APRIL 9 — A long time ago, I remember writing a piece where I wrote about a film that I thought was sort of a failure as a comedy (because it really wasn’t that funny), but was also undoubtedly great cinema (because of its amazing use of cinematic language). That film was The Nutty Professor, the original one starring and directed by Jerry Lewis, who is, of course, a cause célèbre among the esteemed film critics from Cahiers du Cinema during the 1950s and 1960s heyday of the French New Wave.

It’s been quite a while, but I’ve finally come across another film that made me feel the exact same thing, the only difference being that it belongs to a slightly different genre. That film is an Indonesian rom-com called Aach… Aku Jatuh Cinta, which quietly played in a very limited number of cinemas in Malaysia for only one week recently. Yes, you read that right, one week, and then it was gone. Most people didn’t even realise that it was showing here!

The reason I rushed to see it on its very first day of screening was because it was directed by Garin Nugroho, famed for films like Daun Di Atas Bantal, Opera Jawa (which was commissioned for the New Crowned Hope Festival to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart, just like my favourite Apichatpong Weerasethakul film, Syndromes and A Century) and Cinta Dalam Sepotong Roti.

In short, Garin is sort of like the Indonesian version of our very own U-Wei Saari, a darling of the international film festival circuit, and whose every new film is awaited with great anticipation by cinephiles everywhere. So what happens then, when a certified cinematic genius tries to tackle that very lowly genre called rom-coms? That’s the other question that made me rush to see it as soon as it opened here.

With an international title of Chaotic Love Poems, Aach… Aku Jatuh Cinta lives up to that moniker with full determination. One of the bedrocks of the rom-com genre is predictability. Whatever the film is, and whoever the stars are, you can basically chart the progression of the story the moment the hero and heroine meet for the very first time. Rare is the rom-com that doesn’t arrive at its expected destination, which is the union (or reunion) of the lead characters.

Even the journey to get to the inevitable destination always follows the same pattern — they meet, they fall in love, they encounter obstacles, one of them gives up and the other gives chase, they then reunite for one big kiss, they live happily ever after. So here, the leads are childhood buddies Rumi and Yulia, two names that automatically evoke not only Romeo and Juliet, but also the poet Jalaluddin Rumi.

Because of the Rumi connection, the film is packed with poetic dialogue, like “Walau 100 gunung di negeri ini meletus, tapi ingatan tentang kamu tidak akan hilang.”

But more than the verbal poetry, the film’s true value lies in its absolutely sensational way with visual and cinematic poetry. Favouring long and fluid takes, with only minimal camera movement like a pan or a tilt, and slight tracking, there’s hardly any shot-reverse shot cutting in any of the film’s many dialogue scenes.

If anything, the film is a supreme demonstration of a master confidently at work, knowing exactly what he wants to get, not only from the actors’ dialogue and facial expressions, but also from what decorations or props he puts inside the frame, not to mention the camera moves and focus shifts that he decides to use in order to bring out the meaning of a particular scene. It really does seem like he’s cutting “in camera”, which means he only shoots what he needs (and sees in his head) and doesn’t leave much (if any) room for the editor to change what he’s shot later.

There are little wonders of film directing everywhere, from simple family dialogue scenes in Yulia’s small house — where the camera slowly pans one room to the next, using only focus shifts for the purpose of emphasis and parsing information — to my absolute favourite, where Yulia finally gets to meet Rumi again after a long time during the rehearsal of a play. They both hide behind what looks like a mosquito net (which is part of the set) to have a little chat, before the whole thing suddenly morphs into a gorgeous shadow play that incorporates the best of both theatrical and cinematic languages.

But because Aach… Aku Jatuh Cinta is so busy being such a cinematic dream come true, it may have forgotten another crucial ingredient in the rom-com genre: Chemistry. More than anything, people who go to see rom-coms need to believe that the two lovebirds are truly in love, and to be honest, I don’t think Garin achieved that here. Like The Nutty Professor, I don’t think Aach… Aku Jatuh Cinta is a success as a rom-com, but as pure cinema, it’s quite simply a beautiful achievement.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.