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."