Power of Cinema

Today, I want to share my love for cinema and how it captures my heart with its authentic emotions and depth of feeling. When I find myself deeply drawn to something, I often ask myself a fundamental question: "What part of me is resonating with this? Which part of me feels complete because of it? And why, if at all, do I feel incomplete without it?"

Since childhood, cinema has fascinated me. It transports me to another world, immerses me in its reality, and leaves me changed. Some films create such an impact that I feel unable to return to everyday life. Recently, two movies—The Idea of You and Red, White & Royal Blue, both on Prime Video—had that effect on me. The actor who captivated me was Nicholas Galitzine. His performance left such an impression that it compelled me to write this piece.

Galitzine is devilishly handsome, with a chiseled face, expressive eyes, amazing hair, and a smooth, silky voice that he uses beautifully to sing. I watched him play very different roles in two romantic comedies, and in both, I was drawn not just to him but to the art of acting itself. Acting demands that one delve into a spectrum of human emotions and portray them in front of a full crew—imagine the shedding of inhibition and ego this must require. The craft involves accessing deeply personal emotions, feeling them in one’s bones, and then letting them go, recognizing they were part of a fictional narrative.

For the first time, I see immense value in acting as a tool for understanding life and deepening self-awareness. It’s like putting on layers of emotions and personas, only to shed them when the scene is over. This process could teach profound truths about human psychology and one’s inner depth. The degree to which an actor accesses this depth is entirely up to them, and this choice makes acting a transformative exercise with implications beyond the screen.

This realization has awakened a fascination with acting in me. Four years ago, an artist within me was born—or perhaps awakened from a deep slumber—when I first worked with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. This journey began with observing life closely, fully engaging my senses in each moment. These experiences stirred creative impulses within me, inspiring stories, paintings, reflections, or even ideas for films. Such is the beauty of the creative journey.

As an engineer in technology, I’m constantly seeking ways to bridge these two aspects of myself. I’m fortunate to work in a field where music and technology merge, offering countless possibilities. But what truly draws me is writing about technology through the lens of human psychology and spirituality—a fusion that fascinates me, and perhaps one day, I will explore this further.

For now, I’m content to be on the receiving end of some incredible art and cinema, grateful for the inspiration it brings into my life. Cinema has shown me worlds beyond my own and has deepened my understanding of what it means to be human.









Comments

M. Kate Allen said…
What you write here feels a bit like you've just struck an uncut jewel with a hammer, revealing brilliant new facets of it. I love what you suggest about acting as a mode of entering the depths of human emotion and then releasing them once finished. Performing a piece of music feels that way to me, as does engaging wholeheartedly in a poignant, well-prepared ritual. Writing poetry, and sometimes prosaically, also feels that way. To enter into the depth of human experience/emotion with intention and to touch the depths of it through one's body or some part of it is like living poetry. You help make this possible for musicians with your engineering prowess, and I wonder what it might be like for you to hear your own voice amplified, spoken or sung with intention, on an amplifier that you helped engineer. ♥
Pallavi Joshi said…
I thought about this for some time before I understood what you were saying. Letting the feeling/emotion pass through you with that poetry or music, etc. I see what you mean now. Thanks for sharing.
M. Kate Allen said…
Yes! And the way you phrase that reminds me of a Christian spirituality book called The Reed of God that discusses the human being as an instrument for the music-making of the Divine, and that feels like an apt metaphor here, too.

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