Reader Spotlight: Tony T

In our ongoing 'get to know The Film Experience community' project, here's another Reader Spotlight. This time we're talking to Tony who grew up overseas and now lives in Texas. He sent me the nicest note once about the site that really cheered me up on a down day.

What's your first movie memory?

TONY: I spent my entire childhood watching Disney movies. It was literally everything I did when I wasn't in school. They were mostly dubbed in French so it was a little bit of a revelation to rediscover them in English when I grew up. But my very first movie memory that I can recall semi-vividly is watching The Beauty and the Beast with my cousins. I was so captivated that I had to move to a different row in the movie theatre to sit away from my cousins because they were distracting me so much. 

I love it. A well behaved moviegoer from the start! When did you start reading The Film Experience?

TONY: When Nathaniel was drunk on Moulin Rouge! I must have found the site by trying to read everything related to the movie. That movie was and still is a dizzying experience. I was hooked on "Film Bitch" at the time. Checked the website every day. I was in Lebanon at the time. No one around me knew what I was talking about which made it all the better!

Three favorite actresses?

I have a very open mind about actresses. Almost any actress can win my heart with the right role. Nicole Kidman is my absolute favorite, though. Ironically my first memory of her is Batman Forever. I thought she was the perfect woman! Moulin Rouge! came and sealed the deal. I can't think of anyone else who combines the same amount of talent, style and courage. The choices she makes are quite admirable even when they don't pay off and auteurs are lucky to have her. Isabelle Huppert is another favorite of mine. Such a powerful presence. Her words always manage to cut through the screen. Third is probably Cate Blanchett. I miss her! 

Take one Oscar away. Regift it.

I think the oscars are like a time capsule. It's always fun to go back and contemplate what the Academy chose to reward in a given year and for what reason. And for that I usually don't talk about stolen oscars. But if forced to choose I would take away The King's Speech's oscar and give it to The Social Network. I thought that was a bit embarassing. I mean the latter was clearly clearly the superior movie by any standard.

If you were in charge of Hollywood for a year...

I would greenlight all the cold political thrillers. Think Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Cerebral well acted well designed movies with great stories are my favorites. Also international movies. Like Babel but better. 

Have you ever broken up with someone because of their taste in movies?

I don't know if I've broken up with someone because of their taste of movies yet but I definitely can see that happening! It's okay not to be a huge movie fan but it's not okay to be a huge fan of the wrong movies! I kid I kid BUT I can't promise that I won't secretly judge someone who declares The Life of David Gale one of their favorite movies (true story). 

previous spotlights

Link Breakers

Port Magazine's film issue is guest curated by Daniel Day-Lewis and features Brendan Gleeson & Paul Thomas Anderson
AV Club every stammer in every Woody Allen movie. A 44 minute (!) supercut. Good lord. 
Anderson Live even though I think it's kind of dangerous to let Anderson Cooper get any yummier, he has. Look, it's Anderson Coopcakes! 

Blackbook what do you make of the new tv spots for The Great Gatsby. (I'm trying not to react as it's my favorite book of all time and I can't see it working as a film. Unless it's just completely it's own thing and borrowing the glory of the title.) 
Paul Reese thinks Spring Breakers might be the best American film since Mulholland Dr

just for lolz
BuzzFeed 12 unanswered crazy-making questions about Disney's Beauty & The Beast
Spiral 16 scientific data confirms that "We Built This City" is the worstest song ever recorded.

The Lady of the Link

Off Oscar. Should You Need a Break
Boy Culture attends Madonna's royal premiere here in NYC for W.E.  
David Bordwell "a guide to the perplexed" for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 
Stale Popcorn We need to talk about "Katniss". Good question: What is it with archery these days? 
THR Two Beauty and the Beast related projects coming. Because in Hollywood there always must be double dipping on the limited idea pool. 

Okay. Back to Oscar. Stop Slacking!
Tom and Lorenzo on Jennifer Lawrence's unfortunate morning as the nominee announcer.
Ultra Culture on the best typography among the Best Pic Nominees. Love this.
Towleroad "Hot Movie Moment" from one of my favorite Best Pictures Wings (1927) the first one!
Indiewire The Oscars are moving to electronic voting in 2013. Cue: thousands of articles about whether or not This. Changes. Things. Oscarologists are so excitable.

In Contention looks at the Art Direction category
Examiner plays an "Oscar Replacement" game for the nominations 
Carpetbagger on Glenn Close and her makeup and wig team for Albert Nobbs 
MNPP A rarity: JA sounding off on the Oscars. Yay. He's one of the only blogging voices we love that have virtually no interest in them. (No interest in the Oscars? I know. I know. Difficult to comprehend.)   

Finally... a sad goodbye to British actor Nicol Williamson (1936-2012), my very first "Merlin" (though I've lost track of how many actors I've seen as the sorcerer since).

Mirren and Williamson owning Excalibur (1981)

Daily MUBI has the roundups of obits for the Excalibur (1981) actor. My most vivid memories of that film, aside from the Lancelot nudity (gasp) was the Merlin/Morgana Le Fay rapport. I was way too young to know that Helen Mirren and Williamson had... history. 

The Only Upside of 3D That I Can See...

... is that we get great movies back in theaters where they're meant to be seen. If it takes a 3D conversion, well that's what it takes.

Next year, the only animated picture ever nominated for Best Picture in a field of five films -- don't you love the qualifier? -- Beauty and the Beast will arrive in the January graveyard. That's the month usually reserved for slow-ass expansions of Oscar nominees and terrible Nic Cage movies. Later in the year Titanic arrives for the centennial of the infamous watery disaster. That's good news: 2012 is guaranteed to have at least two great movies. (Yep, I love both of them.)

Given that many of the biggest hits of all time are epically romantic, why is Hollywood making so few romantic movies?

Remember early in the year when articles started popping up suggesting that 3D would be shortlived (as it's always been in the past) since its market share was starting to ebb after all the 2009  Avatar excitement and the perfectly timed hideous 2010 cash-in of Eyesore in Wonderland ? Good times. Yet the statistics, which suggested that the novelty appeal was wearing off and many people would prefer to go back to 2D, were too optimistically misleading. The further along we march post Avatar, the more the industry invests in 3D with an eye towards the next thing "Holograms!" and the the less likely it seems that it will ever be leaving us.

Which makes me sad. I hate the glasses. I hate the fussiness of it. I really enjoyed Hugo EXCEPT for the 3D. It's done very very well (that team of filmmakers is top-notch) and looks beautiful but who needs all those dog noses and hands shoved in their faces? If I want "immersive" entertainment experiences, I'll just pick a good movie to see. The good ones are always immersive, no glasses required. 

Even in films where 3D feels conceptually right somehow, like in Pina where you can understand the spatial relations of the choreography or in Hugo where the 3D plays into the idea of film artists experimenting with a new technological medium I have never once thought "Oh, I'm so glad this wasn't in 2D!" But It's looking like it's here to say. Major film artists like Herzog, Scorsese and Cameron and so on are beating the artistic drum for it and the studios are happy with the short-sighted extra bucks they can charge for it. I say shortsighted because if they keep raising the prices, they price themselves out of relevancy and further cement TV as the opiate of the masses, far and away more popular than film; don't think the price points aren't a major part of that.

How long before we have to split the cinematography Oscar categories like they used to have to with black and white vs. color until black and white I mean 2D is totally gone? Sigh.

So while I shed my little psychic tears about the death of my favorite medium as it becomes something else entirely -- I love holograms but I don't really think of them as "movies". Can't we have both? -- I take comfort that I'm not alone and that I have one bright side. It's an obvious bright side now that Belle and the Beast will soon be spinning in ballrooms and Jack & Rose will be falling in love above and below deck again. Presumably more grand entertainments will follow. Encore!

Hey Girl, It's Link Time: Young Lars, Drunk Charlize, Best Pictures

Grantland has Mark Harris (yay) on the four supposed Best Picture contenders we've seen thus far: Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life, The Help and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
Stale Popcorn loves the teaser poster for Young Adult and so do I. Isn't it the most... to say the least? Makes you want to "open it" right away and start reading enjoying.

My favorite detail is that Caldecott-like gold stamp, with Jason Reitman's credits on it. Gah, why can't all posters be this fuuuuunnnnn?

Vulture Did you hear Reese Witherspoon got hit by a car (she's fine). I knew this would rile her number one fan up! haha
24 Frames AFI Fest will open with Clint Eastwood's Oscar-buzzy J Edgar. 

This video which I discovered at the WOW report, from WeHoGuy30, does a gay riff on Beauty & The Beast. "Bonjour Girl" ...very funny if you enjoy this sort of thing.

The Lost Boy Ricky Gervais is threatening to host the Golden Globes again live podcast during the Golden Globes ... with comedian friends including Louis CK sounding off on the Hollywood back-patting. 
Broadway Blog interviews Jeff Calhoun who is helping to bring new versions of Newsies and Bonnie & Clyde to the stage. He also appeared in the 80s movie musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And yes, he talks Dolly Parton.   
Movie|Line Bad Movies We Love: Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in The Main Event.  
PopMatters on Contagion and this age of zombie epidemics and vampiric viruses and real world terror

Today's Must Read
Ultra Culture was gifted a copy of an old Swedish documentary on Lars von Trier called Tranceformer (1997) and shares five things he learned from it. Very entertaining. Why is Lars so entertaining? Why is Ultra Culture so entertaining? He just is. They just are. Incidentally, I just saw Melancholia which I'm still mulling over but it is an absolute must-see as there is much to discuss about it. Which we will do soon.