferatu (1922), Sunrise (1927)] and documentarian and adventurer Robert Flaherty [Nanook of the North (1922)]. Along with Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), their film is one of the silent cinema's late masterpieces. Long unavailable in uncut, uncensored form, Milestone has produced a crystal clear DVD transfer of a gorgeous example of Academy Award-winning black and white photography at its finest, telling the colorful story of two lovers doomed by spiritual and cultural rigidity. The extras include the original theatrical trailer, told without dialogue, in the spirit of the movie itself; an extensive photo montage with pictures from the production and images of the script and various telegrams sent between the Bora Bora locale and the U.S. mainland. (The documents as presented are rather inconsequential so if you don't have a jumbo television or a zoom feature on your DVD player, you will need a magnifying glass to read them.) On the plus side, Milestone has succeeded where other DVD producers have failed in taking full advantage of classic film outtakes. Instead of presenting Murnau, Flaherty and company's copious outtake footage (courtesy of the Deutsches Filminstitut-DIF Filmarchiv) in a flat, slap-dash fashion, Milestone has supplied a commentary track by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom. Her running commentary details Murnau and Flaherty's shooting methods, aborted business deals with Colorart and Technicolor, and the deterioration of the two master filmmakers' working relationship during the course of production. And that's just for the outtakes section. Bergstrom also provides multifaceted insight for the feature, delving into Murnau and Flaherty's careers up to production of Tabu, their individual strengths and weaknesses as filmmakers inside and outside the Hollywood system, and the crucial input of director of photography Floyd Crosby (father of rock 'n roll musician David Crosby). In addition to not addressing censorship issues that affected Tabu, Bergstrom's feature commentary often falls into the familiar trap of reciting the action on screen. However, she usually offers some critical interpretation of the shot or scene, and often draws subtle parallels to Flaherty's and especially Murnau's previous work. Newcomers to Tabu will marvel at the strictly non-professional acting ensemble, many of whom were natives to Tahiti. Both the leading players, Anna Chevalier and Matahi, were novices to performing, let alone silent movie acting, yet their performances are understated and genuine. Chevalier later adopted the name "Reri Chevalier" once she became a celebrity in the United States and Europe after the international release of Tabu in spring 1931. Her experiences after Tabu are recounted in another well-produced supplement, the touching short film "Reri in New York." The footage is of unknown origin, but it appears to be some sort of screen test of a slightly older Reri, walking through a picturesque part of New York City. Bergstrom recounts Reri's tours through Europe, her brief appearance in another Polynesian play, director John Ford's The Hurricane (1936), and her eventual return home. Reri's startling and unpredictable performance in Tabu is akin to Renee Marie Falconetti's in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), as is her slide into cultural obscurity. For more information on Tabu, visit the distributor's web site at Image Entertainment, Inc.. To purchase a copy of Tabu, visit Movies Unlimited. by Scott McGee