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Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
In F.W. Murnau's lush tale (documentary-style drama)
of native South Seas love and Bora Bora island life, a story of ill-fated
romance (a star-crossed love a la Romeo and Juliet style)
and the breaking of a sacred tabu (the designation of a young girl
as the new Chosen Maid, a 'sacred virgin' that could not be touched
or desired sexually) - this film encouraged the trend of other popular,
exploitational and lucrative 'bare native' films in its wake
in the early to mid 1930s - after sights of polynesian girls swimming
or dancing partly naked in the film:
- a love affair developed
between two Polynesian natives: the Girl (as Reri) (Anne Chevalier),
and the Boy (Matahi) during a scene of 'Paradise"-like swimming
- Reri was designated as the
successor to the deceased former Chosen one, by a grim-faced, harsh
tribal elder known as the Old Warrior (Hitu) - she was outcast and
considered the island's new "sacred virgin" that was now "taboo" to
all islander men: "No law of the gods is more to be feared than that which guards the sacred virgin
- man must not touch her or cast upon her the eye of desire for in
her honor rests the honor of us all...Sacred is Reri from this time
forth, she is tabu. To break this tabu means death"
- after Reri's selection, there was celebratory native
dancing of flower-garlanded, bare-breasted native dancers, although
during the ceremony, Reri sat with her head down
- in the next chapter, titled "PARADISE LOST," the
Boy kidnapped the Girl and they lived together on another island
("of the pearl trade where the white man rules and the old gods are forgotten...driven
on by fear -- fear of the avenging tabu")
- they had to evade the never-ending,
relentless pursuit by Hitu after the "guilty lovers"
- in a heartbreaking separation
scene - the Girl was snatched by the Old Warrior; she wrote a goodbye
letter to the Boy ("I
must go Hitu is here and waits for me You will die if I do not obey
I will go so that you may live The Tabu is upon us. I have been so
happy with you Far more than I deserved the love you have given me
I will keep to the last beat of my heart")
- in the tragic ending, as the Boy frantically swam
after their sailboat, she was placed in a cabin and the hatchway
was pulled over to enclose her, while the rope was cut that the Boy
grabbed onto; he had to give up swimming - and presumably died of
exhaustion in the open ocean
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