France's reel deal at second Jakarta French Film Festival<\/p>\n
By Nicolas Colombant<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The poster for the second Jakarta French Film
\nFestival on Dec. 10 - Dec. 14 has a bajaj pedicab veering onto
\nthe Carre Richelieu in Paris with the pyramids of the Louvre in
\nthe background.<\/p>\n
The scene to be played out at the festival is actually the
\nother way around, as French cinema arrives on a turf dominated by
\nthe fists of action-packed Hollywood movies and by Tinseltown's
\nbig names in bright lights.<\/p>\n
Two categories of movies will be showcased at two different
\nvenues. Nine creme de la creme French features, subtitled in
\nIndonesian, will be shown at the Taman Ismail Marzuki's Graha
\nBhakti Budaya theater. \"Youth cinema\" is also represented, with
\nfour feature-length films by young French directors at the French
\nCultural Center's video room on Jl. Salemba Raya.<\/p>\n
The festival travels to Surabaya on Dec. 13, with an evening
\nscreening of three movies at Plaza Surabaya, intertwined with
\ncocktail breaks of French cuisine. The fare will be a diverse mix
\nof recent movies, most of them released this year, covering many
\nof the genres -- love stories, psychological thrillers,
\nhistorical panoramas and social sketches -- which make up the
\nstrength of the French moviemaking style.<\/p>\n
\"By defending our national cinema, we defend all national
\ncinemas,\" commented the former cultural counselor of the French
\nEmbassy, Philippe Garnier, before leaving his post after more
\nthan three years in the country. \"We have to combat the idea that
\nglobalization means monoculturism.<\/p>\n
\"Aren't we bored with always the same type of movies? Do not
\njust sit and watch what the Americans are doing, stand up and
\nproduce your own movies,\" was Garnier's battle cry when he met
\nthe leading professionals of Indonesia's struggling movie
\nindustry at a seminar on coproductions last year.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the underground competing against the forces of the
\nAmerican Film Exporters Association is not a crowded one. There
\nare great filmmakers in every country, but rarely do their works
\nmake it outside of repertoire festivals or artsy film houses,
\neven within their own countries.<\/p>\n
India has its musicals with gangsters and forbidden love. Hong
\nKong has its martial arts productions and cutting edge black
\ncomedies. Britain has its down-and-out independent movies which
\nattract cult followings. But only France has truly put in place a
\nmoneymaking industry which regularly churns out quality movies
\nand familiar faces with international star appeal: Gerard
\nDepardieu, Juliette Binoche or Catherine Deneuve come to mind.<\/p>\n
Truth be told, the industry is largely subsidized. Out of
\nevery movie ticket sold in France, 11 percent goes into the
\ncoffers of a national producer's association. And French movies
\nhave met little success when crossing borders.<\/p>\n
Despite the many obstacles, French film entrepreneurs such as
\nMichel Houdayer, the audiovisual attache at the French Embassy,
\ncontinue in their efforts to break the monopoly of U.S.-made
\nmovies.<\/p>\n
\"Clearly our goal is to create an economic environment which
\nwill be favorable to the distribution of French film,\" Houdayer
\nsaid from his Menteng office, besieged by an array of film reels,
\npromotional posters and heaps of subtitles in the days leading up
\nto the festival.<\/p>\n
\"And the second emphasis is to put on display a festival which
\nis appealing to the Indonesian public.\"<\/p>\n
The festival is a joint effort of the French Embassy, the
\nCultural Center of France and Unifrance Film, the state-supported
\nbody which coordinates the export of the French movie industry
\nabroad. Similar festivals are organized yearly in Yokohama,
\nMexico, Prague, Munich and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
This year's festival will be public-oriented and very much
\nalive outside of screenings, unlike last year's debut.<\/p>\n
\"The presentation of the French movies are very important but
\nthey are only the tip of the iceberg in what we are trying to
\ndo,\" Houdayer explained.<\/p>\n
Film directors, actors and producers are being flown over to
\nmeet their Indonesian counterparts. Included among the visiting
\ndignitaries are actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, whose first movie,
\nTonka, which will open the event, and its producer Jean-Francois
\nLepetit, who made Three Men and a Baby, which was a remake of his
\nown French movie, and who visited here last year.<\/p>\n
A meeting is being organized between Laurent Allary, the
\nregional Unifrance delegate based in Tokyo, and Harris Lasmana of
\nthe Subentra Group. Lasmana, the operational director of the
\nStudio 21 chain, now prevalent in Jakarta's state-of-the-art
\nmalls, will be accompanied by his team of regional distributors.
\nThey are curious to find out if something other than the habitual
\nfare of blockbusters can please Indonesian moviegoers<\/p>\n
Following afternoon shows, informal sessions will take place
\nbetween a representative of each movie and the public to check
\nthis pulse. Spectators will vote on each movie and during the
\nclosing ceremony a \"public's prize\" will be awarded.<\/p>\n
To attract viewers, the French Cultural Center has called on
\nthe expertise of two artists from the South of France who coin
\nthemselves as \"a graphic commando unit\". Cecile Gras and Pascal
\nHumbert are working with dozens of students from the Jakarta Arts
\nInstitute's School of Fine Arts to \"poetically invade the
\nphysical space of the festival\". The result will be a surprise to
\nthe festival's organizers and attendants alike, and maybe to the
\nartists themselves.<\/p>\n
Not coincidentally, when all the art is torn down, and the
\nFrench film community packs up its reels and heads out of town
\nthe day after the festival ends, a team of Indonesian filmmakers
\nand French producers will start shooting the movie Telegram in
\nCirebon, West Java. Putu Wijaya's script is adaptation of his own
\nnovel of the same title.<\/p>\n
The movie is funded by a French government grant, coproduced
\nby Art Cam International, a French production company, and
\ndirected by Indonesian Slamet Rahardjo. The movie is scheduled to
\nbe released in both Indonesia and France next year. Maybe that is
\nwhen the bajaj will really get to rev up and down the
\ncobblestoned streets of Paris.<\/p>",
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