They may look like documentaries from a distance, but ”Tabu” (1931) and ”Chang” (1927) are actually two of the most artful and poetic fictions of the silent era.
The two films, which run about 2 1/2 hours as a package, have been restored and reissued by a New York firm, Milestone Film and Video, and will be presented Sunday through Thursday at Chicago`s Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.
The movies don`t really have much in common, apart from their quickly forgotten ethnological origins.
”Tabu” is the more celebrated of the two, an established classic that represents the final work of one of the medium`s greatest figures, F.W. Murnau.
Murnau was a pioneer in the use of camera movement and lighting to establish theme and tone in such films as ”Nosferatu” and ”The Last Laugh,” made in his native Germany, and ”Sunrise,” made in Hollywood and the winner of the first (and only) Academy Award for ”most artistic quality of production.”
”Tabu,” an independent feature filmed entirely on location in the South Seas, was Murnau`s effort to escape the studio system he found so oppressive in America. The film is, in fact, a seemingly desperate attempt to recover a kind of natural innocence and simplicity, located in an island society far beyond the corrupting reach of civilization.
Murnau`s protagonists are a pair of Tahitian lovers, the Girl (played by the Tahitian islander Reri) and the Boy (Matahi), who enjoy a lyrical courtship through the film`s first, sunlit half, pointedly subtitled
”Paradise.”
But the arrival of Hitu, an old chieftain from a neighboring island, destroys their idyll: According to the priestly proclamation he brings with him, Reri has been declared a sacred maiden of the islands, and all further human contact with her is ”tabu.”
In the film`s dark and crowded second part, ”Paradise Lost,” Reri and Matahi escape to the anonymity of a French colonial port, where Matahi earns a living as a pearl diver and Reri dreads Hitu`s inevitable return.
What began as a faithful documentation of island customs (Murnau`s collaborator, whom he soon dominated, was the noted documentarian Robert Flaherty) gradually evolved into a sublime vehicle for Murnau`s moody romanticism, with the decrepit Hitu cast as the cold hand of fate hovering over the helpless, childlike couple.
A newspaper review is no place to enter into the subtleties of this extremely important, much analyzed film, except to emphasize that Murnau`s glittering, pristine visuals have certainly not looked so radiant since the film`s first release. The Milestone print has been made from a first-generation copy discovered in 1973 by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the images have a smoothness and sheen that makes them seem made from liquid marble.
If ”Tabu” has a secure place in the history books, ”Chang” has long dropped from sight-though, ironically, it was one of the nominees that
”Sunrise” beat for its Oscar.
A bit closer to authentic documentary, through still outrageously staged by today`s standards, the film was shot on location in the jungles of Siam
(modern day Thailand) by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack-the team responsible a few years later for ”King Kong.”
There are many echoes of ”Kong” in this tale of a farmer, Kru, and his
”little family” attempting to establish a new homestead in a wilderness overrun with animal life, some of it benign (the family has a pet monkey, used for cornball comic relief), much of it ferociously malignant (leopards, tigers and the mysterious behemoth of the title).
One sequence is a particularly beautiful and concise statement of the theme that runs through all of Schoedsack and Cooper`s work-that of nature as a dreamlike projection of the human subconscious. ”While man sleeps, the jungle awakes,” reads an intertitle, as the film cuts from the sleeping human family to a family of bears, who mirror and parody the humans` behavior and relationships. Kong, with his primitive fury and sexuality, would later step out of this same dream and take up a central place in American mythology.
”TABU”
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Directed by F.W. Murnau (1931); written by Murnau and Robert J. Flaherty;
photographed by Floyd Crosby and Flaherty; edited by Murnau; music by Hugo Riesenfeld; produced by Murnau and Flaherty. A Milestone Film and Video release; opens Aug. 4 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Running time: 1:21. Not rated by the MPAA.
THE CAST
The Girl……………………………………………………..Reri
The Boy…………………………………………………….Matahi
The Old Chieftain……………………………………………..Hitu
The Policeman…………………………………………………Jean
The Captain………………………………………………….Jules
The Chinese Trader………………………………………….Kong Ah
”CHANG”
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
Directed, edited and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
(1927); photographed by Schoedsack; intertitles by Achmed Abdullah. Music by Bruce Gaston, performed by Fong Naam (1990). A Milestone Film and Video release; opens Aug. 4 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Running time: 1:08. Not rated by the MPAA.
THE CAST
The Pioneer…………………………………………………….Kru
His Wife……………………………………………………Chantui
Their Little Boy………………………………………………..Nah
Their Little Girl……………………………………………..Ladah
The Monkey……………………………………………………Bimbo
