Hanya Isyarat - Rectoverso

“Aku sampai di bagian bahwa aku telah jatuh cinta.
Namun orang itu hanya mampu kugapai sebatas punggungnya saja.
Seseorang yang cuma sanggup kuhayati bayangannya dan tak akan pernah kumiliki keutuhannya.
Seseorang yang hadir sekelebat bagai bintang jatuh yang lenyap keluar dari bingkai mata sebelum tangan ini sanggup mengejar.
Seseorang yang hanya bisa kukirimi isyarat sehalus udara, langit, awan atau hujan.
Seseorang yang selamanya harus dibiarkan berupa sebentuk punggung karena kalau sampai ia berbalik, niscaya hatiku hangus oleh cinta dan siksa.

oleh Dewi 'Dee' Lestari

Not Pro nor Academical Movie Review: Demi Ucok

In this first week of 2013 I feel so inspired. I saw a good movies this week. I purchased some DVDs; The Perks of Being a Wallflower, On the Road, and Cloud Atlas. I went to the cinema this weekend. I watched Demi Ucok. As for now, I'm about to give my not professional nor academical review on this movie.
 
Anyway, this is my first movie I watch in theater in 2013. I'm glad it's a local movie. Another film by Sammaria Simanjuntak, the director of an honest and heart touching movie, cin(t)a.

It's very difficult to find a worthy local movie to watch. Mostly the holder of major fund in Indonesia, not to mention majority of a fine prod. houses, produce (literally) twopenny movies. They have this inviolable pattern for the story, characters, etc. It's mainly semi porn horror sort with cleavages of the sexy-young-predicted to join the left-behind gang because she can never really do acting-actress, flunk-comedy which said inspired by American's movie whereas it's a top open secret that they copied the story, and semi-porn-horror sort with cleavages of a very seducing milf who used to have the fame back in the days who unfortunately to turns out upscale hooker.

 Sorry for blabbering. Anyway below is synopsis of Demi Ucok:

Glo doesn’t want to be like her mother:
Get married, forget her dream, and live boringly ever after.
She wants to reach her dream: make a movie.
Her mother, having one more year to live,
tries to make her daughter live like her:
Get married, live for others, and live happily ever after.
So the battle begins

I found the main idea of the story is simple; so our society everyday problem. In a far-reaching nation like Indonesia, it's quite hard to orient oneself to national law. As per our nation regulation, minimum age for a woman to get married is 20 y.o. and 25 y.o. for a man. As we live in Indonesian archipelago on which live divers ethnic groups, they might have their own regulation related to minimum age for marriage. Or maybe they have their own spiritual credit related to marriage.

Keep in mind that varied ethnic groups is not the only nor the main reason which (possibly) caused a divergence towards practice of national law. You must never forget our beyond number population that government couldn't handle. Among them are a less lucky troop who couldn't afford education so they don't give a shit if the population multiply. The government didn't give a shit about them too, anyway. Those less lucky troop get married in such a young age, they don't even give a shit about minimum age regulation I supposed, as it's disclose the possibility for a young woman to pop out more live.

Whilst for so-called quite lucky troop, marriage is not really for them. Woman in this troop divided by 2; those who is eager to get married because they whether too brave or feel complete after getting married, having kids, etc and those who defer their marriage for quite sometimes.

The second sort of the so-called quite lucky troop seen as an endemic by our mother-generation, including mine. Why it is an endemic? Because it's more likely to be contagious among them who dream more, who read more, who learn something particular, who are willing to give whatever it takes to achieve their goal, who's distracted or even lost between the concept of existence which they knew from a campaign in social media slash social demand slash prestige, and least who's gay.

Just a slight number of Indonesian writer adopt this kind of story and dish it up as public consumption.

My second fave is the characters. They are so tangible as they're not giving the audience a beautiful as skinny as hell actress. What I mean is the cast director won't give you any simulacra of the image of beauty, which is very good.

Dear sister, don't you feel it's enough of being dictated by social demand? They say woman should get married, dutiful to her husband, taking care of their children, should be protected as they're very fragile, bla bla bla bla bla. Dear society who lived far before the very first brilliant women come up in this mother Earth, why on Earth you dictate woman with such a definition? May you rot in hell, by the way.

Seems like it's not enough as the capital industry defined what beauty is. They say you have to be so damn skinny and so freaking white (for Indonesian) to fit their beauty definition. Why we should be define? Isn't that restrain you?

So this main character, Geraldine Sianturi, is, of course, beautiful in her own way. She's curvy and looks healthy and happy. She has Indonesian colored skin, Austronesian typical. That's what you should give to the audience. A real people to portray a common character based on our everyday life.

-S

Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." -Albert Camus

Sudah nonton Midnight in Paris karya Woody Allen? Menurut saya, kutipan Camus di atas merepresentasikan isi cerita film tersebut. Sekilas Midnight in Paris terlihat seperti drama romantis kebanyakan, tetapi setelah membaca film itu kita akan mendapati sisi filosofisnya. Tulisan ini adalah apa yang saya baca dari film Woody Allen tersebut dan tentu saja tidak menutup kemungkinan penonton lain akan membaca hal yang berbeda.


Kita tidak akan pernah lepas dari masa lalu kita. Kita akan selalu menoleh ke sana, entah hanya untuk sekedar mengenang, bercermin, atau membandingkan keadaan masa lalu dengan masa kini. Gil (Owen Wilson) akan menikahi Inez (Rachel McAdams) ketika mereka berlibur ke Paris. Di Paris, Gil memimpikan masa depan yang lain dengan Inez. Ia bercita-cita pindah ke Kota Cahaya itu dan menulis novel. Kecintaannya pada sastra membawanya ke pengalaman tak terlupakan, setiap pukul 12 malam ia pergi melintas waktu. Ia pergi ke tahun 1920an; hang out bersama Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Zelda (Alison Pill) & F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), dll. Sungguh cerdas representasi dari masa lalu di dalam film ini. Masa-masa kejayaan sastra di Prancis pada tahun 1920an tepat untuk menjadi masa lalu yang banyak ditilik para penulis. Gil salah satunya. Ia igin hidup di masa itu, bersama para sastrawan yang sering ditemuinya di kafe-kafe.


Di tahun '20an Gil bertemu Adriana (Marion Cotillard) yang sedang belajar haute couture fashion pada Coco Chanel. Saat Gil berkenalan dengan Adriana, perempuan itu sedang menjalin hubungan Picasso dan tak lama setelahnya ia kabur dengan Hemingway. Tetapi sebenarnya Adriana jatuh hati pada Gil. Suatu malam saat mereka sedang berjalan-jalan di jalanan kota Paris tahun 1920an yang sepi, mereka bertemu sepasang suami istri yang mengajak Gil dan Adriana bergabung dengan mereka. Tawaran itu disambut hangat. Gil dan Adriana bergabung dengan pasangan itu dan mereka tiba di suatu pesta. Ternyata mereka melintasi waktu hingga ke Belle Epoque. Belle Epoque, periode yang sangat ingin ditinggali Adriana. Bermain-main dengan kejayaan masa lalu bukan hal yang mudah. Saking asyiknya Gil dengan khayalan masa lalunya, ia mengabaikan tunangannya, Inez, yang terang-terangan selingkuh dengan Paul (Michael Sheen).


Kita perlu berkaca pada masa lalu untuk mengetahui tolak ukur yang pernah kita capai atau pun yang pernah dicapai orang untuk memperbaiki pencapaian selanjutnya. Sering kali kita terbuai oleh mimpi yang menyaru dengan masa lalu sehingga membuat kita mangkir dari masa kini; membuat kita alpa dalam usaha. Kita sering kecolongan karena terlalu lama menoleh ke belakang.

-S

One Day; Twenty years. Two people.

Instead of doing home work, I choose to write down about a film that I just saw. It's One Day by Lone Scherfig. Telling about two people, Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess), who's in love in twenty year. They first met in July 15th 1989 at the graduation; they meet up every July 15th the years after. They both know they need each other but Dexter doesn't feel like settle with Emma that fast. He's playing around; become a TV presenter and hook up with chicks. While Emma, a middle class girl, working hard to struggle in London.

This might be silly, but I reflect the story with mine. As well as the story, he and I are separate now. He's with that girl and I am with my huge dream to be a high heeled warrior. And here comes the wishes, I wish one day he and I will reunite and he has the same feeling with mine and we'll going to be together until our time as the payback of our separation. But, yes there's always a but, I wish my story has different ending with one on the movie. Yeah, it's a sad ending thou.

Melancholia by Lars von Trier

Saya hanya penikmat film. Bukan orang yang ahli menilai film. Pelajaran Pengkajian Sinema Prancis yang pernah saya ambil menguap begitu saja bak peluh di bawah matahari kota Depok. Saya tidak membaca buku teori film seperti beberapa teman saya yang sangat menyukai film. Saya hanya suka menginterpretasikan karya dari sutradara (atau pun pengarang). Saya hanya memanfaatkan "the death of the author" Barthes dengan baik. :)

Ini film Lars von Trier pertama yang saya tonton. Delapan menit pertama saya nyaris lupa bernafas. Sungguh lupa. Tidak dibuat-buat. Saya bengong melihat indahnya komposisi warna di tiap gambar yang disuguhkan. Saya kagum dengan adegan slow motion di delapan menit pertama tersebut. Luar biasa indah sekali.

Melancholia bukan tipe film yang dapat dipahami dalam sekali tonton. Tentu saja yang saya maksud 'tonton' di sini adalah dilihat dan dipahami. Melancholia terdiri dari dua bagian. Bagian pertama menceritakan Justin (Drew Barrymore) yang mengidap melancholia (gangguan terhadap mood seseorang disebabkan oleh depresi) dan bagian kedua menceritakan Clair (Charlotte Gainsbourg) yang mempercayai bahwa suatu saat planet Melancholia akan menabrak bumi.


Film ini bercerita tentang ketakutan. Justin takut dengan kehidupannya setelah menikah dengan Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). Kedua orang tua Justin bercerai; ibunya memberikan speech pada saat resepsi bahwa ia tidak percaya institusi pernikahan sedangkan ayahnya berpoligini. Terpengaruh oleh kata-kata ibunya, Justin menjadi murung selama resepsi. Ditambah lagi bosnya mengenalkan Justin pada seorang pegawai baru yang dinilai kompeten untuk bekerja di perusahaanya. Dari ekspresi Justin pada gambar yang ditayangkan, saya melihat bahwa Justin merasa cemas akan nasibnya di masa depan; pernikahan dan karir.


Clair. Ibu satu anak. Istri seorang astronom, John (Kiefer Sutherland). Ia percaya bahwa planet Melancholia akan berada dalam jarak terdekatnya dengan bumi dan menghantam bumi; akhir kehidupan. Pada waktu yang telah diperkirakan John bahwa Melancholia akan berada pada jarak terdekat dengan bumi, mereka bersama-sama menyaksikan Melancholia mendekat; John berhasil meyakinkan Clair bahwa Melancholia tidak akan menabrak bumi. Sungguh sayang John melakukan kesalahan, Melancholia semakin lama semakin mendekat. John bunuh diri. Clair dan anaknya mencoba melarikan diri dari kenyataan di hadapannya. Sadar pelariannya tidak berguna, Clair kembali ke kastil; pasrah menghadapi hantaman Melancholia.


Punya rasa takut itu wajar. Apa lagi takut sama masa depan. Tapi menurut saya, masa depan itu tentatif. Segala sesuatunya masih bisa diusahakan. Kita masih bisa memproyeksikan visi kita ke realita. Dengan kerja keras, tentu saja. Untuk urusan kiamat, saya kembalikan lagi pada apa yang kalian percayai. Urusan macam itu saya tidak mau intervensi. Sila bilang saya malas debat. Saya hanya tidak mau mencampuri urusan individu dan keyakinannya. :)

-S

I Wish My Soulmate Is ...

Hey.. I just found that How I Met Your Mother IS a great show. And I'm simply falling for Ted Mosby :) And I've been considering to have an architect as my soulmate. Yeah.. architect is SEXY (since it's played by Josh Rodner) and.. since Barney said "Lots of chicks think that architects are hot. You create something out of nothing. You’re like God. There's no one hotter than God".

I just wanna share that, anyway. Got to finish my essay. Good night!

-S

BLACK SWAN by Darren Aronofsky

I found an upcoming movie by Darren Aronofsky, a thriller drama movie titled Black Swan. It played at the opening night of Venice Film Festival 2010 and became a selection of Toronto Film Festival 2010. This is the plot summary from The Internet Movie Database:

"Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her."

A psychological thriller. I really can't wait to watch this movie.

-S