For the first time in a movie theater, I could see fists, frowns, smiles, nods, and other facial expressions and gestures so close to the giant silver screen. At the time, I didn’t know what a life hack was.
In real life, you rarely see facial expressions, gestures, or what people are wearing unless you are very close, so you often have trouble reading the room. I often overlook visual information that gives clues about people who are , falling in love, getting married, becoming parents, interacting, and working together. I don’t know how you gesture and get the server’s attention when you’re eating dinner outside or flirting with me or rolling your eyes.
I’m not going to pretend I see what sighted people see when they watch movies, but it looks good enough to me. We may also use audio description, a form of narration that makes visual elements of movies and other media accessible to blind people.
Yes, a lot of the time you don’t know the size of the weapon used in a murder mystery or the engagement ring your lover hid in his beloved’s dessert. It’s the sensation of images moving across the screen as we move through space and time. The movie is on the big screen, showing close-ups of lovers, musical numbers, battles, and street scenes, so you get to see things you would otherwise rarely see.
My daily life, like everyone I’ve ever known, isn’t like the movies. I’ve had some lovely romances, but none were as magical as The Philadelphia Story. But I’m not Lawrence Olivier in “Hamlet.”
Yet the imaginary world of cinema helped me by giving me an irreplaceable, magical glimpse into how the world works. My first thought was what people were talking about when they said they were grinning, growling, or shrugging. Today, I wouldn’t be embarrassed if someone asked me to smile for a photo. One day you will learn how to roll your eyes.
The movies were the decoder rings that helped me make sense of the world. Even having has taught me. Blurry, the need to be so close, the need for exquisite attention can be beautiful.
