Reader of the Day: Paolo
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 1:36PM 
It's Reader Appreciation Month so we're doing interviews with YOU. Well not you literally (although... maybe?) but you collectively. Here's Paolo from Toronto.
Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing adventure / obsession?
Paolo: Probably The Lion King, coming out weeks before the movie I actually remember watching first: Forrest Gump. We had a full row in the theatre, my artsy paternal grandma, me, my sister and like five cousins from my dad's side. I remember the bus stop interludes, "run Forrest run", meeting Jenny for the last time, but none of the Vietnam, hippie, black power, Gary Sinise, coked up whore scenes in between. I was seven. I don't even remember Forrest being special needs. Either the old country censored the hell out of the movie, I slept during some parts, or Lacuna exists.
My first movie obsession was with Anastasia, the cartoon. It's about a princess, what else could fuel a little gay boy's mind? That fueled my slight but ongoing interest in royal families. I also made my own fanfic that's probably sitting in a floppy disk in Quezon City somewhere.
Ha. That's great. When did you start reading The Film Experience?
Around 2009, the aftermath of the highway robbery that is the 2008 Oscars. Most film blogs are either fanboy-ish and/or snarky, and what TFE offered instead is Langlois-esque connoisseurship and well, love. I'm the kind of guy who cheated on his tests, so I looked up your site and the name I used to comment on. Apparently what caught my eyes was the April Showers series. As Juno's best friend would say, 'yum'.
That's coming back next month! Okay. 3 Favorite Actresses?
I love Kate Winslet like Josh from 30 Rock loves Elizabeth Taylor. Michelle Williams. And...blast from the past Bette Davis. As a person of colour, I'm kind of ashamed that I don't have an actress here of colour. I've seen three movies with Lubna Azabal on them. The perfs are great, but I can't knock my top three for her.
Take one Oscar from someone and give it to someone else.
Sandra Bullock's Oscar should have been Kim Hye-Ja's.
The movie of your life. Title, director, etcetera
Paoloisms, starring an unknown, directed by Charlie Kaufman with a soundtrack by whoever does the Lisa Cholodenko soundtracks.
Reader Comments (23)
How do you pick the readers?
Yay! I love Paolo. I thought he was older than me though...
I was also slightly obsessed with Anastasia for a while. I always thought of it as vastly underrated, although what was up with Fox and remaking their "classic" movies into animated flicks?
Anyone else remembers that horrendous update of "The King and I"? Not the Jodie Foster movie but the animated version with dancing elephants and zero gender politics.
Kim Hye-Ja and Sandra weren't eligible in the same year were they? I thought Mother was 2010.
Anyway, loving this feature.
Jose: I thought you were older than me too. And I totally forgot that Anastasia wasn't Disney because the aesthetic is practically the same.
Will: I saw Mother in 2009, and it was eligible for South Korea's entry for the Oscars the same year. I think it's the some shenanigans when people saw A Prophet too late and realize that Tahar Rahim was disqualified for 2010. Shame.
Also, yay!!
Yay - another beautiful man! Thanks Nate!
I thought THE LION KING was devastating the first time I saw it! I couldn't believe that stampede scene! And that lion cub was such a cute little hunk, wasn't he? I would have been his Nala.
You need to drag that ANASTASIA fanfic out of Q City and share it. I'm sure we'd love it.
A "Langlois-esque connoisseurship..." - now you've gone and outclassed me, you hottie. Your choice of director and composer are pretty classy too. Nice.
Kate is a wonder but Elizabeth Taylor is THE goddess of all time!!! Her face is truly to die for and she was a bad actress either. And Bette Davis was/is so very special - god I love her "Wipe my mouth" scene from HUMAN BONDAGE. So ferocious.
Anyway - thanks for being interviewed and thanks, Nate, for doing the interviewing.
Oh. OK. I just no I saw Mother pop up on a lot of 2010 Best Lists from critics.
Mother AND Lion King mentions? It's like you're reading my Current Fangirl Mind, guy.
I'd watch Paoloisms if the unknown had done at least one previous performance (a small part in a TV show is fine). Charlie Kaufman and Lisa Cholodenko? (I think she chooses her own soundtracks...don't quote me on that, though.) Sounds good.
Will -MOTHER is a 2010 feature in terms of Oscar eligibility BUT Paolo is right that it was also submitted for Oscar for 2009's foreign film. But the fact that it wasn't nominated made it eligible in 2010 when released. Unlike A Prophet which was nominated and therefore ineligible in its release year. THOSE DAMN RULES!
p.s. i love the faulty kid memories of Forrest Gump. Sometimes I think grown adults forget that movie while they're watching it else how could it still have so many fans ;) ?
I love some of these questions. Now I want to shoot my perfect movie of my life, lol. How can you just pick ONE Oscar to give to someone else? That requires atleast a Top 10, if not a Top 100. :)
/3rtfull -- mostly just randomly thus far. though one are two are coming up that i've actually met.
Anastasia, Mother, 30 Rock refs, damn fine taste in actressing. Paolo, you're all right.
Ha, yay for Paolo. I did NOT know you were such a big Bette fan, does that make us mortal enemies because I'm team Katharine Hepburn?
I, too, used to love Anastasia. Meg Ryan's second best performance.
I loved Forrest Gump as a kid and despite the thrashing it gets among online film folk, I still love it. You have to give credit to films that become pop culture institutions. I'd say Firrest Gump has the biggest American fan base of any Best Picture winner of the 90s. Really- how often do you see Braveheart or Dances With Wolves (which I'd say are comparable films given that all three are some form of epic) on television?
I'd also be curious to know what Paolo meant by calling the 2008 Oscars "highway robbery." Other than Milk, which is structured rather traditionally, I can't say that I love many films from that year. And at the time, it seemed like such a strong crop (to me, at least).
OMG That Oscar taking-giving question is difficult! My choice would probable be either take Gwyneth's Oscar and give it to Ally Sheedy or the obvious Jessica Tandy's to Michelle Pfeiffer...
billybil: If only I could find them lol.
Ripley/Walter: Big fan of yours! :)
Andrew K: I'm not sure what Bette thought about Kate, but if I was a big Meryl Streep fan or a Ginger Rogers fan, we'd be dueling.
Evan: Dances with Wolves gets half the TV airtime that Forrest Gump gets, but the four hour length means that I will never finish watching it, and mind you, one of my favourite movies is four hours long.
And the 2008/2009 Oscars were a hot mess. So many snubs in the best actress and best picture category. I remember talking to my film geek friends who had lists that were radically different from the Academy's. If it were up to me, best actress would be Hathaway, Winslet, Hawkins, Scott-Thomas, Williams. Best picture would be Ballast, In Bruges, Slumdog, TDK, The Wrestler. Which is probably why the latter category was expanded to 10.
yess.
i love paolo.
one of the best torontonian bloggers (with the best tips on toronto underground's film events.)
Paolo- Amen to Ballast and In bruges and excellent taste in your actresses j'aime Michelle Williams je l'aime trop
OMG! I love this!
Oh my God - I just noticed my horrible typo!!!!!
With reference to Elizabeth Taylor - "and she WASN'T a bad actress, either". Supposed to be an understatement. Oh my God, my fellow ET fans are busting down my door this very instant!!
Argh!!!!!!
LOL totally agree with that Sandra Bullock Oscar! :p