Naomi Watts in The Impossible: just before the wave hits
I will be watching the Oscars tonight — alone, in my jammies, under a cozy blanket, with a delicious dinner. I can’t wait.
I love the movies. By that, I mean to say I love my internal experiences produced by the movies. Yes, movies are an escape. But movies are also a way to exercise emotions by proxy, by temporarily immersing ourselves in imagined situations and personalities. While it’s certainly not the same thing as first-hand experience our own emotions are a shade of approximation for what we witness on screen.
Through movies, we get to feel and remember thwarted, marital, parental, familial, lustful, and romantic love; we ride the virtual roller coasters of fear, anxiety, suspense, and uncertainty in safety; we examine and analyze the solutions our movie characters try, fail or succeed at, and wonder if they would work or fail for us; we see and experience lives and worlds that are out of our realm of experience. The movies are a gift, and the makers of movies broaden our view of, and increase our compassion for, humanity every year. That’s what I will celebrate tonight.
Here are a few movies and performances looked at through the lens of emotional impact: Continue reading
