Marselli Sumarno a storyteller by trade

Marselli Sumarno a storyteller by trade

By Tam Notosusanto

JAKARTA (JP): As Marselli Sumarno faced the reporters and film
critics from various local media, he said: "I've been in your
place before, but I am a creator now. So go ahead and evaluate my
film; say it's good if you think it's good, say it's bad if you
think it's bad. That's fine. I am OK with that."

He was speaking at a media conference prior to the first
screening of his cinematic debut, Sri, last Sunday. Marselli, a
tall, bespectacled, soft-spoken man, had a reason to say this: He
is more well-known as a film critic for The Jakarta Post and
Kompas daily than as a filmmaker. Now, after years of dispensing
his opinions on films and filmmakers, the time has come for his
own work to be judged.

But Marselli is not a film critic who just happened to become
a film director. Just like those French New Wave legends Francois
Truffaut and Claude Chabrol, film criticism was just a path he
took before finally realizing his true dream: Making his own
films.

His attraction to filmmaking began as a fascination with
storytelling. Born on Oct. 10, 1956 in Surakarta, Central Java,
he was the third of six children. The young Marselli was such a
gifted storyteller that his older siblings spent hours listening
to the stories he weaved, using Kho Ping Ho martial arts books
and other materials as his sources of information.

Then a film called The Godfather played in his hometown,
almost driving Marselli nuts. The local newspaper said such
wonderful things about the movie that he felt he had to see it,
even if it meant taking some money from his savings and begging
for some more from relatives. And he was completely thrilled by
the film, even though he was more impressed with Mario Puzo than
Francis Ford Coppola.

"It's a story about the world of crime; about the various
aspects of it. Duty, the profession and family, all beautifully
told," he said. He discovered that sometimes story material can
be ordinary, but if it is told in a superb way it can become a
great story. The Godfather was such a great influence on Marselli
that when he reached high school he began sending his own crime
stories to Detektif & Romantika magazine.

After high school, Marselli went to Jakarta, enrolling in the
School of Film and Television at the Jakarta Institute of the
Arts (IKJ). Upon his graduation, he did not go directly into the
film business. Instead, he worked as a reporter for Kompas.

"I actually wanted to join the Gramedia Film Company, which
was the newspaper's sister company," Marselli said. "But by the
time I got on board Kompas, the film company was already shut
down."

So Marselli took on journalistic duties, mostly reporting on
events in the world of film and writing commentaries on the
condition of the Indonesian cinema. He hung out at film sets,
brushed elbows with film directors and crews and learned a thing
or two about the craft.

During that period he developed an analytical sense of how
certain film directors achieved their masterpieces. "Chaerul
Umam's work is mostly thematic," he explains. "Teguh Karya is
preoccupied with setting. Sjuman Djaya is characterized by his
down-to-earth stories and a certain cinematographic style, which
is mostly landscape photography. And Arifin C. Noer shows a lot
of theatrical influence in his films."

Going to the sets and getting to know filmmakers certainly
nurtured his interest in becoming a director himself one day. He
mostly admires Sjuman Djaya, whom he refers to as "the most
complete director", which Marselli attributes to the fact that
the late director graduated from the prestigious Moscow Film
Institute.

Marselli went on to write screenplays for big-screen films
Tragedi Bintaro, Oom Pasikom and Malioboro, as well as some
television films. He continued to write film reviews for Kompas
and became a correspondent for international film magazines
Cinemaya, International Film Guide and Variety. Never
losing his gift for storytelling, he also wrote some short
stories which appeared in Kompas. His book Dasar-Dasar Apresiasi
Film (Basic Principles to Appreciate Films) was published in
1997.

After receiving a degree in screenwriting from IKJ, Marselli
has been active in various pursuits related to film. He teaches
Film Studies at IKJ, managed the Kine Klub of the Jakarta Arts
Council for three years, became a juror at the now-defunct
Indonesian Film Festival and attended film festivals around the
world.

But he still did not have a chance to direct because of his
refusal to go the traditional way: Aspiring filmmakers usually
begin by serving as assistant directors on film sets and working
their way up. Marselli sees this position as irrelevant to the
filmmaking process because as far as he is concerned, these
assistants are mainly assigned to fetch coffee or cigarettes for
the movie bigwigs.

Marselli's big break came when he met film producer Kemala
Atmojo. Atmojo liked Marselli's pitch for Sri, and agreed to
cover the operational costs in exchange for the film's domestic
rights. Businessman Moetaryanto also joined in as a producer, and
Marselli received additional funding from the Dutch-based Hubert
Bals Fund and Indonesia's National Film Assessment Board.

The shoot proceeded swiftly and on schedule over the month of
October 1997, in a house located in the kraton compound in
Marselli's hometown of Surakarta. Save well-known names Sardono
W. Kusumo and Niniek L. Karim, Marselli was working with a cast
of new-comers, consisting of friends, neighbors and his nephew
Dimas Adiprasetyo, who plays the protagonist's young son.

It was postproduction that was hell, because the monetary
crisis had already arrived. Costs ballooned and Marselli had to
scrape up more financing from various sources. The film was
finally completed this year, and Atmojo estimated the total
production cost at Rp 1 billion (about US$128,200), excluding the
Rp 100 million he already budgeted for marketing the movie.

His next film, for cost-cutting purposes, will be shot on
Digital Video instead of celluloid.

"It's relatively cheaper," he said. "I can shoot all I want
with this video camera I bought for Rp 40 million, and transfer
the results to celluloid later."