Raslene

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ENGLISH]

Speaking of how moving images introduced in the Netherlands Indies (today Indonesia), we need to strip briefly about the origin of animated photography, the music as the companion, also the cinema or bioscoop where the moving pictures were exhibited. As the moving pictures humankind first knew was the silent one with additional sound, the sources of sound might come to vary. Along with the Edison’s Phonograph that was first introduced and demonstrated on Java in May 1892, in fact, later the sound in the screening of the moving pictures didn’t only source from the phonograph, narration, music instruments, or orchestra group, but also came from human-whistle. Tong Tong magazine noted in 1958, a man called Boong Indri recalled his first cinema screening memories which happened in Bandung, on 26 August 1904. There were three films on the program: The Man with Dog Vision, A Street in Mecca, and The Circulatory System of a Frog. He shared how he and some lads were asked to whistle along with the piano to score the moving pictures. From his memory, personally, the activity of whistle-along-with-the-moving-pictures reminds me much of the classic black and white Mickey Mouse was whistling and controlling a ship’s steering wheel (Steamboat Willie, 1928), screened on TV in form of digital. A distinctive cinema experience to tell, yet definitely, the one that is old enough to be well memorized in my generation’s childhood.

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From photography to moving pictures

At first, photography was used in the Netherlands Indies to capture landscapes, street life, biodiversity, factories, houses, and portrait or group photos.

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Surprisingly, when the moving pictures came in, people in the Netherlands Indies recognized and accepted the moving pictures faster due to their existing culture to see stage spectacle. Puppet show (wayang, ludruk) and stage spectacle (Komedie Stamboel, European and Malay Toneel opera) were common as entertainment, held in a public space/building to be regarded by people who could afford tickets. They soon got the understanding and high enthusiasm for a new entertainment product that appears in a new medium: moving pictures, that was expected to offer more things than the existing spectacles did.

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The moving pictures were popularized and commercialized by the entrepreneurs of myriad nationalities and ethnicities, with rapid progress as in the West. By these independent entrepreneurs, it revealed that early cinema was almost instantly a global phenomenon, a chance for panoramic novelty showcased to audiences in the world, also the film exhibition and local production in remote colonial lands.

 

An article from De Kinematograaf claimed that the Netherlands Indies in the pre-First World War period was only a market where old, degraded film copies from the Netherlands could be shipped off to. Therefore, even though the Dutch never was the primary exporters or producers of moving pictures in the Netherlands Indies in the early days of cinema, people had the opportunity to see the newest moving pictures from the West within 1-2 years after the premiere in European countries. Reportedly, Queen Wilhemina documentaries were screened in Netherlands Indies around 1900.

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As the earliest screening noted in Batavia was in 1896, in the process of introducing moving pictures in the Netherlands Indies, there are two names to be mentioned: Harley with the Kinetoscope and Louis Talbot with the Scenimatograph.

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In the same year, Harley used the Phonograph to exhibit moving pictures with Edison’s Kinetoscope. Kinetoscope is a machine with the peephole system to be seen per 1 person, accompanied by the sound of the Phonograph, shown animated photography that gives similitude of life and motion, with rechargeable battery technology. While Scenimatograph projected the moving pictures on the big screen as we experienced in the cinema today.

 

Louis Talbot himself was a Batavia-based French photographer. He had been operating a photography studio in Batavia since 1894 and was a well-regarded professional in the city. Later, Java-Bode noted that the earliest commercial projections of animated photography were performed by an apparatus named as the Scenimatograph on Sunday, 11 October 1896, with Talbot as the exhibitor. Louis Talbot was also the first to film and exhibit local views of colonial Indonesia to local audiences, as well as to spectators across Southeast Asia.

 

Two days before the screening night, on 9 October 1896, the screening advertisement began to appear in the major Batavia newspapers. The screening happened in the Batavia Theatre (Batavia Schouwburg, also known as komedie gebouw or komedie house) located in the Chinatown district, scheduling two screenings: the first at 6.30 pm and the second at 7.30 pm.

 

Even though, the screening was successful and attracted many spectators. Unfortunately, some problems occur, such as due to the tropical climate of the Netherlands Indies, the medium of films were challenged to be kept in optimal condition. This leads to films’ short life span and screened in oftentimes before the films went damaged. Sadly, this miserable storage condition still happens until today in Indonesia, we’ve lost too much precious archives to track our cinema history.

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Bioscoop: Spectators and Screen

Differentiated by many aspects, the screening of moving pictures in the Netherlands Indies derived its personalized history, experiences, and culture of moving pictures exhibition. Some aspects to be elaborated are exhibition buildings, economic impact, and the seating or class system.

 

After the first moving picture shows given by Louis Talbot in April 1897 in Surabaya, the competition with other forms of entertainment and rival moving picture entrepreneurs was tight. As moving picture shows began to move out of existing theatres (like Surabaya Theatre and Kapasan Theatre) into larger circus tents or independently touring canvas tents, which often offered seats for “Native” spectators at lower prices, the increasing diversity of audiences and the subsequent need to organize spaces accordingly were a prominent part of the movie-going experience in Surabaya.

 

Similar as in Batavia, temporary buildings were also available before Kebon Jahe cinema as the first permanent building for showing moving pictures. Those temporary buildings were mostly portable and made of canvas or bamboo tents to accommodate huge number of crowds. Ticket price ranged from f 0,1 to f 2 (f read: Netherlands Antillean Guilder or Gulden), considered by some factors like the projector’s clarity and in the permanent building or outdoor screening. With its biggest target, the lower economic class people to see the spectacles, usually the most sold ticket was the second and third-class ticket. On 30 November 1900 Bintang Betawi press advertised that moving pictures from Europe and Northern Africa will be shown. The show started at 7 PM with 3 classes of ticket price, first-class f 2, second-class f 1, and third class f 0,50. 

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Later on, in 1901 cinema building owners made the policy for reducing the price of admission tickets along with the policy of the prohibition of the puppet show in Batavia. This prohibition was by the decision of the Resident of Batavia which was enforced from 1 April 1900 to the end of March 1902. This caused the number of moving pictures spectators was growing significantly. People turned to the moving pictures as they already get used to enjoying some spectacles as Saturday night entertainment. Of course, with the separated seating system for men and women, besides, the seating system was first segregated by the racial. As the first class was served for Europeans, second class for Chinese, Indian, and non-Europeans, and the third class for “Native” spectators. “Natives” were often located behind or upwards of the screen, so they enjoyed the text or pictures reversely or distorted while seated on the ground.

 

With the lowest price ticket (f 0,1), it economically equals to about 1,5 litre of rice in the early 20th century, while today one guilder is worth around 45 cents. For that, people started seeking advance payments or pawning valuable possessions to afford a ticket. Around in 1905, the cinema would later be blamed as the motivation for such behaviour, as one employer from Buitenzorg (today Bogor) in central Java complained: “Employees ask for advance payment no longer because their father or mother passed away, – I had a stable boy who lost seven mothers, – but because they want to go to the bioscoop.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After fiction films were available in 1903, ticket prices started to rise too. Fictions like Njai Dasima and Méliès’s attributions turned trends into a new direction, along with the documentary screening. The popularization kept rising until in 1905 the entrepreneurs were multiplied and the projectors were more accessible for sale and distribution. Even in 1907, there were reportedly 35 companies touring Java alone, holding shows up to three times a day in bamboo tents accommodating thousands of spectators.

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By the early 1910s, brick and stone cinema houses were constructed in cities and towns across the archipelago. Later, the history of moving pictures in the Netherlands Indies essentially began in the 1920s, when Indonesians became involved in filmmaking. And today, the influence of moving pictures in the Netherlands Indies as entertainment product now has developed to other forms and functions: performances, video and media art, mapping tools, and many more.

 

References:

[1] Misbach Yusa Biran, Sejarah Film 1900-1950 Bikin Film di Jawa, Jakarta: Komunitas Bambu, 2009.

[2] Dafna Ruppin, The Komedi Bioscoop: The Emergence of Movie-going in Colonial Indonesia 1896-1914, John Libbey Publishing Limited.

[3] M. Sarief Arief, Permasalahan Sensor Dan Pertanggungjawaban Etika Produksi, Jakarta: Badan Pertimbangan Perfilman Nasional, 1997.

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[CHINESE]

https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/7978

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[INDONESIA]

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