Tabu (film)

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Tabu
Film poster
Directed by	F.W. Murnau
Produced by	David Flaherty Robert J. Flaherty F.W. Murnau
Written by	F.W. Murnau Robert J. Flaherty Edgar G. Ulmer
Starring	Matahi Anne Chevalier Bill Brambridge Hitu Jean
Music by	Hugo Riesenfeld
Cinematography	Floyd Crosby Robert J. Flaherty
Editing by	Arthur A. Brooks
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (original U.S. release)
Release date(s)	August 1, 1931
Running time	84 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Tabu (also called Tabu, a Story of the South Seas) is a 1931 film which tells the story of two lovers in the South Seas, who must escape their village when the girl is chosen as the holy maid to the gods. The actors are billed as Reri, Matahi, Hitu, Jean and Jules. According to an intertitle at the beginning, "only native-born South Sea islanders appear in this picture with a few half-castes and Chinese."

The movie was written by Robert J. Flaherty, F.W. Murnau and Edgar G. Ulmer. It was directed by Murnau. The title of the film comes from the concept of tapu (sometimes spelled tabu), a form of sacredness in many Polynesian cultures.

Tragically, Murnau was killed in an automobile accident on 11 March 1931, shortly before a preview screening of Tabu was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles.

Cinematographer Floyd Crosby, father of musician David Crosby, won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on this film. In 1994, Tabu was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Tabu was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and has been released on DVD by Milestone Films and on a special edition DVD and book by Masters of Cinema.

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Films directed by F. W. Murnau

German films: Der Knabe in Blau (1919) Prinz Kuckuck (1919) • Der Januskopf (1920) • Satanas (1920) • Sehnsucht (1920) • Der Gang in die Nacht (1920) • Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin (1920) • Schloß Vogelöd (1921) • Marizza (1922) • Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) • Phantom (1922) • Der Brennende Acker (1922) • Die Austreibung (1923) • Der letzte Mann (1924) • Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (1924) • Herr Tartüff (1926) • Faust (1926) •

American films: Sunrise (1927) • Four Devils (1928) • City Girl (1930) • Tabu (1931)

Robert J. Flaherty
Nanook of the North (1922) • Moana (1926) • The Twenty-four Dollar Island (1927) • Tabu (1931) • Man of Aran (1934) • Elephant Boy (1937) • The Land (1942) • Louisiana Story (1948)