I was at the 11th French Film Festival opening night here in Jakarta last nite. It was pleasantly interesting compared to the one we have in KL every year, which tends to be rather low key. But they seem to be running concurrently tho (info fed from Pat's blog).

L2R: Gérard Pirès with emcees
MTV VJ Cathy & actor, Herjunot Ali
Held at the Taman Ismail Marzuki's Graha Bakti Budaya building, it was received by a large group of people from diplomats, media, Indonesian film industry players and even a guest French director, Gérard Pirès (particularly famous for the film, Taxi). I felt so lost in the crowd. I guess I was too used to the comfortably small community of filmmakers we have back in KL. Haha... Hey, did we ever have a guest French director come for our film fest? Why does Jakarta and Bangkok get all the international bigwigs? =(

Anyway, some of the Indonesian directors who were there is also part of the festival jury. I know Naz and mute would've much liked to be in my shoes. I felt embarassedly ashamed for not knowing who's who. Don't count on me mingling either *+_+* One of the directors they would've recognised were Janji Joni's Joko Anwar, and probably a couple more Indonesian celebs.

One funny part of the opening night presentation was the video of French actors and directors whose films were being screened in conjunction with the film festival. They shared a few words about their films and were made to stumble and greet everyone in Bahasa Indonesia, "Saya ingin mengucapkan selamat menikmati sinema Perancis" (I would like to wish everyone happy watching the French Film Festival).

After cocktails, they screened Gérard Pirès' Les Chevaliers du ciel (Sky Fighters), which I thought was so awesome from a tiny TV director's standpoint. Haha. You guys would probably say its just another Top Gun-esque flick. But reading the trivia in IMDB on how they shot the fighter jet scenes to me is fascinating! No CGI! And I thought I could point those CGI scenes out! Hahah...

Looking at the programme book, if it's one thing I'd do if I had to stay back in Jakarta, is that I'll catch some of these awesome French films they're screening all over town. Then again, if I'm back in KL I can still get my usual dose of it at GSC. I leave for KL tomorrow night. I can't wait to cuddle Toffeekins.