There is one sentence in the movie ad astra confusing me about its meaning. "Some times I see myself from outside. Smile. Present a side" What does present a side mean? I thank so much if anybody could help me.
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In BrE we have the idiomatic There's no side to him (he's not arrogant / pretentious). There's also to have the front to do something (be cheeky / arrogant enough to do it), but I suspect that one might derive from effrontery, rather than being a closely-related "visible facet / viewing angle" metaphoric usage.– FumbleFingersFeb 12, 2020 at 15:41
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2 Answers
I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like this person is talking about showing themselves in an attractive way.
In photography, each person is said to have "a good side"-- the optimal angle from which to photograph them. So to "present a side" is to show yourself at an angle as if you're being photographed.
This is almost certainly a reference to people having a "best side" when it comes to being photographed, this lifehacker post tells you how to find yours.
The idea of the quote is that, if you "see yourself from the outside", you are in a similar position to someone taking your photograph. "Smile, present a side" is an instruction that a photographer might give to their subject so the speaker is illustrating how they feel when they "see themselves from the outside".
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@Habib Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "take a gesture". I (and I believe @PlutoThePlanet) think that "Smile. Present a side" is just an ironic imitation of a professional (possibly papparatzzi) photographer's patter. The speaker is making fun of his own statement about "seeing himself from the outside" and of his sense of his own importance.– BoldBenFeb 14, 2020 at 1:51