Albert Nobbs

[Guest Luna Selene]

Hey!

So my SO and I just recently had an excellent date night at the theater. We saw the Glenn Close film Albert Nobbs. If you haven't heard of this you REALLY need to check it out. She plays a woman in Industrial age Ireland, who lives as a man in order to gain work. The film is so well done, you really begin to see her as a man until one point, donning feminine garb, she becomes strange looking. I'm trying to be as vague as possible. We loved it, it really touched us as a truly PRO Trans community piece of art. Her performance was amazing. I don't know if this is enough to start a whole thread for but I was just really excited to share it!

_Luna

IMDB for Albert Nobbs

Trailer

[Guest Micha]

Never heard of, but you got me intrigued. Thanx much!

[Guest Juniper Blue]

Cool! Thanks Luna!

[Guest Luturna]

I saw it the other day and hoping she gets best actress at the Oscars Meryl Streep has 2 already and the most nominations ever!

[Guest Jenth]

I saw a preview for it which looked amazing. I'm glad it lives up, i really want to see it.

[JJ]

Thank you!

Sounds fascinating. Now I know something I want to see.

Johnny

[Guest weather_rhythm]

***SPOILER ALERT***

The movie was excellent, but kept me tense most of the viewing. Albert was always in fear of being called out on his physical gender, despite living 24/7 as a man. He gave the impression of really wanting to blend inconspicuously into the wallpaper. I believe one reason for his timidness, aside from the obvious constraints of having to pass for fear of retribution from trans-phobic 19th century Irish (and the girdle of course) was that he had little direction on how to act outside of the precise gestures and movements learned, nay, ingrained into a professional waiter. A curious study in body language, Albert Nobbs' the waiter is impeccable, but upon meeting Hubert, the other trans-man in the film, Albert is out of his element, stuttering and second-guessing each movement. He is used to presenting male around those none-the-wiser, but once outed to Hubert, he completely loses it. Their friendship is more mentor-mentee, Hubert being much more comfortable in his skin than his counterpart and having a job that allows more self-determination. But there is a point where Albert's obliviousness is astonishing--it's a mindset that tells me this is a person who has lived in their private little world for so long that it doesn't occur to him that his proposition to Hubert is beyond inappropriate. That scene in particular struck a chord because I had that mindset 5-10 years ago. His naive selfishness, the inability to consider the feelings of the person you feel closest to--that was me.

I am focusing on the social skills so much because people eluded me for so long. i get the timidness, the hand-wringing, wondering if anyone is looking at you and if so they must be thinking something awful and judgemental. Damn we put an awful lot of stock in what other people think of us, especially when our livelihoods depend upon presenting ourselves in a gender-consistent manner :/

-K

PS: Transitioning/ SRS is never brought up because I don't believe the (safe/sanitary) technology existed then, but I do wonder if Albert would have opted for it.