Silent Shouts Louder

Who swim hard in the world film industry these days? New technology so-called 3D is growing; advanced filmmakers race to release their products to win the market. Then we also have movies with twists everywhere; or the ones offer "different" or out of the box storyline. I believe these players aim for big money, big honey (the fans), and the academy (awards) or other appreciations.

While those movies are speeding in the strong current of industry, this movie is floating calmly on the river's surface, and surprisingly made many racers slow down and look back as it took the Oscar of Best Picture 2012, and four other recognitions home.

I thought "The Artist" would be a silence black and white thoughtful art film. Silence and black and white indeed, but the last two adjectives gave me some reason to "procrastinate", until.... it won the award.

The reason why I said it is a light floating piece is the point which contradicts my assumption. The movie is light as a feather. I did not have to think much while watching it, like most of the previous Oscar winners, just sit back and enjoy. The story is quite linear yet beautifully simple. It was not a boring picture at all.

Love story which started from a gossipy kiss between old silent film star George Valentin and fan Peppy Miller. Miss Miller got some small movie roles afterward, and rose into a top star. As the talk film entered the industry, Valentin's career was dropping. Love and hate relationship between the two occurred as each artist's career went to the opposite direction.

I think the key strengths of the flick were the music and actors. Fantastic scoring from the very beginning to the end sounds on its place. Salute to the scoring director who has worked very well with the grand orchestra and some detail sound effects too. Actors are also the keys, not to be missed the dog! They all act finely. The film would be worse than crap if it possess not these two elements.

Therefore, congratulations Ludovic Bource for the original score Oscar and French actor Jean Dujardin for the best actor in leading role (first time nominated yet he took it away from George Clooney and Brad Pitt). To make it believable, the costume designers work hard too. The Academy awarded Mark Bridges and friends the best costume design. And finally the guy who make everything happens, Michel Hazanavicius got the best directing award.

Two Best Actor of the Movie: Dujardin and... The DOG!!!

Limitless in Limited Situation

It's been a while I haven't written here, and a while also I haven't watched a movie in the theater. Indonesia's cinema-goers are mourning since they cannot catch new Hollywood movies recently. Even a friend has ever asked me to go to Singapore to do a movie marathon.

Yeah probably you have heard about taxation issue which confronts the government and the biggest cinema network in the country. Am not going to explain the details about the issue, but in a nutshell, Hollywood major studio's movies haven't been released here, such as Thor and The Fast and Furious 5. As the story goes, the most anticipated 2011 movies, Harry Potter and Transformer saga, will not play as well. (But who knows?)

Yesterday I went to a cinema for a refreshing, and expected not a great film. The choice went to "Limitless" as I thought, at least I can enjoy Brad Cooper's charisma if the movie doesn't look good.

It turned out the movie teased me well for the cinematographic area. It made me excited to go on. The story starts when a writer Eddie (Bradley Cooper) faces a writing block, a condition when writer is stuck and over a barrel not even to finish a single word.

Eddie meets his ex-brother-in-law Vern who gives him a new super drug NZT. The pill allows Eddie to access 100% of his brain capacity to finish his book in only four days. It makes Eddie a super human, limitless.

Editing is the key of the movie's coolness

Vern was murdered and Eddie gets a voluminous supply of NZT. He uses them to enhance his life. Learning new things, getting a job in finance, getting his ex-girlfriend back, upgrading his lifestyle, until he meets Van Loon (De Niro) a Wall Street dragon. Since the encounter with Van Loon, Eddie continuously having problems which threaten his career, his girlfriend's safety, and eventually his life.

Although as a thriller it is not quite thrilling for me, the movie somehow worths my IDR 25 thousand (approximately USD 3). Although the story is not as brilliant as my favourite movie "The Illusionist", which is directed by the same person Neil Burger, once again the cinematography and editing does more, and they are too entertaining to be missed.

In the limited movie situation like now, Limitless was a wise option to go back to cinema.

An Education of the University of Life

Lately I had been losing my appetite watching TV cable movies. They play mostly Hollywood or some typical shallow flicks which make me bored. In order to satisfy the need of watching quality movies, I used to go to the computer. This morning I woke up with the hope of enjoying another Pedro Almodóvar's, and there I found my brother was playing some games with the desktop. I postponed the intention, then grabbed a remote control to check on the TV cables. Luckily it was not so bad with the movies today.

"An Education" is a movie which caught my attention. The BBC production was released in Sundance Festival 2009, but I cannot remember it has reached Indonesia's cinemas up to now. I deplore it happened as the British film might inspire us, not girls not yet women of Indonesia. I believe that traditional culture teaches us females to be good wives ignoring other field that we are good at. I mean no matter how skillful we are at something, the ultimate goal is to find the princes charming, affluent ones of course, pleasure them, be married, have a good life, then raise children. With this old-fashioned paradigm, most of my girlfriends, who attended university, hold the plan of getting married soon after the graduation. If that is what we meant to be, why do us women need high education?

This movie, which is written based on British writer Lynn Barber's early life, pictures the case perfectly. Sixteen-year-old bright high school student Jenny Mellor wants to be a writer and go to Oxford University. The dream blurs when she meets David, a man whose age is twice of hers, offering a life fairy tale ending. A high class classic music concert, expensive auctioned painting, glamorous outfits, and a trip to Paris are what Jenny could only dream of before. Then comes David arresting her heart with such fortune, including an engagement ring in the end. David impresses her parents too. He convinces that it is okay for Jenny leaving her Oxford dream behind to marry him. The only side who against it is school, thus she leaves it. When she finds out that David is a married man, she goes back to the lane she was before, the education.

The young Lynn Barber

Directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby, the story takes place in the early 60s in England. It is a pre-Beatles era after the World War II, when England was poor and did not do very well like US, as the writer says "Over there, it was all about Cadillacs. Here in Britain, we were still waiting for a bus.” The flick also reveals the cultural revolution with Jenny parents' (played by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) struggling and uptight 50s custom facing their daughter's young 'swinging 60s' invasion. I believe this is my favourite cultural scene too as I was entertained that much by the architecture and fashion.


The three Oscars nominated film, including the best motion picture of the year, rockets the young actress Carey Mulligan as Jenny and Peter Sarsgaard as David. Mulligan herself wins some film awards through her acting success, with the help from the more senior actress like Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, and Rosamund Pike.

The naive school girl Jenny

David (right) impresses the Mellors

David and Jenny in Paris

I know the story happens a lot in women's life. We are blinded by love and think that he is our only world. However, at some point we need to choose which way would take us to be a person we want to be. What I know now that I will not giving up my dream and I need education to support it and keep me independent. So, I don't recommend you young ladies to cut your dream out of your life. We are on our own in the university of life, where there are no books nor teachers to give us lesson.What I'm saying is that we need to keep doing something we love and are good at, while the princes charming are the blessings who will come to you in the right moment.

Revisiting A Story of Forbidden Love

"Brideshead Revisited" Film Poster

Forbidden love has been a very popular topic of romance flicks, from Shakespeare's classic "Romeo and Juliet", awards winner "Titanic", to heart-rending "The Notebook". On the 8th November 2010, I was led to the notion again as I watched "Brideshead Revisited" in Jakarta's Europe on Screen 2010 (European Film Festival).

It is a British independent movie based on 1945 Evelyn Waugh's novel under the same title. Brideshead is an arty grand mansion owned by Marchmain, the family of Lord Sebastian Flyte. The main character, Charles Ryder is the mansion's adorer who makes friend with Sebastian Flyte in Oxford University. They have an awkward relationship as Sebastian falls in love with him. Ryder who is also a talented painter, by Sebastian's invitation has a chance to live his life in the dwelling and gets to know more about the family's Catholicism set up strictly by Lady Marchmain, the mother.

The Brideshead Dinner

The forbidden love issue raises as Ryder starts to have a crush on Sebastian's sister, Julia, and she replies. Sebastian's drinking habit gets worst, while Lady Marchmain does not let her daughter marry an atheist. Therefore, she couples Julia with a Catholic Canadian, Rex. Moreover, Ryder is also exiled from Brideshead.

Marchmain's Family Catholicism Puts Ryder in the Shadow

Several years later after the mother dies, married Charles Ryder meets married Julia and revisits Brideshead to take her away from Rex as Charles and Julia still keep the same feeling they had before. Their love is tested once again by the late mother's Catholicism family value which Ryder does not believe in.

Joining this film, Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain, Matthew Goode as Charles Ryder, Ben Whishaw as Sebastian Flyte, and Hayley Atwell as Julia Flyte. The film is a 2008 Miramax' production by Julian Jarrold, and nominated for some areas in Satelite Award. Elongate the nomination list is Thompson as best supporting actress in British Independent Film Award and London Film Critics' Circle.

For me personally, I miss this kind of tragic story film which loads much humanity and social issues. When I heard about Europe on Screen 2010, I was so ready to enjoy some European drama. "Brideshead Revisited" has given me a good starting touch to remind myself of my expectation on the festival.

Indonesian British Council Director, Keith Davies, in his short speech at Istituto Italiano di Cultura Jakarta believes that the film attracts not only a European indie cinema adorer like me, but also fashion society. The film's attire which is set to be British aristocrats' around 1925 has been influencing UK fashion designers even up to now.

"Brideshead Revisited" can be caught on 10th November 2010 in Goethe House at 19.30 for Jakarta's screening, and 29th November 2010 in Europe House at 19.00 for Banda Aceh's screening.

movie trailer:
http://www.miramax.com/bridesheadrevisited/?page=11140

source:
http://www.miramax.com/bridesheadrevisited
http://www.flickmagazine.net/feature/244-europe-on-screen-2010--jadwal-berdasarkan-negara.html

A Barefoot Dream: A Glow from The Neighbor

Timor Leste, an ex Indonesia's province which was granted liberty in 2002, has been mostly exposed for its domestic political conflicts. Disagreement between pro-Indonesia and pro-independent triggers gun fight, riot, and chaos. Without eliminating the context, director Kim Tae-Gyun presents a glow of Timor Leste's young footballers in a based on true event film, "A Barefoot Dream".

The Film's Poster

The story follows Korean ex youth footballer, Kim Won-Kang, with his crocodile hunting plan in North Sumatra, Indonesia which turned out to be a disaster. For a hope of earning money, he flew to Timor Leste to find such opportunitiy. His business did not run well in the country, he was under debt to some Japanese and Korean fellows, and locals perceived him trickster. Nevertheless, he did a very good job training young barefoot footballers to be professional footballers who won Under-12 Rivelino Cup in Japan two years in a row (2004 and 2005). 

An involvement of Timor Leste's President Xanana Gusmão shows how the government supports the movie as the country's promotion media. It does not hide the upheavals of the country, poverty, chaos, and so on, yet it exposes a hope of unity through the youth football team achievements.

I never watched Korean film nor television series before, thus at first I doubted the movie would be a good flick. Somehow, the premise attracted me among the other Hollywood and Bollywood films played in a multiplex. As I had assumed, the movie was not selling well that day as there was only three persons watching in the theater. However, the movie gave me a very good first impression of Korean feature films. Was impressed by the actor Hie-sun Park's ability to converse in some different languages of Portuguese, Indonesian, and local language Tetum, though he still keeps his Korean accent. Moreover, the story is also simple with some dramatic and thank God, no dry jokes enrichment.

Although the movie is not a first-tier-festival style, it conveys lots of moral values. Therefore, I encourage people, especially Indonesian, to watch the film to gain an alternative story of our neighbor. So, 잘했어! (well done!)

From Nothing

To Something

pictures sources:

http://asianmediawiki.com/A_Barefoot_Dream

http://bicarafilm.com/baca/2010/09/30/a-barefoot-dream-sekali-lagi-kisah-nyata-tentang-kekuatan-mimpi.html