Reader of the Day: Murtada

Since yesterday's Reader o' the Day was someone I'd met, let's make it a double feature. But afterwards we go back to people I haven't met which is 99.99% of you. Today we're talking to Murtada who lives here in NYC. I've only been recognized in public (at least to my knowledge) like 6 times so I've never gotten used to it. It is... strange. Murtada was one of those (unlucky) sharp eyed people. We were at a gay bingo event of all things.

Nathaniel: I'm still so embarrassed about our meeting. My friends were so mad at me... they were all "Why were you so rude to that nice guy?" I was just shocked/disoriented. I have no idea what I even said. Can you ever forgive me?
MURTADA: Of course I forgive you……as long as you promise to come back to gay bingo. I haven’t been back since that day, have you?

Haven't been back, no. LOL. Do you remember your first moviegoing experience?
I grew up in Sudan and there were not a lot of movie theatres there. I consumed movies on VHS. But there was an outdoor summer theatre that played mostly Bollywood movies. I remember seeing a Jaws revival on a very hot summer night sometime in the 80s and hiding under the seat for most of the movie because I was so scared.

Your 3 favorite actresses. Go!
The two C/Kates, Blanchett and Winslet. I can’t get enough of either. Blanchett was love at first sight when I saw her in Elizabeth but I love her most in The Talented Mr. Ripley, so casually snobbish.. delicious. And her big grand gestures in The Good German are even better than her Hepburn. Winslet was more of a love built over time and accumulated because  she just kept getting better and making better movies. My fave of hers is probably Revolutionary Road, she was combusting with emotion in that. And recently Michelle Williams took my breath away in Blue Valentine.

I know you're an Oscar obsessive. Take away one person's Oscar and give it to someone else.
I could play this game all day: Angelina Jolie’s (Girl, Interrupted) to Toni Colette (The Sixth Sense); Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s (Capote) to Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain); Rachel Weiz (Constant Gardener) to Maria Bello (A History of Violence); And don't even get me started on Hooper/Fincher, the wound is still raw.

But if I was given one chance I will have to take Kevin Costner best director Oscar (Dances With Wolves) and give it to Martin Scorsese. I know, obvious. But that doesn't make it wrong. In fact it will right maybe one of the biggest wrongs in Oscar history. GoodFellas is a fantastic movie that has endured and is now a big part of movie and pop culture history. In my opinion it's Scorcese's peak as a storyteller.

Who are you really rooting for over the next few years of cinema?
I am so glad that Darren Aronofsky is not doing Wolverine and whatever his next movie becomes I hope it's an original story of his. He is the most exciting American filmmaker out there.

Reader of the Day: Cory

Today's Reader of the Day is the first in the series that I've actually met. We sat down for coffee last year while Cory from Canada was in town having a meeting about something so secret I couldn't even begin to tell you what it was. Perhaps he works for the CIA? But he was chatty about movies and that's what we love best!

Nathaniel: Hey Cory. Good to "see" you again. Do you remember the first movie or first movie obsession?
CORY: I feel like I’m on ‘Inside The Actor’s Studio’ right now.  This is awesome! The Great Mouse Detective.  I think I was about 3 years old, and it was for sure my first movie theatre experience.  We got ¾ of the way through it when my little sister regurgitated a bag full of Nibs all over my father.  So I guess I just remember the first movie that I got ¾ through.

My first movie obsession, which birthed the entire concept of out-of-control obsessions for me, was The Shaggy Dog.  It was in no way a healthy one.  I think I watched it every single day for about 6 years.  In second grade I actually managed to convince myself that the recess bell was my own personal trigger to transform into a sheep dog.  I spent every single recess for a full year absolutely convinced that I was indeed a dog.  Needless to say I had a very lonely year.

When did you start reading The Film Experience?
I can separate my teen to adult years by what my favourite film website was in each section of my life.  Mrshowbiz.com was most of my teens.  I was devastated when that stopped existing. Thankfully I managed to find Sasha Stone after that which led me to you. TFE is easily my most visited site on the interweb and I hope I never have to go hunting for a new favourite again. 

What's your filmgoing diet like these days?
These days, i.e. the last few weeks, my film diet is an anorexic one.  Not one movie has been watched and it feels great.  I LOVE not watching movies.  It’s the best!  Every February, like yourself I imagine, I end up waking up and watching movies until it’s time to go back to sleep.  On repeat.  For 28 days.  By the end I hate the entire concept of filmmaking and wish that I was sane enough to JUST MAKE MYSELF STOP!!!  I’m not.  It will happen again next year.  But I guess I should probably rewatch Mildred Pierce (1947) pretty soon.  

Three favorite actresses. Go!
The most difficult question on Earth.  Ok.  Just do it Cory.  First to enter your mind: Liv Tyler, Grace Kelly, and Michelle Williams.  Damn!  Is that even close to right???  I think so.  But what about Rachel Weisz...  I ask myself?  And Penélope Cruz...  reads my next thought bubble?   You can’t leave out Diane Keaton...   says a very logical part of my brain.  Yes!  I fit in six.  Get me away from this awful question.

 

Biopic of your life. Who plays you? Etcetera.
I’d have to cast by era here and my movie might as well be called, ‘Eras’.  (No that’s dumb.)  My teen years need to be portrayed by Ewan McGregor...  and it will be easy for him to do so as he can just play Christian from ‘Moulin Rouge!’.  I was an overboard romantic, a naive and passionate romantic.  I still am.  I’ve just learned to internalize it.  I even wrapped myself in a box for a girl once and got someone to drop me off in front of her locker.  I hid in it for 40 minutes with chocolates and flowers.  There was a crowd surrounding her when she opened it and I popped out.  She dumped me three days later.  Lesson learned.  Movies don’t necessarily reflect real life.  I believe this was considered to be ‘creepy’. 

My early 20s could be played by Ethan Hawke.  The way he conveyed his curiosity and excitement about life in, ‘Before Sunrise’ has always moved me and felt very much like a reflection of my precise existence.  I felt the very same way about his performance in ‘Great Expectations’.  Passionate.  Sensitive.  Passionate.  Passionate.  Passionate.  I adore his aura.  The last 5 years of my life...  maybe John Krasinski??  I don’t know.  He’d have to up the intense factor.  But he performs very matter-of-factly and gives off a very logical aura.  I speak a lot about auras.  Maybe the film should be called ‘Auras’.  Anyhow...  Krasinski seems to be able to convey ‘keeping it cool’ while in very intense situations.  I think that’s what I’ve mostly been doing for the last five crazy years.  Finally, I feel like I am slipping into a Hanksian era of my life.  I’ve always felt an attachment to Tom Hanks.  Passionate and funny.  I think that’s what I am right now.  I’ve turned into Tom Hanks. I’ll take it!

Reader of the Day: Walter

For Reader Appreciation Month, we're having mini interviews with readers. Here we have have Walter.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience or first obsession?
Walter: The first theater-going experience I remember is sitting in the movie theater with my aunt watching The Nightmare Before Christmas -- I was four years old and absolutely aghast at the final battle between Jack and Oogie Boogie and the end result. God, that was terrifying. And AWESOME.

According to my father, though, the first time I ever sat up was to watch a movie on TV. Babies get distracted; he claims I stayed with the story until they turned it off. I wish he remembered what movie it was, because it was clearly the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

When did you start reading The Film Experience?
Spring 2006, I want to say. Fresh off the 2005 Oscar Season, the first one I really got into, I Googled 2006 Oscar Predictions. Film Experience and many others came up, and I still follow the Big Four: Hollywood-Elsewhere, Awards Daily (it was Oscar Watch then), In Contention, and this one. I visit, like, three times a day, because I never know if there's an article I've missed, or I want to visit something, or I want to freshen up on my Film Bitch Trivia.

Have you ever dressed up as a movie character for Halloween?
Well, here's where I answer the "or" part of the very first question. My most memorable Halloween costume was Bela Lugosi, my first movie star obsession, in third grade. Not Dracula: Bela Lugosi. I had just seen Ed Wood, so I got a cape, a felt hat and a walking-stick, and my dad took me to a late-night screening of the Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera. It was AMAZING.

Has any movie character as dressed as you?
William Hurt as James Leeds in Children of a Lesser God. We had the same elbow-patched blazer. I loved that thing, and I left it in the trunk of a friend's car...a friend who later moved away. Damn them!

Two fearsome and formidable icons: Bela & Maggie

Your 3 favorite actresses. Go
Maggie Smith is my all-time favorite actress: we watched The Secret Garden in second grade, and when my friend asked me who my favorite character was, he was appalled when I said the old woman. "But she's so mean!" he insisted. Well, yeah, but I also loved the way she cowered before the master of the house, and the subtle power plays she tried, and the smackdown she put on the maid. I love her so much. Meryl and honey-kissed Patty Clarkson are the other no-brainers for me.

What does your movie diet consist of these days?
I haven't seen a movie in a theater since February...and I work in one! Hopefully, that will all change this month: Jane Eyre calls. Mostly, I've been watching movies on TCM and Netflix Instant, the latter especially.

previous readers of the day: Paolo, Leehee and BBats

Reader of the Day: Paolo

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 of the Day: Leehee

As part of Reader Appreciation Month, we're featuring mini-interviews with You, The Film Experience crowd. Today, we've got Leehee, originally from Israel -- her name means "she is for me". I love that! I contacted Leehee because she was so happy about that post on The Black Swan (1942).

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience or obsession?
Leehee: The first movie that I vividly remember seeing on the big screen was "Anne of Green Gables" when I was about 6... But my first obsession was with the first VHS tape I owned The Parent Trap (1961) . My twin sister and I watched it every.single.day for about a year....and it kind of drove our mom crazy! I wanted to be Hayley Mills and have Maureen O'Hara as my mom *so* bad.

You and me both. ♪ ♫ lets get together yeahyeahyeah. The Parent Trap is the best. When did you start reading The Film Experience?

Hmmm... I don't quite remember. It must have been at least 2007. I stuck around because we have somewhat of a similar taste in actresses and movies; I LOVED the Oscar coverage; loved the snark and the in-depth analysis of both old and new movies; loved the fashion... basically, i felt like you sort of created this for me!

What's your movie diet like right about now?
I try and go to the movie theater at least once a week if not more (when there are movies to see!); I recently subscribed to netflix so I could watch movies online; and I have an unhealthy habit of buying DVD's  (I own over 600).

 

Your 3 Favorite Actresses. Go!

Maureen O'Hara; Deborah Kerr; Barbra Streisand; Charlotte Rampling; Emma Thompson (sorry I had to do 5!!!)

They make a movie of your life. Tell us about it.
The movie of my life will be called "Behind the Smile". It will be directed by Barbra Streisand and star Kate Winslet as me. :-)