​Visit the islands with classic tropical ‘docufiction’

Now that summery weather has arrived, people are thinking about vacations, but travel remains both expensive and increasingly inconvenient. Movies, however, provide instant low-cost mini-vacations from troubles of the real world. The tropical south-seas island settings of two recent Blu-ray releases from Kino make ideal escapes from the familiar ND-MN environment and provide vivid glimpses of indigenous cultures. Last December new restorations of the film classics “Moana With Sound” (1926/1980) and “Tabu” (1931) made their Blu-ray debuts.

After the unexpected popularity of his ethnographic documentary “Nanook of the North” (1922), explorer-filmmaker Robert Flaherty was commissioned by Paramount to make another one. The result was “Moana,” released theatrically in January 1926.

As with “Nanook,” Flaherty had natives re-enact earlier traditions and ways of life that elders could remember but even 90 years ago had long been abandoned for a more European and American-influenced lifestyle. Among these was the painful body-tattooing coming-of-age ritual performed on the title character to demonstrate his courage and endurance. (“Moana” means “deep water” in the Samoan language, and is the main male character in this film, unlike the female character Moana in the upcoming Disney cartoon.) The tattooing ceremony takes place over several days and serves as sort of a climax to the film.

Most of the movie is a leisurely slice-of-life showing native hunting and gathering activities, making clothing from tree bark, preparing food, singing and dancing, etc. While the islanders are cast to play fictional characters, there is no traditional “plot” with crisis, climax, or resolution, since the film’s purpose was to document the fast-disappearing South Seas island culture rather than to tell a story. As such, it is quite interesting, and the visuals are beautiful to look at. However, the slow pacing and lack of conflict are less likely to engage mainstream audiences, and indeed the film was a financial disappointment when first released.

In the 1970s, Flaherty’s daughter Monica returned to the same island to record audio of ambient sounds, native singing, and lip-sync voices of natives matching what was said in the silent film. This she expertly synchronized to a 16mm print of the film, finishing in 1980. Then in 2014 an ambitious restoration project combined her soundtrack with better-quality 35mm film elements. The audio additions enhance the film’s documentary value considerably, and provide a much more intimate portrait of the natives depicted on screen than a purely silent film with an accompaniment of typical movie mood music.

Kino’s Blu-ray has a nice-looking though rather softish image, as the original negatives are lost and surviving 35mm material is in various conditions of wear and generations from the original. The audio is not perfect but impressive considering the amateur equipment used to record it. Bonus features on the disc include documentaries on the film’s production and restoration, an interview with Flaherty’s wife, discussions on the film by historians, a trailer for the restoration, plus Flaherty home movies and an artsy 1925 short documentary about New York City called “Twenty-Four Dollar Island.”

MOANA on Blu-ray – Movie: B+ / Video: B+ / Audio: A- / Extras: B

Better-known by more casual film buffs for “Nosferatu” and “Sunrise,” director F. W. Murnau collaborated with Robert Flaherty for his final film, which was partially co-written and partly photographed by Flaherty. Floyd Crosby (father of singer-songwriter David Crosby) was the primary cinematographer and won the Academy Award for his efforts on the film.

“Tabu” was a self-consciously artistic record of native Polynesian islander customs performed within a fictional romantic plot of star-crossed lovers. Flaherty preferred a more documentary-style film and had a falling-out with Murnau, who was financing the film himself and whose romantic vision prevailed. A portion of the plot, however, does show the naïve couple being exploited by the “civilized” people on another island.

The story depicts an idealized romance between two young islanders that suddenly takes a dark turn when the girl is selected to be a sacred virgin for the gods and is declared off-limits (“tabu”) to all men under pain of death. The boy steals her away and they flee to an island colonized by white people, but fate intervenes when the old high-priest of the island manages to track them down.

The actors, all of whom were native-born islanders, turn in natural performances. Most of the film crew was made up of local natives as well. “Tabu” occasionally lingers a bit long over some scenes but is substantially faster-paced than “Moana,” with much more action – and of course has a melodramatic romance to hold audience interest. The effective music score by Hugo Riesenfeld adds immensely to telling the story and conveying the emotions.

Kino’s Blu-ray looks very sharp and film-like, scanned from a preservation negative a few minutes longer than the censored original American release. Some very minor wear shows up from time to time, and bonus features reveal just how beat-up some portions were before restoration. Audio quality is quite respectable for a 1931 film.

Bonus features include 26 minutes of unused takes scanned from surviving camera negatives. There are also two 15-minute featurettes in German with English subtitles, one covering the making of the film and its restoration, the other showing and discussing numerous other outtakes. There is also a 10-minute documentary, “Hunt in the South Seas” (1940), edited from a fishing sequence and other footage that did not make it into “Tabu.”

TABU on Blu-ray – Movie: A- / Video: A- / Audio: A- / Extras: B+