Legong

This film was the last Hollywood film produced and released in two-strip Technicolor and the last silent film produced in Hollywood.

The film was beautifully filmed in Bali, and has a musical soundtrack with titles (no dialogue). Legong was produced by Bennett Productions, and originally released by Paramount International (outside the US only) due to concerns about brief female nudity in the film. However, later in the 30's the film apparently showed up in various mutilated versions in so-called "grind houses" in New York City under various lurid titles. The UCLA Film and Television Archive restored Legong in 1999, using prints from the US, Canada, and the UK. The Archive plans to restore one other two-strip Techicolor film, Kliou the Killer Whale, also directed by Henri de la Falaise and released by Bennett Productions.

The main value of this enchanting film is the glimpse it gives us of Balinese village life and culture of 100 years ago. The film is well photographed and the Technicolor process in use then was more than adequate to the task of bringing out all the rich details.

Several reviewers have lamented about this "lost" culture, even suggesting that Hollywood and film audiences have played a part in its destruction. WRONG! The Balinese culture remains relatively intact today! This is due to the genius of the people in using modern technological when necessary and convenient without destroying the essence and magic of their vibrant cultural heritage.

So the great appeal of this film will be to those who visit Bali today and wish to compare their experience with these pictures of the past. There are some differences, of course. Most Balinese males now wear western attire and jeans "during the day" and may revert to more traditional sarong garb in the privacy of their homes "after work."

All the young ladies cover their breasts today, but this trend was already underway in the thirties when the film was shot. (However, one can still find in the villages very old ladies who disdain covering their upper bodies.) In the film all of the females are shown bare-breasted some but not all of the time. And they are beauties! (And one suspects the raison d'etre for the creation of the film may have been to exploit such pulchritude!)

So the pictures of village life in the film are accurate, and can be experienced today if one leaves the tourist areas and seeks out the rural hinterlands. The dances shown in the film are still performed on a regular basis (for a tourist audience, to be sure) but unchanged in content. Cock-fighting remains a very popular pastime. The religious rites and processions and cremation ceremonies have not changed at all. They are all well depicted in the film.

However, the writer of the screen play was obviously not a Balinese and his plot contrivances concerning romance and courtship are more European than Balinese. It is, for instance, almost unthinkable that a Balinese girl would kill herself over a failed "love affair" consisting mainly of a few amorous glances and a brief conversation or two! She would simply move on and pick another lover.

The writer also gets the religious thinking behind cremation all wrong. A Balinese MUST be properly cremated if the soul is to attain Nirvana, their equivalent of "heaven." An opposite view is posited in the film.

If you have no interest in Bali, forget this film. Otherwise, I think you will enjoy the experience.

One of Hollywood's last silent movies, Legong was shot on location in "exotic" Bali in 1933, released in 1935, and immediately hacked to pieces by censors who objected to its nudity (many bare breasts) and violence (a cockfight). Now it's been rediscovered and restored. Considered simply as a movie, it's not very good: the plot is simplistic melodrama, the tone patronizing, and the acting (by Balinese nonactors) amateurish. (You can imagine the director offscreen saying, "Okay, look angry...now stare wistfully into the distance....")

But as a historical document, it's fascinating. Photographed in two-strip Technicolor, it offers a vivid glimpse into a culture that has changed irretrievably since 1933. Even the amateurishness of it serves as a reminder that the people on the screen are real people living in a real place, evoking feelings of wonder and loss.

I think people should know what to expect. Lets face it the synopsis gives the entire story away. So why watch this thing...

Well... its an interesting silent film with some very bad music scored to it (it reminds you of the music from part of Disney's Snow White, just not the good parts).

It is in color but quite frankly has the look of a bad home movie.

For lack of a better way of saying it... This movie is what you would have expected from National Geographic if they had shot movies in the thirties and wanted to make fun of native tribes.

It was interesting only to see the way in which people viewed non-European's... it otherwise has no artistic merit. Very bad... I would have given it a one, but I only give ones to movies so bad that you can enjoy them for being bad. This one is just a waste of film/videotape/DVD.

Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Docu-drama has the benefit of being one of the last silent movies released by a major studio (Paramount) as well as being one of the last 2-strip Technicolor movies. The film, taking place in Bali, tells the story of Poutou (Poetoe Aloes Goesti), a girl who falls in love with a boy (Njong Njong Njoman) but he's in love with Poutou's younger sister (Saplak Njoman). This film was shot in 1933 but not released for a couple years and when it finally got released it was shown in three different versions. The British version removed all the violence while the American version removed all the nudity. The DVD from Milestone presents the film uncut, clocking in just under an hour, and the history behind the film is the only real reason to check this out. de la Falaise was married to Constance Bennett at the time he made this and it was her who gave all the money. I think film buffs might get a kick out of seeing such a late silent and one in the 2-strip but that's pretty much all we have here. The biggest problem is the fake "story" they built the real action around. We really didn't need to go to Bali to see this sort of love triangle so the story adds very little to nothing. I think the biggest benefit to this film is the Technicolor, which looks great and really shows off all the colors of the land. Another reason to watch it would mainly be for history buffs who want to see Bali as it was in 1933. There's no doubt that the land is beautiful and gives the viewing a lot to take in. It should also be noted that in the uncut version we get to see some violent cockfights. Also, the women in the film don't wear shirts so one should expect a lot of nudity and what might turn some off is that it's obvious many of the girls here are very, very young. With that said, the end results isn't a classic like so many of these docu-dramas from this era but it's a nice looking film.