Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, sometimes simply called Tabu is a 1931 American silent film directed by F. W. Murnau. A docufiction, the film is split into two chapters: The first, called "Paradise", depicts the lives of two lovers on a South Seas island until they are forced to escape the island when the girl is chosen as a holy maid to the gods. The second chapter, "Paradise Lost", depicts the couple's life on a colonised island and how they adapt to and are exploited by Western civilisation. The title of the film comes from the Polynesian concept of tapu (spelled tabu in Tongan before 1943), from which is derived the English word "taboo."
| Directed by | |||
| Produced by | |||
| Written by | F. W. Murnau
Robert J. Flaherty |
||
| Screenplay by |
 screenplay by
|
||
| Story by |
story by
|
||
| Based on |
based on
|
||
| Starring | |||
| Narrated by |
narrated by
|
||
| Music by | |||
| Cinematography | |||
| Edited by | Arthur A. Brooks
|
||
| Animation by |
animation by
|
||
| Layouts by |
layouts by
|
||
| Backgrounds by |
backgrounds by
|
||
| Color process |
color process
|
||
| Production company |
production company
|
||
| Distributed by | |||
| Release date |
|
||
| Running time | 84 minutes
|
||
| Country | United States
|
||
| Language | English
|
||
| Budget | $150,000
|
||
| Box office |
box office
|
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
| Type |
type
|
||
| Class |
class
|
||
| Theme |
theme
|
||
| Tone |
tone
|
||
| Mood |
mood
|
- The film was censored upon release to remove nudity involving natives on the island.
- This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1994.
- Producer/Director/Co-writer F.W. Murnau died in a car accident a few days after starting work on the music for this film. The film had its New York premiere a week later.
- Originally conceived as a co-venture with documentarian Robert J. Flaherty. As work on the project progressed, it became increasingly clear to Flaherty that F.W. Murnau did not adapt well to co-directing and that he was being squeezed off the film. A factor helping Murnau in this was that he was one of the chief financiers.
More...
This page is the FamousFix profile for Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. Content on this page is contributed by editors who belong to our editorial community. We welcome your contributions... so please create an account if you would like to collaborate with other editor's in helping to shape this website.
On the Tabu: A Story of the South Seas page you will be able to add and update factual information, post media and connect this topic to other topics on the website. This website does skew towards famous actors, musicians, models and sports stars, however we would like to expand that to include many other interesting topics.