Film
![](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/9d858e90-d50a-4354-a232-522ef7aaea27/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Altered states
idea
A touch of absurdity can help to wrap your mind around reality
And now for something completely different: how a dose of the surreal or absurd helps to make sense of our place in the world
by David Robson
![Black-and-white photo of a pensive woman in a herringbone coat and cloche hat, holding a handkerchief to her lips.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/595c7837-77b1-4c0c-81d6-62ce93bc5cec/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Personality
idea
Dietrich showed how adopting a persona can reveal one’s true self
Kaloprosopia – the art of crafting a persona, as Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie did – can help us access a truer self
by Sam Mills
![A man and a woman sitting at a café table, both looking off to the side, with a glass of wine and ashtray on the table.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/b03b5bcd-d3e4-4d35-aa35-81f4f23f6cf3/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Film
guide
How to find great films to watch
Bored with Hollywood and Netflix? Becoming an adventurous and informed explorer of the cinema world is in everyone’s grasp
by Geoff Andrew
![Person in headphones creates sound effects in a cluttered studio, watching a TV screen.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/a2133e4d-f0b1-4f63-ae08-a65e46802222/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Creativity
film
Meet the artists who create sounds for movies – and have so much fun doing it
A film by Jeremy Benning
![A woman in a period dress with pearls watches over a sleeping child in bed, against a historical maritime painting.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/ea675b7d-61a8-4ff3-a2a6-4b9cf78f1611/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Rituals and celebrations
idea
In the cinema, my father’s unspeakable childhood finally surfaced
Not too distant and not to close: how rituals help us process trauma, and why watching Anna Karenina helped heal my father
by Christiana Spens
![Three men stand around a computer, with one holding a mouse and speaking into it, and one wearing an “I Quit Smoking” badge.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/5a72adc6-0f81-4f57-a434-630800dc3ab8/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Technology and media
idea
What the journey from Star Trek to Siri says about our culture
The talking computer in Star Trek takes the culture and technology of the present and dreams up future possibilities
by Liz W Faber
![Abstract painting with flowing black, white, and red colours, creating a dynamic, wave-like pattern resembling a fluid motion.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/751d5734-326a-43d1-b51a-b31b3f437bbb/original.png?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Artists and art history
film
An artist’s serene moving paintings probe the surface of reality itself
Films by Susi Sie
![A young couple in handcuffs lean against a 1950s police car beneath a brooding prairie sky](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/d0dca061-835c-419d-9899-62e0ea1da3a3/rt-2qdgw8rog1ub1.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Mind and brain
idea
What films and literature reveal about the voice in your head
Inner speech is mysterious and hard to study. But movie voiceovers and introspective novels offer fresh ways to understand it
by Shayla Love
![](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/f55bb8df-25f3-4652-8f2b-f51677267f12/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Personality
idea
Immersion in fictional worlds allows us to own our dark side
Our liking for fictional villains such as Voldemort tells us something about the dark side of our own personalities
by Rebecca Krause-Galoni
![Abstract human head with anatomical elements and surreal landscapes blending together on a black background with geometric lines.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/b010750d-22a1-4ff3-bf0a-f7b61a131b9f/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Music
film
Science, emotion and electronica fuse to form propulsive digital art
Music by Max Cooper