Reader of the Day: Vinci

I'm always curious about movie buffs on the West Coast. It's like another planet to me despite being such an origin spot for my life's obsession. So today we're chatting with Vinci in West Hollywood.

Nathaniel: When did you start reading TFE? 
VINCI: I think it was about 2004/2005.  I'm not sure.  But I do recall questioning you on why you didn't consider Vera Farmiga as a Best Actress contender for Down to the Bone, so it was at least by then.  You were one of the first Oscar sites I visited (the now defunct EverythingOscar was the other).  I grew up in a small town before the internet and didn't have friends who were even casually interested in the Oscars, actors or even movies like myself.  I felt a kinship with you.  I stuck around because you write well and cover a lot of what interests me. 

Do you remember your first movie or obsession?
A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, from what I can remember.  The first moviegoing experience which I initiated was The Muppet Movie.  I was four years old when I used my blueberry picking money to buy a Kermit the Frog doll with patches of velcro attached to his appendages.  I also owned a Kermit the Frog watch.  

But which watch did Vinci own???

I collected all four special edition McDonald's Happy Meal-issued glasses from The Great Muppet Caper.  I loved the TV show and even checked out the short-lived reboot that had Michelle Pfeiffer hosting at one point.

You know I did, too! Also: blueberries are delicious. Okay, your three favorite actresses. Go.
Three?  I think I'd rather be water-boarded.  But, okay ... Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Tilda Swinton.

I have to ask about the body as that's the picture you sent. Were you motivated to recreate an action franchise physique, maybe a superhero?

LOL!  No.  My motivation is mainly getting older and being a single gay male. 

Well, it works for Oscar; I seem to recall you played our favorite naked gold man in a music video?

Good memory!  I did play the Oscar, more specifically, Sandra Bullock's Oscar. 

It was a lot of fun.  I was with my very talented friend Elissa Rosenthal and good people, so we ate a lot and had a great time.  I was laughing quite a bit, so the makeup artist had to keep repainting my face gold.

What kind of research did you do to embody The Hollywood Icon?
I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare; I mainly focused on good posture and tapping into my inner stoic.

Reader of the Day: Victor

Reader Appreciation Month wraps on Thursday but I hope y'all know The Film Experience appreciates you year round. We'll have Weekly Reader Spotlights for April because I'm having too much fun with it to quit at the moment. Today Victor in Brazil.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first movie?
VICTOR: First moviegoing experience I actually recall - my mother told she had taken me before, but I don't remember - is Aladdin, when I was 8.  I really think it kind of had some deep effect in me, because if there are two things that I love they're musicals and animated films. I still know the lyrics of almost every song in in Portuguese and in English.

I can sing The Little Mermaid in Norwegian and English, so I feel you.
I grew up with the Disney musicals from the late 80's and early 90's. But First Movie Obsession, with capital M and O, was Moulin Rouge!. And that led me to The Film Experience.

Yes, we were all "Truth, Freedom, Beauty, but above all things Love" CRAZY for awhile there with that Bazmark classic. What's an Oscar injustice topic that gets you riled up?
Where can I start.... in general, I kind of hate every single Oscar that comes with "SORRY, YOU ARE GREAT AND WE ARE LATE!" written on the plaque, because every Oscar given as a career achievement award or a "sorry, you lost last year" award just increases the problem. Its like a freaking logarithmic progression, because every time they award someone for the wrong reasons (every reason other than "best perfomance") they make the situation 10, 100, 900, 3000, 50000 times worst.

It always comes back to certain years, right?

Giving Nicole the Oscar in 2002 for The Hours, because they liked her so much in Moulin Rouge!, makes Julianne Moore a loser for the crown jewel of her career. And Renee Zellweger, who lost in 2001 and 2002 and was snubbed in 2000, who we liked so much in Bridget Jones and Chicago, just shows up in 2003, gives the worst supporting performance of the year (or maybe the decade, or maybe ever?) and walks away with an Oscar just because she lost. See how it grow exponentially worst? 

The math is perplexing, I'll grant you that.

Did Jessica Lange really won her 2 Oscars for Tootsie and Blue Sky, or did she win for Tootsie because she couldn't win for Frances and won for Blue Sky because she had lost several times and they didn't want to give a 3rd one to Jodie Foster in less than 10 years, before she was even 35. I could give you a hundred examples.

It is perplexing math, always snowballing. What does your moviegoing diet consists of these days: theater? dvd?

Theater not so much, because its wasteland season in Brazil; the Oscar movies have come, gone and I've seen then all and the summer movies haven't arrived yet. Right now in Brazil, the biggest hit in theaters is called Bruna Surfistinha, the story of a middle class girl that becomes a low rate hooker, than a high rate hooker who blogs about her "job" and latter publishes a book, her memoirs of her life as a former prostitute. NO THANK YOU! - but I have to admit, i read the book.

So nowadays I'm most on a DVD diet. Recently bought and still sealed, all on the line to be rewatched: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Rose, Some Like it Hot, All About Eve (special edition), Moulin Rouge! (definitive edition), Nightmare Before Christmas, Death Becomes Her, Dogville, American History X and Beauty and the Beast (special edition with soundtrack!).

You're quite the collector. Okay. Five movies you think ought to be required viewing for all people of the Earth. Go!

Five. Just Five? I'll go by genre, ok. Musical: Cabaret; Comedy: Some Like it Hot; Drama: Sunset Blvd. ; Horror: Rosemary's Baby; Biopic: Amadeus. Sorry, really sorry to leave you out: Michael Nichols combo Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/The Graduate and my beloved Moulin Rouge!

Reader of the Day: Bill

For today's reader of the day meet Bill. You know him as "Billy Held an Oscar" in the comments. Enough with you 90s babies ;) Let's have a few earlier babies! Billy discovered The Film Experience through those now defunct Stinky Lulu Supporting Actress Smackdowns (RIP). I believe it had something to do with Maureen Stapleton, his favorite actress. So let's start there.

Billy Held THIS Oscar

Nathaniel: You got to hold Maureen Stapleton's actual Oscar for Reds (1981), right?
BILL:  Yup. Shortly before she passed away, I was able to spend an evening with her at home in Lenox, MA. A few years prior, I had created a site that detailed her career. As a result, a friend of Maureen's contacted me and asked if I would like to join him to visit her. It was truly wild. Maureen told me how she knew Humphrey Bogart and we talked about her role in 'Queen of the Stardust Ballroom'. The walls were adorned with autographed pictures, inscribed to her, from Clark Gable, Ethel Merman, JFK, Cary Grant, etc. If you looked to your left there was an Oscar, if you turned right there was an Emmy and a Tony, etc; Sensory overload. We also talked about our hometown (I grew up a few blocks from her childhood home). The best part of the evening was when Maureen's nurse came in and said, "Maureen, one of your films is on Turner Classic Movies". We watched as Robert Osborne introduced 'Bye Bye Birdie' and made mention of "future Oscar winner Maureen Stapleton". You don't have too many nights like that one in your lifetime.

I don't imagine, no. I mean, I can't imagine. Whose Oscar would I most like to hold in their presence? Hmmm.

Okay before Maureen there was... What's your first movie memory?
My first moviegoing experience was when my parents took me to see Grease. But my first movie obsession was Nine to Five. Having just seen The Electric Horseman on this new channel called HBO, I had fallen completely in love with Jane Fonda. Shortly thereafter, the television promos for Nine to Five aired and I was mesmerized. Jane Fonda, Dolly, and Edith Ann all in the same movie.

Fonda, Edith Ann, AND Dolly?I went through all of my grandmother's magazines (McCalls, Redbook, etc) and cut out any full-page ads I could find for the film; I checked the paper every day and clipped the 'Coming Soon' and 'Now Playing' ads too. Then I hung all the ads/clippings on my bedroom wall, along with a 'Nine to Five' sign that I made out of construction paper, and began campaigning for my parents to take me to see the film. I still have the ticket stub. 

Oh how I wish I'd kept my early ticket stubs. Did you ever dress up as a movie character for Halloween?
C-3PO. It was horrible. I hated it. Who I really wanted to be was the Bionic Woman but my parents killed that dream.

Are your coworkers aware of your movie addiction?
Coworkers are painfully aware that I am a huge movie fan. They know that the Oscars are a day of worship. I've run an Oscar pool at the office in years past. People really get into it. They research info online regarding the nominees and last year I had one co-worker attend a showing of all the nominated short films so he could cast an informed vote on his ballot.

In addition to Stapleton, I know you love The Bening. Any new actresses that are exciting you out there?
I still remember the rush I felt seeing The Bening in The Grifters and sadly, I haven't really had that rush with many of the younger actresses. Carey Mulligan came close in An Education, as did Emily Blunt in The Devils Wears Prada. For now, I am very happy devoting myself to Annette Bening and Maureen Stapleton. Another will come along ... I'm always on the lookout.

Reader of the Day: Hayden

Sometimes when I'm reading the comments, at least for the frequent chatterboxes, I start to get a sense of which directors and actors some of you like. Other times it's hard to tell. With Hayden I knew in the subcategory of Warren Beatty Paramours we disagreed on Annette Bening and were sympatico on Julie Christie. So let's learn more in today's reader of the day.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience? first obsession?
HAYDEN: The first time I went to the movies was to see The Lion King, which fits because Elton John was my first concert. I was all of three years old in 1994, so I remember leaving early for crying or misbehaving or something. As for an obsession, I really got hooked on Woody Allen during my sophomore year of high school. There were dozens of his classics and lesser films OnDemand so I probably powered through thirty of them in one year.

You were three in 94?! [cough. *pauses to take some Geritol*]. When did you start reading the Film Experience?
2004 was the first year I actively followed the Oscars, and I first came here for the charts. I would say that I stayed when I realized that TFE blog was so fun to read, too. I think before you can enter the dialogue on the Oscar blogosphere, you need a semi-comprehensive sense of Oscar mythology. So I spent some time catching up on history before I started participating.

That's actually astute. There is a learning curve or at least a gateway year to sensible Oscar obsessiveness. Not that Oscar is a sensible state of being exactly! But moving on. Let us not speak of your bizarre hostility to The Bening. Your favorite 3 actresses?
Julianne Moore, Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave. And I’m not hostile towards the Bening so much as I think she gets slightly more credit than is due, in a sea of actresses who aren’t even close to getting the praise they deserve.

[short e-pause] I also want to add Blythe Danner to my "favorite actresses" thing. 'Cause she's so absurdly underrated.

Take away somebody's Oscar and give it to someone else. What year? who? why?
Well, I don’t want to pick on Driving Miss Daisy's Jessica Tandy, so I’ll just give Helen Hunt’s As Good As it Gets win to Julie Christie (Afterglow). Julie won so early in her career and has been ripe for a second win so many times. And I have a much easier time accepting (and embracing) wins like Marion Cotillard’s in La Vie En Rose and Jane Fonda’s for Klute than I do Hunt’s. (But seriously, Pfeiffer's The Fabulous Baker Boys was a Crowning Best Actress Moment if ever one existed.)

[Editor's note: I swear I did not pay Hayden to say that but all Pfans agree and thank him.]

Which newish directors are you rooting for in the coming decade?
I’ve been dying to see how Jonathan Glazer follows up Birth. If that wasn’t a fluke, he’ll be one of my favorite directors. I’m also dying for more direction from Sarah Polley.

previous readers of the day: Dominique, Murtada, Cory, Walter,  Paolo, Leehee and BBats

Reader of the Day: Dominique

For today's reader interview we have the lovely movie-mad Dominique who lives here in New York.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first ever moviegoing experience?

DOMINIQUE: The first film I remember seeing in theaters is Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I would've been a little over 5. My dad had been reading an abridged version of it as a bedtime story and so I kept wondering how they could make a whole movie out of a ten-page picture book. I guess I assumed the film would be pretty short or something. Naturally, I was blown away and it remains a favorite film of mine until this day.

When did you start reading The Film Experience?

I think it was around 2007.  I'm attracted to how unpretentious the site is. All the writers and collaborators seem to genuinely love film and I can feel that in every article. I also love random features such as First and Last or April Showers/May Flowers... Just little tidbits of cinephilia that are always refreshing. Also I'm an Oscar nut.

Have you ever dressed up as a movie character for Halloween? 

I am a Halloween lover and have been dressing up as pop culture characters for the past few years: Mia Wallace, Becky from Sin City, Holly Golightly, Joan Holloway, Sherrie from Rock of Ages and this year Lisbeth Salander.

Want Pictures! Which film genre do you think needs a little time out and why? And the inverse: What kind of movie do you wish they'd start making more of?

I'm not sure what genre needs a time out. I'm pretty open to everything and I think some great filmmakers can convince me to watch something I assume I won't like. If anything, maybe certain filmmakers need to take a little time off. Tim Burton, anyone? (Here's another reason I will keep reading this site: no one managed to describe why I hate Eyesore in Wonderland quite as well as you did, Nathaniel.)

What I want to see more of are good musicals. I have always loved musicals and I am thankful to live in New York where I always have the opportunity to go see something great on (or off) Broadway. But what about in film? Is Burlesque really the best we can do? It was silly, but it was no Moulin Rouge! and that's what I want more of. Something epic. If the godawful Glee can remain this popular, can't musicals have a comeback with a film that's actually good?

I'm a film student and they always tell us to make the films we want to see. Two years ago I wrote and produced a musical comedy short and my thesis project which I will be shooting later this year is a dark musical. So at least I'm trying to work on the problem.

 
Best Wishes... sincerely. Let's end with your three favorites actresses. Who they be?

Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck and Kate Winslet. Of course, ask me any other day and my answers would probably change.

I just love women who don't take shit from men. And then seduce them.