Dari JiFFest ke Festival Film Perancis ke...

Kepindahan saya ke tempat kerja baru tahun lalu memang membawa beberapa keuntungan. Jujurnya, keuntungan yang saya maksud bukan dalam hitungan moneter, melainkan lebih bersifat kualitatif. Seperti Anda dapat lihat dari aktivitas blogging saya, beda bukan, jika Anda bandingkan frekuensi antara sebelum tahun 2006 dengan setelahnya? Maklum, kalau di tempat kerja sebelumnya saya harus banyak wira-wiri, di tempat kerja sekarang saya ibarat paku yang tertanam di kursi saya - hanya tembok dan layar komputer saja pemandangan yang saya nikmati.

Efek positif lainnya adalah saya jadi bisa menyempatkan diri untuk menghadiri berbagai acara (baca: kesenangan) yang diselenggarakan lepas jam kantor. Dulu hal itu sulit untuk dilakukan karena begitu banyak pekerjaan yang harus saya selesaikan hingga jauh tengah malam, bahkan hingga hari berganti. Selain itu, rapat di kantor saya dulu banyak diadakan setelah Maghrib. Memang sih, di tempat kerja saya yang sekarang ini kadang-kadang saya perlu juga tinggal di kantor sampai malam karena tuntutan pekerjaan. Tapi ini bisa dibilang tak sering terjadi. Karena itulah, saya sangat bersyukur bisa "terdampar" di kantor saya sekarang ini.

Nikmat waktu yang tersedia dengan cukup melimpah tersebut berusaha saya manfaatkan dengan baik. Salah satu caranya adalah dengan melakukan kunjungan seni ke berbagai festival film (maksud saya, menonton). Petualangan seni saya dimulai sejak penyelenggaraan Jakarta Film Festival alias JiFFest 2006 yang diadakan Desember lalu. Kendati tak banyak film yang bisa saya tonton (budget constraint, uhuk) di ajang tahunan itu, paling tidak jumlah film yang berhasil saya tonton lebih banyak dibandingkan JiFFest sebelumnya dan semuanya saya suka.

Festival film yang terakhir saya kunjungi adalah Festival Sinema Perancis (baca: Once upon a time...). Untuk festival film yang ini, pilihan film yang tersedia menurut saya tak banyak. Dari empat film yang saya tonton, satu film saya beri peringkat "Memuaskan", dua lagi "Lumayan", dan satu sisanya "Bikin saya buang-buang uang saja!".

Sebenarnya peningkatan kegiatan menonton film ini tak terbatas pada film-film yang ditayangkan di festival-festival film. Gara-gara kantor saya letaknya satu kompleks dengan sebuah bioskop jaringan 21, tak dapat dielakkan saya jadi lebih sering menonton film. Di rumah, aktivitas ekstrakurikuler ini juga mendapat dukungan sejak hadirnya perangkat DVD player awal tahun ini. Dapat dikatakan, sejak paruh akhir tahun 2006, saya seperti sedang mengikuti parade film, karena banyaknya film yang saya tonton.

Dalam hal menikmati tontotan film yang belakangan menurut saya sedang bagus-bagusnya, saya sih merasa sangat tidak keberatan. Tapi ya itu tadi, ekstrakurikuler ini berat di kantong! Mana mulai bulan depan akan ada parade film-film hollywood keluaran musim panas yang sepertinya oke-oke. Coba lihat daftarnya berikut ini:

MEI 2007:
SPIDER-MAN III (Action. Tobey Maguire, Topher Grace, Kirsten Dunst,Thomas Haden Church. Directed by Sam Raimi) - Columbia - 3 Mei
28 WEEKS LATER (Horror. Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau) - Fox - 10 Mei
SHREK THE THIRD (Comedy/3D animation. Voice of Mike Myers, EddieMurphy, Cameron Diaz, dll.) -DreamWorks Animation - 11 Mei
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (Action. Johnny Depp, KeiraKnightley, Orlando Bloom. Directed by Gore Verbinski) - Disney - 25 Mei
DELTA FARCE (Comedy. Larry the Cable Guy) - 25 Mei

JUNI 2007:
OCEAN'S 13 (Drama/Heist/Action. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino,Matt Damon, dll. Directed by Steven Soderbergh) - Warner - 8 Juni
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF SILVER SULFER (Action. Ioan Gruffurd, JessicaAlba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian Mc Mahon. Directed by TimStory) FOX - 15 Juni
EVAN ALMIGHTY (Comedy. Steve Carrell, Morgan Freeman. Directed by TomShadyac) - Universal - 22 Juni
DIE HARD 4.0: LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (Action. Bruce Willis, JustinLong. Directed by Len Wiseman) - Fox - 29 Juni
RATATOUILLE (Comedy/3D animation) - Disney/Pixar - 29 Juni
NANCY DREW (Comedy/Action/Detective) Juni

JULI 2007:
THE TRANSFORMER (Action. Josh Duhamel, Jon Voight. Produced by StevenSpielberg. Directed by Michael Bay) - Paramount/DreamWorks - 4 Juli
LICENSE TO WED (Romantic/comedy. Mandy Moore) - 4 Juli
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX (Drama/Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Novel-related. Daniel Radcliffe, EmmaWatson, Rupert Grint) - Warner - 13 Juli
I KNOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY (Comedy. Adam Sandler, KevinJames) - Universal - 20 Juli
THE SIMPSONS THE MOVIE (Comedy/2D animation. voice of DanCastanellata,Julie Kavner, etc. produced by Albert Brooks, Matt Groening. DirectedbyDavid Silverman) - Fox - 27 Juli

Tampaknya saya harus siap-siap menguras ATM lagi bulan Mei ini. Alamak, alamat krisis keuangan jilid 2 nih...



PS.
Btw, akhir April ini ada festival film lagi, i.e. Korean Movie Week di Blitz Megaplex. Lagak-lagaknya saya juga akan ke sana. Kita ketemu di sana?

Once upon a time...

allocine.fr/film

"Il y a bien longtemps, deux enfants étaient bercés par la même femme. Azur, blond aux yeux bleus, fils du châtelain, et Asmar, brun aux yeux noirs, fils de la nourrice. Elevés comme deux frères, les enfants sont séparés brutalement.Mais Azur, marqué par la légende de la Fée des Djins que lui racontait sa nourrice, n'aura de cesse de la retrouver, au-delà des mers. Les deux frères de lait devenus grands partent chacun à la recherche de la Fée. Rivalisant d'audace, ils iront à la découverte de terres magiques, recelant autant de dangers que de merveilles..."

(Long time ago, there were two children who were upraised by the same woman. Azur, a blonde with blue eyes, was the son of a noble man, while Asmar, a black-eyed brunette, was the son of the nurse. Having brought up like brothers, the two children were then separated in an unconvenient way. However, Azur, mesmerized by the legend of the Fairy of Djin told by his nurse in his childhood days, had determined to find her in the land across the sea. The two blood brothers then embarked on a grand journey to find the Fairy. Their effort would bring them to the magic land, where danger and wonder awaited...)


Having a father who will tell his children wonderful stories of the adventure of Sinbad fighting the giant bird monster is something I am always grateful of. Until this very day, I remember the time when my father recounted bed time stories to me and my sister. When his words poured out of his mouth, at the back of my head an imaginary motion picture of a great hero fighting the evil would play.

That is why I love it when there’s someone able to narrate a good children story. Last Saturday, I got the chance to discover a very good children story, only this time, it is told in the form of a cartoon movie. The movie is a French-made called “Azur et Asmar”. It was among the dozen of movies played during the recent Festival Sinema Perancis.

Normally I would pick no cartoon movies during any film festival. I always think it’s a waste of money if I choose cartoon over regular movies. However, this one commanded an exception since I read a recommendation on the movie in a Jakarta Post article. And thank God I made this choice! Of the French movies in the festival list I chose to watch, I say this one is surely my no. 1 favorite.

The simple way “Azur et Asmar” tells the story makes this cartoon movie worth to watch for children. It injects moral messages on bravery and loyalty, and about making friendship without judging our friend’s physic (skin, eye color), native, nor religion, in no sense of preaching. What’s making this cartoon even better is the colorful quality it has. It is so beautiful that I need to share about it here. The only drawback to this movie is that part of the conversation that is made in Arabic has no subtitle (fyi language used in the movie is French and Arabic but it has English subtitle). So, if you have kids or if you yourself love watching quality children movies, this movie is definitely something you cannot miss!

No wonder

www.sudoku-of-the-day.com

Sudoku.

I learnt about this game when Republika first introduced it on its Sunday edition about two or three months ago. At first, I don't pay too much interest in it. I am the kind of person who doesn't like to follow fads without really knowing the joy beyond it.

However, curiousity and sense of competitiveness got the better of me. If everyone else can play this game, why can't I? So I gave it a try.

The instruction of the game says:
Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 9 in such a way that all rows, columns, and 3x3 squares have all digits.

Caution:
Repetition of each digit is not allowed in each row, column, and the subsquare.

Hm. Sounds easy. Yet, several first attempts to solve the game printed by Republika and the Jakarta Post did not bring satisfying result (meaning I couldn't finish it). I found the hardest sudoku to play was those on the Jakarta Post. Actually the newspaper has been doing a great job, posting new version of sudoku every day. I was fond of the Republika version of sudoku, nevertheless, because it was easier for me to solve. :P

About two days ago, when I once again tried to work my mind out solving another Republika's sudoku game, my eyes stumbled upon the instruction laid next to the game box: You must fill the cells in a such way so that all rows, columns and every 3-by-3 subsquare contains every digit from 1 to 9, with no repetition of each digit. And my mind was like crying out "Eureka!" All this time I had not read the instruction carefully and miss that particular part of the instruction! No wonder I got stuck when playing sudoku on the Jakarta Post!

Since then, I've been enjoying working on Jakarta Post's version of sudoku games (which are actually derived from this website). And what do you know, when I was browsing the Internet to search for a visual image of sudoku, I found out someone has made some illustrative strategies for solving sudoku. Actually I'd rather solve the game on my own. But hey, who knows one day I need some help to work on a helluva sudoku, a visit to the website might actually not do any harm.

Bye bye

bangkokbiznew.com

As a big fan of the Amazing Race Asia show and also as someone who's never been going overseas before (*sigh), missing the opportunity to join the race is almost unbearable (a bit of exaggerating, that is). The deadline for application entries has been closed on April 13, so I can only say: Good bye, my golden opportunity!

Being someone at her middle 20th, the most likely thing one would be doing is working her butt off for some no-nonsense employer who just does not appreciate (and believe, I assume) the joy of being youth. What I'm saying is it's so so difficult to get anyone I know well to join the race, because they just can't leave their work for a month or so. Well, I guess the one who says yes to my offer is practically as insane as I am, what to leave our job for such a long period of time and later come back to... become jobless, definitely. I actually haven't deserved to get any sabbatical leave, to tell you the truth, since I haven't been in my current job for a year. So...

Dang it. I still crave for that surge of adrenaline pumping through my vein... And a sudden celebrity status ... well, let's take it as a bonus ;)

Anyway, a dream remains a dream. Bye, bye TARA (read: my youth). Whaaa :(

Puas

Pada suatu malam, Tante yang baru pulang dari kantor mendapati keponakannya sedang asyik melakukan sesuatu di kamarnya.

Tante: (Eh, lagi ngapain tuh keponakanku? Aku samperin dulu, ah.)

Tante: "Halo, Sayang. Lagi ngapain kamu?"

Keponakan: "Eh, Tante. Ini lho, lagi lihat-lihat hp Bunda. Aku tuh penasaran, ini gimana sih pakainya?"
Bunda: (Oh no, hp gue dibuat mainan! Harus dialihkan nih perhatiannya!)
"Rashad Sayang, sini dong, Bunda kangen deh sama kamu (sambil buru-buru peluk). Eh, itu tuh, kita foto dulu yuk? Tante mau foto kita tuh."

Keponakan: (Aduh, Bunda nih, lagi asyik-asyik lihat hp kok digangguin sih?) "Eh, iya, iya Bunda (dengan nada agak-agak sebel)."
Bunda: (Yes, taktik gue berhasil! Dia mulai lupa sama hp gue!) "Eh, Rashad, bentar dulu, fotonya belum selesai. Ayo, ayo, kita foto lagi. Tante, fotoin lagi ya."

Keponakan: (mulai males senyum karena makin sebel sama Bunda).

Keponakan: "Apa, mau foto lagi nih? Udah ah, aku ngantuk nih, Tante. Aku mau bobok dulu. Foto-fotonya udahan dulu ya?"
Tante: (Nggak sadar kalau keponakannya lagi gondok, malah terus foto-foto. Ngegemesin sih, keponakannya ini). "Bentar dulu dong, Shad. Sekali lagi ya?"

Keponakan: "Aaarrgghh. Udah dong ah! Aku ngantuk nih, Tante. Ya udah, aku nangis nih ya! Puas, puasss?!"

Dan sesi foto-foto malam itu selesai juga (secara terpaksa), karena si model mau bobok dulu. Met bobok ya, Rashad Sayang. Jangan lupa baca doa, dan mimpi indah.