66 / BD 61 Tabu

[Tommaso]

While everyone is discussing "Nosferatu", this very excellent disc seems to have gone with a little less attention than it deserves. So let me say: it's a wonderful resto and transfer as well. The image indeed seems to be a little too bright in places, but I guess that has nothing to do with the disc or the resto, as there's obviously no contrast boosting and greyscale and detail are as excellent as the sharpness. I'd rather assume that the very bright whites (sometimes even tending to blow out) have to do with the very intense sunlight in which it was filmed and the probably rather primitive equipment they used for developing (the film was actually developed on a mobile machine on Tahiti itself). I haven't seen the Milestone disc, but in any case there is a lot more detail and clarity than what I remember to have seen when I watched this film on TV (and FWMS did a great job in restoring the sound as well).

I briefly listened to the audio commentary, and would rate it much higher than the one on "Nosferatu" by the same people (Dixon and Stevens). Lots of useful observations, especially when comparing scenes and shots of "Tabu" to other Murnau films ("Nosferatu" and "Sunrise" in particular). Add to this the accompanying book, and you have a disc that shouldn't be missed even if it doesn't contain the outtakes (some of which can be seen in the Berriatua doc).

[GringoTex]

I'd rather assume that the very bright whites (sometimes even tending to blow out) have to do with the very intense sunlight in which it was filmed and the probably rather primitive equipment they used for developing (the film was actually developed on a mobile machine on Tahiti itself).

They were fully capabale of stopping down the aperture setting to prevent bright whites, so the blown-out look is probably intentional.

[HerrSchreck]

I'd for the record, since its been done before (w MAN WHO LAUGHS) throw one possibility out that would involve the opposite of cropping:

Maybe they did w Kino did w THE MAN WHO LAUGHS? In other words, took the original 1.33 camera material, pre-laydown of optical soundtrack, and married the uncorrupted image w the digitized soundtrack to create an "ultimate" or "uncorrupted version? (also is it possible that this is what MK2 may have done?) Just a slim possibility. Certainly the directors/photogs at the time did not "want" that impinging into the edge.

Does anyone know if TABU was projected as a total silent, at all? It came pretty late in the silent cycle (31), so I dont know if they were still sending entirely silent prints out, since the conversion to sound was pretty much complete by this time?

[HerrSchreck]

So forgive my obliviousness at the moment...was an optical movietone-type strip laid onto projection prints? Or was something like a wax disc used etc in synch? (I know squat-ola about Paramount silent synchsound recording techniques, at least off the top of my head, and I'm not home at the moment..)

Alright schreckonimo, get offa yer ass..

I checked silentera.com and came up with (the file was last updated this October so it's hopefully not old bosh-- to use a Kerpan word-- but there is an imdb attribution in there at the end):

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
(1931) American
B&W : 81 minutes
Directed by F.W. Murnau + [Robert J. Flaherty]

Cast: Matahi [the boy], Reri (Anna Chevalier) [the girl], Jean (Bill Bambridge) [the policeman], Hitu [the old warrior]; Jules, Ah Kong

Murnau-Flaherty production; distributed by Paramount Publix Corporation. / Scenario by F.W. Murnau and R.J. Flaherty (Robert J. Flaherty). Assistant director Bill Bambridge. Production assistant David Flaherty. Cinematography by Floyd Crosby + [Robert J. Flaherty]. Edited by Arthur A. Brooks. Music by Hugo Riesenfeld. / © 1931 by Paramount Publix Corporation. / Photophone 35mm spherical 1.20:1 format [?] and Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format? RCA Photophone sound-on-film sound system. / Murnau's final film was independently financed by Murnau, and created in collaboration with Robert J. Flaherty. The film was rereleased in the USA in 1948. [?] Website-IMDb credits Edgar G. Ulmer as a third scenario writer. / Silent film, with synchronized music and sound effects.
Drama: South Seas.

Survival Status: Print exists in the UCLA Film and Television Archive film archive [35mm nitrate positive; derivitive 35mm preservation negative].

[Peacock]

I just watched the MoC dvd of Tabu a couple of nights ago, absolutely brilliant film, you forget there's not any dialogue the story just pulls you in, even the letters seem completely natural unlike some silents. Lovely fat booklet too with an excerpt of the shooting script. Anyone reading this who hasn't already seen this film pick it up!!!

[Michael Kerpan]

Since my name has mentioned...

In case I haven't said this before -- this is an indispensable release. Gorgeous DVD of a gorgeous film. No bosh (or tosh, either).

[Props55]

Since MoC now have SUNRISE and CITY GIRL in BD what's the possibility of TABU going Blu?

[peerpee]

We'd absolutely love to do it. Unfortunately, sales have been surprisingly low for this (we've still not repressed, or replaced the 'thick' spined box). It's not looking likely.

[jbaart]

We'd absolutely love to do it. Unfortunately, sales have been surprisingly low for this (we've still not repressed, or replaced the 'thick' spined box). It's not looking likely.

To be honest, this doesn't surprise me. It IS a pretty obscure film and I don't think the general public will grab this up in stores after reading the description and seeing the shots, even with names like Murnau and Flaherty attached.

[peerpee]

That said, we would push to do it on Blu-ray, if it could be redone in HD at 1.19:1.

[Peacock]

Wow it's funny I was just walking home from work today and suddenly had a great desire to watch this film again, and thought how good a candidate it would be for Blu.

That's really sad news regarding the low sales, I guess the film doesn't get written about much so new people don't often hear about it?

[Props55]

Thanks for the prompt reply, Peerpee. I'd been putting off upgrading the Milestone and was about to take the plunge when it occured to me that TABU Blu might be in the works. All the forum comments seemed to indicate that it had every possibility of equaling (or besting!) SUNRISE and CITY GIRL in BD. True, it doesn't have the name recognition of SUNRISE but I'd think it would be just as visible (perhaps more so) than CITY GIRL. Given the slow sales I guess it would take a pillarbox HD transfer and new extras to justify another pass.

And yes David, the delight I took in the long anticipated announcement of the Sternbergs was tempered by the missed opportunity of no BD. After waiting this long (and with the outstanding results of the Murnaus and POTEMKIN) my hopes had perhaps outrun the economic realities of having so many silents go Blu.

[HerrSchreck]

I don't know what it is that keeps this film out there in the marginalia. Is it because there's no moving camera? No expressionist sets full or artifice and exaggerated perspective? No white people (there are white people in it)? Is it because people think it's actually a documentary? Do they think it's only "half" a Murnau because of the presence of Flaherty in the planning and early execution of the production?

What it is is the thematic capstone to Murnau's career-- and probably his most uncompromising film, in terms of narrative. Matisse, when this film hit Paris, used to go and see this film over and over and over again. FW couldn't resist comparing one aspect of mankind to another.. you see it in all his films: city to country, country to city, the pompous religious to the quietly humble, the sexually innocent to the overindulged, the devoted to the frivolous-- he always seemed to be working out this extremely painful personal issue he had to confront wherever he went in his life: that there is no Destination worth idealizing in terms of human culture... the man traveled here and there to escape a feeling of confinement and discomfort, and no matter where he aimed the stem of his ship, his newfound destination left him feeling as empty as the one he left behind on the aft (of course this conjures the Emersonian precept "Beware of travel to find comfort... you take the source of your discomfort- you- wherever you go," paraphrasing). Thus his endless solitude, and feeling forever that he was a man without a home. Interestingly, he felt for a short time that he had found a place worth rhapsodizing about in the SOuth Seas... and yet, in the end, those feelings evaporated. A man might need to die simply to find relaxation, like lack of sleep can kill-- on the spot and from no other ailment than Time To Leave.

In Tabu aims his camera not at the country, or at the city, or at overindulgence or underindulgence in culture and its pleasures, but at Civilization itself: and in this final glorious Sweeping Pronounciation, with the most uncompromising ending of his career, it was probably in the cards that the man was going to die. With the arrival of sound, and Hitler in his homeland, he would have either wound up in thr US again like a Lang, Sternberg or A Ford at best, grinding out melodramas with some masterpieces in between (but only after the studios had brought him to heel... but would he have taken that, or would he have split?), or back home in Germany under Goebbels. Yea right.

How nice/incredibly sad that this most sincere artist winked off of the planet before having to confront what would have meant almost certain compromise (or much smaller, independent films). One of the very few purists stays--happily and sadly-- pure forever with that blazing 10 year run.

But those who are blooping over TABU because they think it's something "else", or a boring piece of ethnographic doco, or a piece of uninteresting marginalia, or wrong wrong wrong!!! It's a masterpiece of masterpieces, and as narratively uncompromising as they come. Ignore it at the peril of your own naivete and under-education.

[HarryLong]

It is Murnau's masterpiece, no doubt of it. And it's a return, in a way to NOSFERATU in that Murnau has left the bulk of his technical tricks behind and is dealing with the most basic elements of film-making: negative, a camera, non-actors, natural light. I'm probably in a minority in finding titles like FAUST, THE LAST LAUGH & SUNRISE interesting only from a technical view & finding them more than a little smothered by the technical aspects.
And if I'm recalling/interpreting correctly, Murnau came to this film almost by accident... or was it fate? Fox was certainly over its romance with him & I wonder if Murnau would even have taken over this project if Flaherty had produced any footage that was even remotely usable.
And (though I never considered it), Herr Schreck, you're quite right: Where would have Murnau gone at this point? To another Hollywood studio, allowed to turn out a personal project every fourth film opr so in return for work-for-hire on studio-mandated projects? (If lucky he might have found a protector-producer as James Whale did under Carl Laemmle, Jr - and we can see what happened to Whale's career after the Laemmles lost Universal... and even before Whake was compelled to turn out a horror title every so often to keep Junior happy.) Back to Germany - and probably, eventually, a concentration camp because of his homosexuality unless, like Eisenstein under Stalin, he turned out work favored by the Reich. Maybe, having financed TABU he might have set up his own production company and, like Chaplin, released a film every 3 or 4 years...

[knives]

I got this during the last sale because everyone speaks on how unfortunate it is that Tabu gets forgotten amidst the shuffle and now I'm going to have to be an other voice.
The has to be Murnau's best film, he takes all of the story telling brightness he learned in his Hollywood days and smashes it into the insane visual mastery he does so well. At times it really does feel like the opposite to his more famous romance. The darkness of the film is hidden by the brightest photography I've seen from the man, every shot manages to glisten. The story too manages that poetry so well. While the final shot is devastating I have to say my favorite moment was early on when we see the lead's shadow pick up the head wreath. That shot really manages to say it all. This is going to have to replace The Wedding March as the film I use to prove silent dramas still work.

[hamsterburger]

A little while ago I bought Tabu and received the old thick casesed edition, which was pretty badly crushed.

Is there any way to order just the paper inlay from MoC so I can replace the old case with a new thin one?

[John-Paul]

I had the same problem - I emailed them and Kevin kindly sent another loose box. it was the weight of the booklet that caused the box to become damaged. I am in the UK though, and I did buy the disc directly from them.

[knives]

I also bought directly from MOC, but when the same problem happened to me on an other disc I simply emailed them and they were all too gracious and sent a new box lickity-split

[hamsterburger]

Thanks for the info guys.

I just dropped MoC a short e-mail and asked for a new inlay.

Will report back if I receive an answer.

[Der Spieler]

I asked Kevin about buying a slim case for "Edvard Munch" and he sent me a complete copy, disc and all, free of charge.

[Drucker]

http://www.amazon.com/Tabu-Matahi/dp/B0 ... 113&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the edition I have...still have yet to watch it. That said, should I not expect much from the picture quality?

[matrixschmatrix]

Jesus, I wish I hadn't sold my copy of that edition for $15 now. The PQ isn't awful, though the MoC is obviously a significant improvement, but that edition also has a unique commentary that is well worth a listen.

[Drucker]

I just watched it. Noticed a lot of camera-shaking...do other people have this in the Milestone edition? Otherwise, splendid film!

[tojoed]

Sorry, if it's been mentioned before, but is Tabu out of print?
It's going for silly prices at Amazon.

[Drucker]

Sorry, if it's been mentioned before, but is Tabu out of print?
It's going for silly prices at Amazon.

A dual-format is forthcoming, date TBA.