MAORIS AS ACTORS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 175, 20 April 1929, Page 10

MAORIS AS ACTORS

REMARKABLE ABILITY IN FILMS RESPONSE TO SYMPATHY (By A.0.H.) The Maoris have awakened! The liills send back the echoes of their wild shouts; their meres, shaken aloft, glitter in the sun; the muscles of their bare limbs gather, and the earth trembles to the martial beating of their brown feet in a dim-remembered wardance ! . War! Only make-believe. The spear-thrust is harmless, the clashing of tribe with tribe a mimicry of bloodshed, the battlefield a sham- from which the silent fallen will spring up and laugh when the motion-picture camera ceases grinding, and the director calls “Smoko!” The Days of Their Fathers. The Maoris who participated in the all-Maori film “Taranga,” “shot” at Ohiwa, near Whakatane, were the happiest creatures alive during that time. Pakehas with a camera on tripods and with other strange contrivances had come and asked them to return awhile to the days of their fathers—reviving the glorious hakas, the battles, . the dances, games, and ceremonies of times gone by. They were invited to forget for a space the changes that had come over their race and their country, and to laugh, love, fight, and play as their kind had done in the past. Komate! Komate! Ra! Ra! “ Like children in whose schooling has come a time for play they took up with the zest the game. Again the Maori rose in his might, savage master of domain,. proud fighter of a proud race, and. he lived as his fathers had lived before him. He shed the clothes of the modern and donned a mat of flax; he cast aside the boots that chafed his feet, and from his throat rose the roar of the Maori warrior. Most Natural of Actors.

Thus the Maori race are winning a name for themselves as the most natural actors on the screen. Hollywood itself cannot produce actors to equal their utter naturalness, their simplicity, their complete freedom from “camera - consciousness.” For them the cameras, the director, the propertymen, and the onlookers might not be

there for all the effect they have. There is no other reason for this than that they “live” their parts, entering entirely into the spirit of a scene until it becomes real to them. Tears run down their cheeks, joy lights up their faces, and once they understand what is required of them, prompting, is unnecessary. R. L. Stevenson writes of the “art that conceals art,” but theirs is an art greater than art. One scene in the' film was where news was brought to an old chief of the killing of bis son. The chief was a very old man, white haired, and bowed. It was. necessary that he portray some emotion at receiving the message. How best to direct him? The director put it to the old man himself. “Now,” he said, “if somebody really did come to you and told you your son had been killed by enemies, what would you do?” The old man thought a moment. He thought, not as an actor, but as a Maori whose creed was an eye for an eye. His son—killed!—fury leapt to his face. His old limbs stiffened, his bent shoulders straightened, his arms shook above him, and he breathed as a giant He lifted his head, and cried out loud in hate, vengeance, and rage. He would .revenge. Years had dropped from his shoulders. Weeping in grief and alarm the old woman who was his wahine clutched at his arm to restrain him. Without a word the director signalled the cameraman. In another scene one tribe was farewelling another. There were partings, salutations, and good wishes. But it was not enough. The Maoris felt they must do more. One broke into a dance, another followed. Soon all were prancing an capering and yelling, striking poses, and. expressing their feelings in the way. they knew. Even the youngest danced and grimaced in keen delight. It was not in order, but the Maoris were carried away. They had forgotten the camera, but the handle kept on turning, and the whole stirring scene was filmed. Throughout the production the y oris behaved simply and naturally, using to the full their dramatic instinct and power of mimicry. They fell into easy, graceful poses, th ■ effect of which was enhanced by their almost Greek physique. Mr. Alexander Marky, of Hollywood, United States, who directed the film, is enthusiastic about the acting ability <' the Maoris. “Noblest of AH Native Races.” “They are the noblest native race I know,” he said. “They have a natural aptitude for the screen. There is no-

thing I have enjoyed more than the time I spent among the Maoris making that film. They are a people who cannot be treated in the fashion of Hollywood ‘extras’ or natives of an inferior type. Once their confidence has been gained they -act in a most intelligent manner. For charm, courage, and nobility they have no equal among native races.”

He said that for the purposes of the film the Maoris were rehearsing an ancient spear haka. Line on line they went through the motions under his direction. Within a few moments, however, they had grasped the idea, and they flung themselves into the dance. There was no need longer to prompt them. Tenser became their limbs, deepthe roar of th'eir chorus, the very earth shook as they stamped, and, silent, the director watched swept off his feet by his own pupils. The affection in which the Maoris hold Mr. Marky is shown by an. incident he related to the writer with some feeling. He was visiting the Urewera Country with a guide and interpreter, when he came upon a hut. They went inside, and crouching by a fire was a tiny old Maori woman, squatting on a small wooden platform. She was over one hundred years old, and her eyes only seemed to be alive, bright in her wrinkled face. When told by the interpreter that Mr. Marky had come thousands of miles to film a true record of the Maori race she shuffled forward, and looking into his eyes, muttered in Maori. Then she went to a cupboard and produced a package, from which she took a beautiful pendant of polished greenstone. It contained the rare "tears” and was her only possession of worth. Except that in another package she had two shilling pieces, and these also she pressed on him. It was her one who would do So much for the Maori race. Mr. Marky wears the pendant now.