French films set to steal the hearts of local moviegoers
By Jane Freebury
JAKARTA (JP): Ten recent French films are to be screened at Studio 21, Plaza Senayan, for four days, from Thursday to Sunday (Nov. 28 - Dec. 1).
The screenings of these quality films by first-time and established French directors will complement cineaste discussions and a retrospective of French cinema on ANteve -- offering films of the 1970s and 1980s, including Andre Techine's Le Lieu du Crime. The first debate between film professionals and the second on French and other national cinemas have already been broadcast. The third, on the exhibition of foreign films in Indonesia, will air on Nov. 29.
The films to be screened at Senayan fall into two categories: cinema for the wider public and films for youth (but not children). All four films in the "young cinema" category are subtitled in English, but films in the former category, except Indochine, are subtitled in Indonesian only.
Regarde les Hommes Tomber (1994), directed by Jacques Audiard, is a thriller about a salesman out to avenge the assassination of his best friend. One of the murderers is played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, who will probably never live down his role as the lover in Claude Lelouch's A Man and A Woman. Personne ne M'aime (1994), directed by Marion Vernoux, is described as an iconoclastic and acidic comedy about two sisters united only in their pursuit of revenge on the male species.
Les Amoureux (1994), directed by Catherine Corsini, is about the youthful passage to independence, when a young girl returns to her parents' home in small town rural Ardennes. A la Belle Etoile (1994) directed by Antoine Desrosieres, is about a young man of 17 looking for love.
For the wider audience, there is Le Fils Prefere (1994), a murky family drama directed by Nicole Garcia. Submerged over the years, secrets and lies bubble to the surface in the lives of three brothers.
Un Heros Tres Discret (1996), released this year, is another film by Jacques Audiard. In this year's official selection at Cannes it won the prize for best scenario. It is the tale of a man who assumes the identity of hero at the end of a war in which he played no part.
Released in 1992, Indochine will already be known to some audiences here. Directed by Regis Wargnier, it is a magisterial epic with Catherine Deneuve. L'appat (1995) is a study in the lives of delinquents by veteran director Bertrand Tavernier. It received the top award, the Golden Bear, at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Le Hussard sur le Toit (1995) is a film from established director Jean-Paul Rappeneau. It is set in Provence last century when cholera was decimating the population. An epic, Les Caprices d'un Fleuve (1996) is a film from Bernard Giraudeau. While France is in the throes of revolution, an exiled nobleman learns to love a very different kind of life as governor of a small colony in West Africa.
As an attempt to showcase alternatives to what is usually on offer at Studio 21 it is hoped that the festival will reveal what local Indonesian audiences respond to -- aside from action cinema. Eye-catching as it is, the festival is not the only main event. It does not stand alone, explains Michel Houdayer, the French embassy representative for educational broadcasting in Indonesia and the region, but within a context of collaboration between French and Indonesian film professionals.
A maximum of 160 foreign (read U.S. and others) movies can be imported for distribution and exhibition in Indonesia each year. This week French film distributors and Indonesian exhibitors will meet to discuss the inclusion of French film within this number. Other collaborative developments include a French-Indonesian coproduction, for which there is already scenario and director. All technical crew will be Indonesian. In the archival area, the French are helping with the restoration of Asrul Sani's 1969 classic of Indonesian cinema, Apa Yang Kau Cari, Palupi?
Le cinema Francais is a highly successful national cinema, with French films making up 35 percent of screenings in France today. National cinemas everywhere have something to learn from the French experience. Michel Houdayer notes that the pioneer French filmmakers, the Lumiere brothers, brought their technology to Southeast Asia early in the 1900s, but they never quite reached Indonesia. In a sense, he sees the final leg of their journey being made now.