Reader Spotlight: Morgan in New Zealand

We're getting to know The Film Experience community one-by-one. Today we're talking to Morgan Borthwick from New Zealand. We've never been but it's on our brains due to Jane Campion's stunning miniseries "Top of the Lake". Here's Morgan.

Hi, Morgan. Do you love Jane Campion? (Please note: There is only one correct answer to this question)

MORGAN: Of course! She understands film is as much art as it is storytelling and I could rhapsodise all day about her many gifts.  As a director, I love what she does with her actresses, particularly Barbara Hershey who is beyond superlatives in Portrait of a Lady, Abby Cornish in Bright Star and Elizabeth Moss in Top of the Lake, making me forget Peggy of Mad Men ever existed. She should have two best director nominations by now at least, but that's a gripe for another time about the academy and their "we've nominated you once, we don't need to do it again" mantra when it comes to women. See also: Kathryn Bigelow, but I digress!

Since you're from New Zealand, how annoyed do you get when people ask you about The Lord of the Rings tourist destinations?

MORGAN: Ha-ha, I should have known this question would pop up! I get super annoyed to be very honest, because although being a Kiwi (slang for New Zealander) and loving Peter Jackson, as law in NZ basically dictates, we're not just about that when it comes to films! Be excited about Peter and Frodo and bloody Gollum but we're the country that gave you Jane Campion, Anna Paquin, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Karl Urban, Temuera Morrison, Niki Caro, Sam Neale, Andrew Adamson, The River Queen, Heavenly Creatures, Boy, 2 Cars 1 Night,  Jane Campion, Emily Barclay, In My Father's Den, The World's Fastest Indian... and Jane Campion. If you haven't heard/seen these people or films, I encourage you to look them up! This is my moment to advertise the beauty and depth of the film industry in New Zealand - it is so much more than hobbits and elves. Next time, ask to see where The Piano was filmed or where the murder in Heavenly Creatures took place.

When did you start reading The Film Experience?

I started reading in 2006, aged 15! I was disappointed that Jennifer Hudson seemed to be winning everything when I thought Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barrazza in Babel deserved so much more for taking their parts and going beyond what the cliched script expected. But it wasn't until 2007 and the clusterf*ck that was BSA (my favourite category) that I became a regular, addicted reader and since then I check this site at least daily and get v upset when away/unable to. To me, its your passion that makes it so worthwhile, even if we disagree on the Zeéeeee!

Three Favorite Actresses?

Maggie Smith: The woman does her schtick for sure, she's got her stock characters but I'll never get tired of her doing the Maggie and every time I think she's just sleepwalking, i remember The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Othello and Capturing Mary and I remember the woman is one of the greats, despite her recent spate of snooty old dowagers (which are still so entertaining).

Nicole Kidman, of course. i caught her as an 8 year old in Eyes Wide Shut - it was in the video player, and I have been obsessed with her ever since. Through the ups and the downs, she's never apologised, never backed down and is the most fearless of them all. Truly, the Paperboy's snub this year brought tears to my eyes.

Then I don't know, Meryl, Michelle (Pfeiffer & Williams - yes) Kate and Cate all have honorary places along with Alfre and Tilda but third would have to be...

Anjelica Huston for so many things but her performance in 50/50 spoke to me like nothing else has in film for a while. She's so underrated, so rarely seen but that striking presence makes you wish she did even more and you can see why her three sons in the Darjeeling Limited were so hung up on her! Plus #theGriftersforever! 

Please don't hate me readers, there's so many more, but these would be the three whose films I endeavour to see with all my power. 

What was the last movie you watched before this interview?

Bachelorette finally last night! Brilliant, truly. Everything that Girls wants to be. Dark, funny, sad and Isla Fisher gets best in show in my opinion, her scenes in the pool really sold me on her talents as an actress.

Which recent movie would you like to live inside of? 

Can I say a movie that hasn't been released? Wouldn't we all love to live inside Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby? I mean, c'mon, that is a world waiting to be explored. And also, being a university student, I'd love to live in the world of Pitch Perfect because all they seem to do is sing, I swear, I wish my university life was that relaxed. Oh and I want Fat Amy as my new second best friend. After Jennifer Lawrence, of course. (as a friend, not an oscar winner, yes, I said it.)

previous reader spotlights

Burning Questions: Can a Bad Sequel Diminish a Classic?

Michael C here. When you tune in to the movie chatter frequency one of unavoidable refrains you hear is that such and such sequel has spoiled a classic film. You know the drill. Part III forever tarnished The Godfather, turning a perfect two-part saga into a disappointing, lopsided trilogy. Oliver Stone ruined Gordon Gekko by dragging him out for a belated encore.  “Blah blah Jim Carrey blah blah The Grinch blah blah blah MY CHILDHOOD!”  

And so on.

This chorus was most recently heard lamenting the way Oz the Great and Powerful helped itself to a box office bonanza by trampling the sterling legacy of the Judy Garland classic. Next it will be Evil Dead’s turn to besmirch the memory of a cult classic. Amid all outraged accusations of violence towards film history shouldn’t we stop to consider if the basic idea has merit? Can an inferior sequel actually diminish the standing of a classic? 

Let me state right up front my answer is a firm “No, it can’t.” Except when it can. Let me back up...

Click to read more ...

I Linked a Link

Yahoo Movies Best Actress Roundtable - I chime in with Thelma, Peter Knegt and others
Buzzfeed Julianne Moore in Elizabeth Taylor's jewels. I'm glad she chose green
Playbill Shia Labeouf departs his intended Broadway debut. Apparently there were issues between him and Alec Baldwin. Drama!
Coming Soon the X-Men set is rebuilt for X-Men: Days of Future Past
LA Times Nominee Herbert Kretzmer on writing the Original Song nominee "Suddenly" 

The Guardian talks to director Joe Wright. "I go nuts if I'm idle." Oh if only some other directors felt this way (*cough Lynch/Luhrmann/Anderson)
Film.com Joe Reid picks the best Oscar acceptance speeches of all time. 
/Film Mark Hamill probably coming back to Star Wars. 
Movies Now that best director race sure is confusing
Pajiba shares their favorite casting notices from new pilots: Kyle Chandler, Tricia Helfer and more... 
Rebecca Rolfe has been studying body language of Oscar winners - huge chart! Everyone is into the art of acceptance speeches this year. I started a trend last year, I did.

Watch It
Gollum sings everyone's favorite precious song this year "I Dreamed a Dream"... but he changes up the words a bit.

Speaking of things I hold precious...

Have y'all heard that the glorious but not exactly movie-ish Kristin Chenoweth will be closing the Oscar ceremony with the host. Wild, right? I wouldn't have expected that but we loveses the Cheno.

ADG Nominees: Period, Fantasy, and (Our Favorite) Contemporary

The Guilds Have Spoken! Or rather, they're beginning to speak. We've just heard from the producers and now the art directors. This time AMPAS will cut the guilds off mid-sentence since Oscar nominations are but a week away. But here are the nominations from the Art Directors Guild which includes production designers, art directors and set decorators. Production Designers are the bosses of this field and when it comes to Oscar only the production designers and set decorators and not the art directors share the Oscar nominations which is why it's a bit odd that it's always called "Art Direction" but AMPAS has finally changed the name of the category so it'll now be 'Production Design'

Anna Karenina may be dressed for grief but her bedroom sure is lusty.

Expect that the five nominated films for Oscar will be (mostly) culled from these three groups. And obviously, given that Oscar is Oscar and "Best" =  "Most" the bulk of the eventual Oscar shortlist will come from Period & Fantasy. TFE's favorite thing about the guild awards is that you can see what the craftsmen and women like best in contemporary work... which sadly rarely goes on to Oscar glory despite being difficult and creatively challenging in its own right.

Some notes on their nominees... and their nominee's past filmography glories after the jump

Click to read more ...

Tolkien at 121

JA from MNPP here to wish the author JRR Tolkien a terribly post-mortem happy 121st birthday. Here he was born (in 1892) and there he died (in September of 1973) - twas hardly a moment for you, you took no notice. (Sorry I have that Vertigo quote permanantly on tap, even if inappropriate.)

Anyway! Even if Nathaniel's boycotting The Hobbit, there's a lot of us (a whole heckuva lot, judging from its receipts) who weren't so strong and submitted ourselves willingly to another three hours in Hobbiton and beyond - my reaction to the film was actually one of surprised like, if not really love; I'd convinced myself in a post-Lovely-Bones world (shudder) that Peter Jackson had lost that ineffable something that made him so special, and I was wrong. I thought the film was like slipping back into a warm bath - cozy and quite fine. If I weren't so enamored with PJ's take on Tolkien's world I might find the probably obscene money-grab (point Nat) of stretching this lil' book out to nine hours less palatable, but I do, I do like PJ's take on Tolkien's world an awful lot, so I ended up more okay with it than I anticipated myself being in the end. Ask me again after he's piled the latter six hours on and we'll see how I feel but for now, he's reconvinced me at giving it a go. What's did y'all think?

I saw a joke going around on Twitter about how we'll be getting an epic series of films for The Silmarillion next; nevermind that all the good stuff's apparently somehow making its way into the three Hobbit movies already - where there be gold, there be dragons. Where would movie-making even be without JRR today? How many helicopter shots of groups of people striding across pretty landscapes would we have missed out on? I shudder to think.