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included the songs " Terang Boelan " and "Boenga Mawar" ("Rose"), required its
cast to sing keroncong music (traditional music with Portuguese influences);
because Mochtar's voice was ill-suited to the task, the musician Ismail
Marzuki – who also composed the film's score – sang while Mochtar lip synced .
[19] Release and reception [ edit ] Terang Boelan premiered on 8 December 1937
at the Rex Theatre in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies; it played
to a nearly full theatre. [20] Also marketed under the Dutch title Het Eilan
der Droomen , the film was advertised as showing that the Indies were as
beautiful as Hawaii , a popular island paradise in Hollywood films. Posters
also emphasised the use of Indonesian-language dialogue. [21] William van der
Heide, a lecturer on film studies at the University of Newcastle in Australia,
notes that the film continued a trend of "Indonesianisation", or the
application of a national (Indonesian) understanding to borrowed concepts; for
Terang Boelan this indigenisation process involved the inclusion of "exotic
local settings" and keroncong music. Such adaptations of foreign films had
arisen several years earlier and continued long after Terang Boelan 's
release. [22] The film was a commercial success, both in the Indies and nearby
British Malaya . Native audiences filled the cinemas, most of them working-
class people, including native fans of toneel and keroncong who rarely watched
films. [23] After being licensed by RKO Radio Pictures , the film was screened
in British Malaya, where it was advertised as "the first and best Malay
musical" and earned 200,000 Straits dollars (then equivalent to US$ 114,470
[24] ) in two months. [25] Terang Boelan proved to be the most successful
production in the area until Krisis ( Crisis ) in 1953, released after the
Netherlands recognised Indonesia's independence in 1949. [26] Despite the
success, ANIF was displeased with the film and halted its other non-
documentary productions; one of the studio's cameramen, an Indo man named
J.J.W. Steffens, [c] suggested that ANIF's management preferred works of non-
fiction as a more intellectual medium. Disappointed by the company's reaction,
Balink left the Indies and emigrated to the United States in March 1938. [27]
Terang Boelan 's cast left ANIF not long afterwards and, after briefly touring
Malaya, joined Tan's Film . [28] They made their first film for Tan's, Fatima
, in 1938. Mochtar, who soon married fellow Terang Boelan actress Soekarsih,
continued to be cast as Roekiah's lover; the two were a popular screen couple
until Mochtar left Tan's in 1940 over a wage dispute. [29] Legacy [ edit ]
Roekiah and Rd Mochtar (pictured in Siti Akbari ) continued to be cast as
lovers until 1940. The success of Terang Boelan led to an increase in film
production in the colony, many of the films following the same formula,
including songs, beautiful scenery and romance. [30] Before Terang Boelan ,
local studios had generally been unsuccessful in finding a formula popular
with audiences, [31] but the triple successes of Terang Boelan , Fatima , and
Alang-Alang ( Grass , 1939) revived the industry. [32] Four new production
houses were established in 1940, [33] and actors and actresses previously
attached to theatrical troupes entered the film industry, which was reaching
new audiences. [34] Most locally produced films released in the Indies were
made between 1939 and the Japanese occupation in 1942. [35] Meanwhile, in
Malaya, the brothers Run Run and Runme Shaw , drawing inspiration from Terang
Boelan and Alang-Alang 's success with Malay audiences , established Malay
Film Productions in Singapore, where it became one of the more successful
production houses. [36] Heider considered Terang Boelan one of the two most
important cinematic works from the Dutch East Indies during the 1930s;
Balink's earlier film Pareh was the other. He notes that Terang Boelan "set
the tone for popular Indonesian cinema", a tone that remained dominant into
the 1990s. [14] Biran considered the film a turning point in the history of
Indonesian cinema , showing the possibilities of the medium and serving as a
catalyst for further development. [11] Said concurred, describing the film as
a milestone in Indonesia's history because of the widespread formula it
introduced. [16] The repeated use of Terang Boelan 's formula has been
criticised. The director Teguh Karya , for instance, denounced films that used
it without building on it, leaving the formula "undeveloped and static". [37]
Terang Boelan is considered lost , [38] as are most domestic productions from
the era. [d] The Filipino film historian and director Nick Deocampo noted that
productions made with nitrate film – such as Terang Boelan – burned easily and
were thus easily lost, but suggested that copies of the film may have survived
until the 1970s. [18] In a 1991 publication Said, Heider, and the American
translator John H. McGlynn expressed hope that a copy of the film might be
lying around in someone's attic or closet in Indonesia or the Netherlands.
[38] See also [ edit ] List of lost films Explanatory notes [ edit ] ^ Some
sources, such as Anwar (2004 , p. 84), incorrectly give the film's release
year as 1938. ^ Plot summary derived from Said (1982 , pp. 24–26) and Biran
(2009 , pp. 169–170). ^ Biran does not indicate his full name. ^ Heider (1991
, p. 14) writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost. However,
JB Kristanto's Katalog Film Indonesia ( Indonesian Film Catalogue ) records
several as having survived at Sinematek Indonesia 's archives, and Biran (2009
, p. 351) writes that several Japanese propaganda films have survived at the
Netherlands Government Information Service . Footnotes [ edit ] ^ a b Biran
2009 , pp. 380–382. ^ a b Biran 2009 , pp. 147–150. ^ Biran 2009 , p. 145. ^
Jakarta City Government, Albert Balink . ^ Biran 2009 , pp. 155, 159. ^ a b c
Biran 2009 , pp. 160–162. ^ Biran 2009 , pp. 165–168; Said 1982 , p. 142. ^
van der Heide 2002 , p. 128; Biran 2009 , p. 169. ^ Biran 2009 , p. 170. ^
Said 1982 , p. 11. ^ a b Biran 2009 , p. 169. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Kredit
Lengkap ; De Indische Courant 1937, Maleische Muzikale Film ; De Indische
Courant 1937, Een Film in Wording ^ Biran 2009 , pp. 165–168. ^ a b Heider
1991 , pp. 15–16. ^ Biran 2009 , p. 146. ^ a b Said 1982 , pp. 23–24. ^ Esha
et al. 2005 , p. 32; Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang Boelan ^ a b Deocampo 2006 ,
pp. 1917–1919. ^ van der Heide 2002 , p. 128; Said 1982 , pp. 23–24. ^
Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad 1937, Terang Boelan . ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang
Boelan . ^ van der Heide 2002 , p. 128. ^ van der Heide 2002 , p. 128; Said
1982 , p. 25; Deocampo 2006 , pp. 1917–1919. ^ New York Times 1938, Foreign
Exchange . ^ Biran 2009 , p. 171; Esha et al. 2005 , p. 33; Barnard 2010 , p.
52. ^ Anwar 2004 , p. 84. ^ Biran 2009 , pp. 172–173; Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad
1938, Albert Balink ^ Biran 2009 , p. 174; Esha et al. 2005 , p. 33. ^
Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang Boelan ; Biran 2009 , p. 214; Filmindonesia.or.id,
Pareh ^ Biran 2009 , p. 25; Said 1982 , p. 25. ^ Biran 2009 , p. 87. ^ Biran
2009 , p. 182. ^ Biran 2009 , p. 205. ^ Said 1982 , p. 27. ^ Biran 2009 , pp.
383–385. ^ Khoo 2006 , p. 90. ^ Heider 1991 , pp. 6, 16. ^ a b Said, McGlynn &
Heider 1991 , p. 31. Works cited [ edit ] "Albert Balink" . Bataviaasch
Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Batavia: Kolff & Co. 14 March 1938. p. 3 . Retrieved 22
January 2013 . "Albert Balink" . Encyclopedia of Jakarta (in Indonesian).
Jakarta City Government. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012 .