Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2: Breathing is Quite Optional

By: Andre Suprapto

A great love story must involve depth, and when we are talking about depth; breathing is out of the question, or at least optional.

Indeed, the second installment of the movie franchise that symbolized the artistic rebirth of my generation’s post reformation era has established Riri Riza as a director who is in the business of taking his audiences’ breath away.

It’s truly a sequel that does not disappoint. A triumph, a grand visual and audio feast that gracefully make their way to the heart.

The ability of movies to paint human story through pictures, acting, and music surpass other medium of art due to its holistic approach.

I highly regard and appreciate those who have the guts to devote their lives in the movie industry. I never have the courage to write bad reviews on bad movies. I only write reviews on movies with superlative quality because I feel indebted to the makers of the art not to add another words of praise.

One word regarding Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2 (AADC 2) that you can always find from mass media, or social media comments on Facebook, Instagram, Path or Youtube is “baper – kebawa perasaan” (carried away with feelings).

Fantine: “I will sell what is left.” How Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of the tragic Fantine deserves at least two Oscars

By: Andre Suprapto

“Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the human sufferer.”

                                 -James Joyce, A Portrait of The Artist as A Young Man

            Vito Corleone, of Mario Puzzo’s haunting mafia novel, The Godfather; said that each man is allowed one foolishness in his life time. To my shame, I almost conducted such ultimate foolishness of a life time by seeing the much-anticipated musical, Les Miserables, in pirated DVD.

            Luckily, good reasoning got the better of me as I was watching (in a DVD with terrible English subtitle thank you very much) Hugh Jackman’s “A-Game” when he delivered the heart-wrenching “Valjean’s Soliloquy” almost in one take and with pathetic red shot eyes. I decided to stop and understood that I owe it to Victor Hugo and to the French in general to see this movie on the big screen.

It proved to be one of the best decisions I made in my life so far. Since the experience of seeing the movie with the full embracing aura of the theatre was magical, surreal, and “not-of-this-world”.

            As the title of this essay suggests, out of the great performances pulled off by the actors and actresses in the movie, except for Russell Crowe whom I think played Javert in a rather soul-less piece of acting; I was completely mesmerized from head to toe (and toe to head again) by Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of the pitiful and tragic Fantine. Seeing her wearing Fantine’s pathos to her very skin as if it were her own life story, made it impossible to believe that she once was Mia Thermopolis, the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Genovia in The Princess Diaries (not that I have seen the movie).

            Surely, in overall, Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the musical that has been seen by more than 60 million people world-wide which in turn is based on Hugo’s timeless novel on the universal theme of suffering and the possibility of hope or redemption; is worthy of a standing ovation as long as your emotion allows you to give. However, amidst the almost flawless performance of the actors, the precisely harmonious execution of the choruses, and the perfect rhythm of the scenes; it is Anne’s Fantine that stood gigantically and was able to tie up the movie altogether, and became the soul and the spirit of the movie.