Reader Spotlight: Sergio

Oopsie. We missed a week of our series of mini reader profiles. We're getting to know other members of The Film Experience community.

Today we're talking to Sergio from Guatemala who has been a very welcome consistent contributor to our HMWYBS party on his tumblr "Awww, The Movies ♥". Check that out.

Nathaniel:  Do you remember your first movie or first movie obsession?
SERGIO: The first time I went to the movies, it was with my father and sister. It was a strange/random act from my father, because we were going somewhere else, I was 10 years old and I had never been to the movies! The movie? Nothing relevant, but I was captivated by the experience. Two years later I started to skip events at school to go to the movies by myself.

Uh-oh. Okay, when did you start reading the film experience?
It was around 2004/2005. I even have an e-mail that I sent to myself (lame, I know!) in which I copied the site's address, like a prehistoric bookmark, although in those years I just read the Oscar Predictions. Later, I discovered the blog and I blame Nicole Kidman and my Moulin Rouge's obsession, they were the reason why I came back and found myself immersed.

First question Part 2: Yes, Moulin Rouge! was my first movie obsession.

Nicole & Baz are Moulin Rouge! WinnersWhat is your favorite film genre and why?
I know technically it’s not a genre, but my favorite movies are from Auteur, some people consider the Auteurism like the anti-genre, but that is irrelevant in this question. I just want to say I love to watch a true original director making magic, knowing what he is doing, trusting more in his instincts than in a studio or external influences. The artists, the pioneers, the virtuosos, they are the ones who make me buy the ticket.

Your 3 favorite actresses. Go.
To make my answer easy and shorter, I'm limiting it to modern actresses. This is going to sound like a complete cliché, but I can answer the question with two words: The Hours. The cast is so amazing, a total turn-on for me. If only these three could be in the same scene. La Streep + Nicole Kidman + Julianne Moore = Heaven! They are my trinity, if they demand, I obey.

Take away one oscar and give it to someone else. Who when why?
Can I do this every year? I could easily take Forest Whitaker’s Oscar and give it to Ryan Gosling for Half Nelson; take Jim Broadbent’s for Iris and then give it to him back again for Moulin Rouge! Brokeback Mountain over Crash, duh! That was a no brainer. In my perfect dreamy world Julianne Moore would have won for “Far from Heaven” and I would agree with Nicole’s loss, because Nicole Kidman would have won the year before for MR! Meryl would have won her third Oscar for ‘Doubt’, but Kate Winslet would have won for ‘Eternal Sunshine…’ and my re-history also has a happy ending, no second Oscar to Hillary Swank.

Umm, I can't believe Glenn Close doesn’t have an Oscar yet, so I would take Jodie Foster's first Oscar and I would give it to her for Dangerous Liaisons (1988).

One does not applaud the tenor for clearing his throat.

Close wasn't only clearing her throat, she was singing opera.

Previous Reader Spotlights
the lovely ladies: Ester, Leehee, Jamie and Dominique  and the gents  Borja, John, Chris, Peter, Ziyad, Andrew, Yonatan, Keir, Kyle, Vinci, Victor, Bill, Hayden, Murtada, Cory, Walter, Paolo, and BBats

Will Glenn Close Become a Double Nominee at the Oscars?

Glenn Close has been fighting to get Albert Nobbs, the 19th century drama about a cross-dressing woman in Ireland, made into a film for some time. She starred in the play in the summer of 1982, the same summer that her debut film performance in The World According to Garp arrived in theaters. She was famously Oscar-nominated for that debut.

Not only is she playing the role again 29 years later for the screen but she's co-written the adaptation*. It's her first screenplay credit and it could theoretically win her another "first timer" Oscar nomination. Once I imagined this scenario and narrative (AMPAS does respect a dream project) I couldn't let it go. Sometimes Oscar narratives get stuck in my head for weeks, impervious to all logic**.

A play poster; Mia Wasikowska and Glenn Close in the film.

Oscar obsessing takes up an alarmingly large percentage of my cerebrum and this blog and the charts (SCREENPLAY Predictions are ready for you***) are the results. But sometimes it gets a little out of hand. Neurologists were alarmed to discover that that same gold shiny fixation has now drifted to my brain stem. Studies show that my Oscar obsession is now a completely involuntary function... like breathing. They've asked me to donate my gray-gold matter to science when I'm dead.

*If she accomplishes this it won't be the first time. At least four other actors have written roles that they were Oscar nominated for both writing and performing. Can you name them?

** Logic like this troubling fact: none of Rodrigo García's well meaning but muted films have attracted much awards recognition. My personal theory is that someone needs to jolt him with electric shock on ocassion. I really want to love his films and I suspect he's a kindred spirit given his devotion to actresses but there's something too sleepy about the movies. And I don't mean boring. Does anyone feel me here? I just think they need some filmmaking crackle that's not entirely performance-driven.

*** I felt weird about not excluding Carnage in the predictions but the more I think about it the more I'm unsure of how well it will transfer to the screen.

Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons

P.S. (God shut up already, Nathaniel.) How would you rank Glenn's Oscar nominations? I still don't get what that 1984 bid was about at all -- other than involuntary nominating reflex, blame the AMPAS brain stem-- but fuckyeah on her 1980s run all told, right? She was nearly as Oscar ubiquitous as Streep. if they're both nominated this year for Albert Nobbs and The Iron Lady it'll be their third head-to-head showdown.

Blogger Man: Turn Off the Link

Serious Film Michael (a TFE columnist) is counting down his favs of the year.
Final Girl Stacy's cartoons of the Friday the 13th series almost make it seems as cute as a Pixar movie... okay no. I amend. It's still sick so it's almost as cute as a Don Hertzfeldt animation.
Parabasis a fascinating thoughtful and scathing review of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
In Contention Guy's 25 favorites of 2010. It was a very good year.

Alternative Film Guide RIP Miriam Seegar, one of the last surviving silent film actors.
Vulture Quentin Tarantino responds to the collective internet freakout also known as "OMG, why isn't Sofia Coppola's Somewhere which he awarded in Venice on his top ten list?!?"
Pop Matters chooses their (collective) favorite 20 female performances of 2010. Interesting li... okay, it's a bizarre list. We do appreciate Matt's writeup of Barbara Hershey in Black Swan. We do not appreciate the Annette Bening snub.

Fuming Actresses
US Weekly Michelle Williams is not pleased with the way Nightline edited her statements about Heath Ledger's death and their breakup.
EW's Inside Movies Julia Roberts has had it with everyone ignoring Javier Bardem in Biutiful. OBEY!
The Advocate Glenn Close is horrified that she has an unauthorized cameo in that anti-gay USS Enterprise Navy video that recently caused such a ruckus.