Machine Messiah

JIFFEST 2006 only had three schedules for Babel, and only
one of them were available for public. Currently among the Top 10 box office in
USA, this movie was very good. Although it won the Best Director at Cannes Film
Festival 2006, I couldn’t say it was an outstanding movie.

The story set place at three different locations in the
globe: Morrocco, Japan, and USA/ Mexico. All three storylines had one single
issue in common: a rifle. A Japanese businessman, who had a teenage deaf-mute
girl and he also loved wild hunting, gave one of his rifle to his hunting guide
in Morrocco. The guide sold the rifle to his friend, who needed it to kill
wolves and protect his goats. On the same day he bought that rifle, he had to
went to town and asked his sons to bring the rifle with them. While they were
guarding the goats, they played with the rifle. Shooting targets at random. One
bullet hit a USA woman tourist. She (Cate Blanchett) and her husband (Brad
Pitt) were riding a bus with fellow tourists, when the bullet hit her. Injured
badly and losing so many blood, the bus turned to the nearest village for help.
The other tourists claimed the shooting was a terrorist attack. The authorities
searched for the person responsible.

In USA, their children were left with their nanny, a Mexican
native. She was told of the accident and asked to stay awhile until one of
their relatives arrived. The replacement never arrived and she couldn’t wait
any longer. Her son was getting married that night and she needed to go home.
So instead of leaving the children alone, she decided to bring them along cross
the border.

The Japanese businessman had a deaf and mute troubled
teenage daughter. She was obsessed to harrass boys and had sex with them. She
was lost since her mother committed suicide one year before. She even tried
some drugs and seduced a young detective, who was clariflying her father’s
ownership of the rifle he gave to the Morroccan guide.

The directing, casting, setting, etc everything were
wonderful. It was just the Japan storyline that bothered me. Most of inside it
has no relation with the incident in Morrocco. It was just the rilfe past
ownership that made them connected. The director could have dropped this branch
from the script. There was a scene I loved most. During Pitt’s trouble in
saving Blanchett’s life, fellow tourists didn’t show any sympathy nor empathy.
They were paranoid staying in some village, and wanted to leave as soon as
possible. They didn’t do anything to help Pitt & Blanchett. They didn’t
offer him their cellphones so Pitt could call an ambulance and USA embassy.
They just demanded the bus to leave immediately, even with leaving the couples
behind. On the other hand, the native people tried to offer shelter, drinks,
foods, and anything to keep them comfortable while waiting for help.

I chose this movie solely because of Audrey Tautou was in
it. I adored her since Amalie, Dirty Pretty Things, and later Da Vinci Code.
The first two was screened at previous JIFFESTs. In Russian Dolls (original
French title was Les Poupees Russes) Audrey wasn’t the leading role, although
she was there for almost half the movie. But still her beauty made my heart
pounding.

A love story paperback writer, name was Xavier, was trying
to write his masterpiece, his ultimate triumphant. Still his works were never
that good, and he accepted any request from his editor. He even had to make up
stories to landlords just so his rent payment would be postponed a couple of
months. He kept changing girlfriends, obsessed to find the one-true love. He
broke up with Martine (played by Audrey Tautou), a single mother who also
didn’t know what she was looking for. They still maintained a good
relationship. Moreover her only son also loved him.

Xavier’s career seemed to bring light, when a TV station
asked him to make the script for their upcoming soap opera. He tried to stamp
his own love story style, but the producers thought it would be better to stick
with the audiences’ typical love story. In the process, the soap opera turned
into a joint production with a British TV station and wanted it to be in
English. He asked his close friend’s sister to help him translated the script
into English. Problem arose when he kept looking for the one true love, and
kept getting laid with several women. He didn’t realize that perhaps his
writing-partner might be the one. It was his foolishness with obsession that
ruined his relationship with her.

His best friend (which was also her brother) was getting
married with a very lovely Russian ballet dancer (played by Evguenya Obraztsova). All of them, including their
close friends during college, reunited in St. Petersburg to attend the wedding.
During this time he must take the test, to win back her love. The movie was
full of romance, nostalgia, affairs, commitment, and of course the beautiful
cities of London, Paris and St. Petersburg.

In every year, at JIFFEST, it seemed I always chose one
wrong movie. FYI, JIFFEST provided a program book in which all events were
listed and described. Not just the movies, but also all related events such as
musical performances and photography exhibitions. As for movies, each one had a
short synopsis. Call it teaser if you wanted to. And solely based on this
simple and short synopsis, like most people did, I chose the movie I wanted to
see and bought the tickets in advance. If I had enough time, I’d find other
source in the ‘net. Just to know what other people think about such movie. If
the theme was interesting, then I’d pick that one. But sometimes, although you
thought you had chosen wisely, shit did happen.

A Soap was not a bad movie, I had to admit. It was just not
what I expected. This Danish movie was about a relationship between a woman and
a would-be transsexual who were neighbours in their apartment. Charlotte lived
upstairs, while the transsexual lived below her. She just left her boyfriend
without any explanation. It seemed she just wanted to explore new life
(although till the very end she still hadn’t decided what she wanted). The
transsexual, Ulrik, was waiting for the government’s permission to have a
surgery. They were introduced when Charlotte asked Ulrik to help her moved her
bed. Curious about his life, she started to try to build a relationship.
Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Kristian, kept persuading her to return to him. He
was obsessed of her.

The movie focused in these three characters, which all had
obsessions. Charlotte kept changing sex-partners, without even wanting to build
a relationship. Just plain sex.. Kristian kept asking her to return, while
beating her altogether. Ulrik in the process of waiting for Government’s
permission, got confused when the woman tried to seduced him in making love.
Ulrik finally got the permission, just minutes after he realized he wanted to
have sex with Charlotte. She wanted to have sex with Ulrik, just minutes after
she cancelled her return to Kristian. As for Kristian, he got confused after he
thought Charlotte wanted to rebuild their relationship.

The movie was quite long. An hour and 45 minutes. It almost
got me bored, if only I wasn’t with Joga and we made jokes all the way about A
Soap. I couldn’t say the movie was satisfying. But Ulrik’s acting was
marvellous.

The tickets sold out!!!! Those damn lucky #$%^&%$#@!!!! I went home empty handed, as all Indonesian movies were free. Couldn’t get it in advance, as all free shows must be obtained on D-Day. I wasn’t alone. Bobby, Vivian, Injun, etc also got nothing. Those students raid this Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa and since it was a free show, no wonder they left us none.

I’ve been wanting to see this movie, since it was criticly acclaimed and been screened in so many international movie festivals and won several awards. Opera Jawa itself has not avail at normal screens. It may not even be screened!!!!

Oh well….guess it wasn’t your lucky day. The first time in my JIFFEST history, didn’t get the movie that I wanted most

Although JIFFEST 2006 proved that many young and mainstream moviegoers beginning to love alternative/ festival movies, they were not that eager to see non-English speaking movies. The same situation also happened on previous JIFFESTs. This time the Japanese movie, A Stranger of Mine (original Japanese title, Unmei Janai Hito), was among the very good movies but short in viewers. It’s closer as a comedy movie, than a drama. But it was also a sit-com, thriller, and love story.

The movie started with Maki, a young woman who just broke up with her fiancee. She found out that her fiancee was seeing another woman. Desperated and short with money, she stranded on a restaurant in Tokyo. Confusing what she would do with her life, a man on the next table offered her to join having a meal. Only if she wanted to. Maki was grateful to the offer and join that table.

The scene moved to some minutes earlier. Takeshi was a straight, honest and has a steady job and beautiful new apartment. His girlfriend, Ayumi, just left him without any explanation. Just one week after he bought the very cozy apartment for the couple. Ayumi left her belongings inside several boxes in Takeshi’s apartment. When Takeshi arrived at home, he got a call from his long time friend from junior high, Yusuke. Now run his own private investigation office, Yusuke asked Takeshi to meet him in a restaurant. He had news about Ayumi. So Takeshi rushed to the restaurant and meet Yusuke.

There Yusuke told Takeshi that he met Ayumi earlier said she was going to marry the man he loved. Takeshi was sad and Yusuke said he should go on. Meet some girls and get laid. Takeshi refused saying that getting girls wasn’t that easy. Yusuke opposed and proved by asking the girl next table to join them. The girl next table was Maki. While she was looking at the menu, Yusuke went to the toilet and never returned. Takeshi freaked out and called him. Yusuke replied that he was busy working and had to leave.

Knowing that Maki didn’t have a place to spend the night, Takeshi offered his empty room. Maki listened to Takeshi’s sad story about Ayumi and couldn’t be more grateful as he offered a place to spend the night. Takeshi prepared the bathtub, while Maki stayed in Ayumi’s room. Suddenly Ayumi appreared getting her belongings back. Takeshi couldn’t say anything, when Maki scolded Ayumi telling that she was ruthless. Takeshi was a good man. Maki told Takeshi that she couldn’t stay, and didn’t deserve his hospitality. As Maki left the apartment, Takeshi chase her and left Ayumi alone. Before Maki took a cab, Takeshi asked for her cell number. He wanted to call her sometimes.

The scene moved to Yusuke returning to his home/ office. There he found Ayumi waiting for him. Yusuke didn’t like this as he had many proved that Ayumi was wanted by the police for cheating so many rich people, including a yakuza boss. Ayumi was his mistress. Yusuke recorded all files in a private folder. Ayumi offered Yusuke to enter Takeshi’s apartment and get her passport. She’s planning to leave the country, with so much money in her briefcase. Yusuke realized that the money belonged to the mob and decided to returned all.

Yusuke and Ayumi entered Takeshi’s apartment and found Ayumi’s passport. Yusuke asked her to change clothes, and he went to the toilet. While he was at the john, Takeshi entered the house. Panicked, Yusuke used his cell to call Takeshi and asked Takeshi to meet him at a restaurant. He has news about Ayumi. Meanwhile in her room, Ayumi switched the money and placed all her panties and underwear inside the briefcase. The fake money was kept hidden inside the box. After Takeshi left, Yusuke and Ayumi left as well and separated. Before seperated, Yusuke returned the briefcase and almost got caught by the mob. The mob later on went to chase Yusuke.

Yusuke went to the restaurant to meet Takeshi. After he succeeded asking Maki to joined them, he saw the gangsters entering looking for him. Yusuke flew to the toilet, but got caught. He surrendered and was escorted to meet Asai, the ganglord. When he was being a captive, Takeshi called and asked where he was. Takeshi didn’t want to be left alone in the restaurant with Maki. Yusuke told him he was busy, and had to leave. Soon after, Asai met him, with Ayumi apparently got caught as well. Asai spared Yusuke’s life with one condition: Yusuke worked for Asai for free from now on. He thought Yusuke was a very good P.I , as he got a folder with a complete criminal record of Ayumi. Yusuke was surprised to know that Asai discovered his office and also that file. Asai showed Yusuke the briefcase he returned, only to discovered that the money was switched into Ayumi panties.

The scene moved to Asai, a yakuza with several inferiors. He was folding counterfeit bank notes in plastic bags when his mistress, Ayumi, entered the room. As they went to have dinner, Asai didn’t realize that Ayumi took some time to steal the fake banknotes and kept all inside a briefcase. When Asai was informed, Ayumi was already long gone. He was thinking what to do, when one of his subordinates was yelling to a man outside. That man left a briefcase and ran away. The man was Yusuke, and the briefcase had so many female underwear and panties, belonged to Ayumi. Where was the money? Among all, there was a business card with the name Yusuke printed.

Asai broke into Yusuke’s office and found out he was a private investigator. There he found a folder with so many criminal records of Ayumi. Asai took it and found Ayumi’s pictures with Takeshi in front of their new apartment. Curious who was this man in the picture, Asai went and broke into Takeshi’s apartment. He found out that his counterfeit money all were inside some boxes in one of the empty room. Before he could get out, he heard someone was coming. It was Takeshi and Maki. Asai hid under the bed, and listened to their conversation. When Takeshi was preparing the bathtub, Maki discovered the fake money and took it. Asai still stayed under the bed, until Ayumi arrived claiming to get her belongings. After Takeshi went off to chase Maki, Ayumi entered the room only to found Asai was waiting and holding a gun.

The story still went on, and i don’t want to spoil you with the ending =). It was definitely a very good movie. One of my favourite among all JIFFEST movies this year!

One of the many sold out movies during JIFFEST 2006 was Marie Antoinette. It was directed by Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst as the leading role. Based on the book by Antonia Fraser, Coppola tried to look Antoinette in a more personal may. Her character was exposed especially the fact that Marie Antoinette, as a princess from Austria, must marry the heir of France in order to secure both kingdom’s alliance.


At first the young princess, which was remarkably performed by Dunst, didn’t realize the burden she would carry. The people of France were expecting her to be the role model (she will be the Queen of France anyway), must give birth to the future King of France (her first child was a girl), and so many politic matters.

From history, it was said that Marie Antoinette was a spoiled young princess (later Queen) who spent her life with tremendous parties, neverending gambling (and perhaps sex parties as well). These parts were also seen in the movie, but didn’t take major role. The movie focused more on her troubled personality. She also stood bravely on the side of Louis XIV when the people rage against the palace, while all nobles had espaced the country. As we all know, during the French Revolution and the fall of Versaille, King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette lives end on the famous guillotine.

The cinematography, costume design, property design, and everything were beautifully made. I couldn’t imagine how much the producers spent on building/ creating these. Dunst acting was also amazing, and we saw Marie Antoinette as a lovely and charming young person.

One of the most hilarious movie I’ve ever seen! The story was about the struggle to survive and accepting differencies.

The story began when a young man inherited from his father the last shoe factory in his hometown. Most shoe factories had collapsed, since they couldn’t follow the change in the industry. The world had change, and their paradigm, design, management style, machines, etc were just like in the 60’s. so their business was starting to crumble.

Our young man found it difficult to start terminating employees. Those who had been his family for years. Desperated, especially his fiancee was not supporting enough, he met a transexual diva in town. From this person, he got inspired to make boots for transsexual community. At first his employees were not eager to run with the new vision. His fiancee never even bothered to save the factory. Our young man struggled alone to save the factory that has been running for more than 4 generations. Realizing that this young man was damn serious, the diva decided to help him by making designs and addressing the philosophy/ art of making transsexual boots.

Audience were driven to follow the sitcom and struggle for life of this major change within the shoe factory, as well as the shoe industry in general.

One of the highlights in JIFFEST 2006 was the movie 3-IRON from South Korea. I just knew that the original Korean title was Bin-Jip or Empty House (in English). The movie was about a lonely young man who broke and entered empty houses (the owners went for work or holiday or shopping), and he voluntarily repaired any devices that were broken. He also enjoyed the meal, the bed, the shower, the bathtub, the fridge, etc. Before he left, he always cleaned up the house. All house owners didn’t realize their house were shortly occupied, until they found out their broken devices/ equipment were repaired. The most interesting part was…. the young man never spoke through the whole movie!!!

Then he met a young wife, whose always stayed home when her husband left for work. Sometimes the husband treated the wife badly. She also never spoke a word, except once (or twice I forgot). So as you can guess, the movie was interesting as we watch body languages of our two main actor/ actress. The young man and the lonely wife had an affair. It puzzles me as it seemed nobody could see the young man when he was around. But when he was caught by the authorities, answers arose and some mysteries were resolved

The movie runs for almost 1.5 hour and the cinematography was very beauuuutiful!!!! It was a very lovely movie.

Just watched this movie last week during Jakarta Int’l Film Festival (JIFFEST) 2006. I wasn’t sure at first, as I chose this movie only because Jude Law and Juliette Binoche were in it.

Jude Law and Robin Wright-Penn played as a non-married couple, living with Penn’s teenage-autis daughter in UK (I think it was London). If I recalled correctly, Law & Penn been a couple for around 10 years. Law worked as an architect, while Penn stayed as a housemother, taking care of her daughter.

Problem came when some burglars broke into Law’s office and stole many computers. Among them was a laptop with so many Law’s personal files. One of the burglar was a young boy with remarkable acrobatic abilities. First he took a peek from the rooftop to see door security passwords, broke the very high window-ceiling, enter the warehouse very fast with his acrobatic skills, turned off the alarm, entered the password, the door opened, and his gang entered. And this burglary happened twice. From Law’s laptop, the boy explored the excitement of being an architect.

After the second burglary, Law waited outside to catch the burglar, in case the burglar will try the third time. He succedded and followed the boy to his house. There Law saw his lovely mother, Juliette Binoche, a Bosnian-native who ran away from her homeland and left her Serbian husband. It was Law’s intention to know if this family was actually an honest family, based on his opinion that Binoche looked as a nice and honest person.
Law pretended to be a customer who wanted his suit repaired by Binoche, who happened to be a tailor.

The story goes on. Law maintained his loving relationship with Penn and her troubled daughter. The police were tracking down the burglars and found some clues. Law and Binoche were getting closer to an affair. And oh yes, they had an affair.

Problem came when the police discovered the boy’s responsible for the burglary. What would Law do? Should he testify against the boy, losing Binoche who probably his soulmate, and jeopardize his long-time and loving relationship with Penn?

The movie runs for 2 hours. In the first hour, I couldn’t predict where the movie was going. But when Bincohe showed up, everything beginning to shine. Law, Wright-Penn & Binoche acting were very good. I love them all. The movie itself was intriguing. Both criminal theme and emotional theme. On one hand, we felt that Law-Wright Penn-Penn’s daughter relationship was beautiful. On the other hand we felt that Law-Binoche’s affair was perfect and Law felt that Binoche was her ultimate soulmate.

Law’s acting was very good. I loved him since The Talented Mr. Ripley. As for Wright-Penn, her acting was wonderful. I still remember her as The Princess Bride. If you’re familiar with Binoche’s movies, then you know she has THE magic. I placed her on par with Isabelle Adjani. Oh yes, I forgot, she did some nude scenes in Breaking and Entering.

JIFFEST 2006 is coming to town!!!! Mark your calendars guys and gals! Dec 8th till Dec 17th 2006. I already bought tickets for Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola & Kirsten Dunst), Russian Dolls (Audrey Tatou), Walk The Line (Reese Witherspoon & Joaquin Phoenix), and Babel (Brad Pitt)