Cinema and old age: a (small) review

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of participating together with Isabel Pardo and Francisco Escribano in number 130 of the magazine Tiempo de Paz, coordinated by María Ángeles Durán and dedicated to demographic issues and social problems. In this number of interesting reading, we wrote a work in which, based on the experience of the film cycle of the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of Albacete (University of Castilla-La Mancha) —called “The economy in cinema: conforming critical spirits ”- we reflected on the representation of migratory processes in the cinema and its usefulness as a tool to convey complex socioeconomic problems to the student body, trying to show the human face, a face normally absent in academic textbooks. And although the cinema does not have to offer answers, it can invite questions and, why not ?, change or shape one's own vision of a given reality.

Poster Ciclo de Cine 2017-2018

Note: During some courses the film cycle coexisted with the theater cycle, forming a seminar for undergraduate students using various activities. The 2017-2018 academic year was the last year in which cinema and theater were mixed. After that course, both formats remained active separately.

Following the idea of ​​cinema as a tool to show and raise social questions, in this post, I will write about old age in the cinema. To do this, I will do a (small) review of the literature on the subject and comment on the main results of these works. In total, I have included 6 works that I have considered relevant to the question.

A bit of context

According to Aguilar (2017), during the first decades of the 20th century, youth was the paradigm for valuing human existence and its opposite was old age: old age was classified as an “anti-value” and was stigmatized. The author indicates that, in a process of continuous evolution, with the incorporation of people to the group of older people, the obsolescence of this approach has become evident and, at present, the search for new words, the removal of stigma and the search for a new meaning to this vital stage has materialized. As the number of older people has increased, the number of films with stories of older people has also increased —which are sometimes not developed by older people themselves—, although this has not been a theme that has been paid close attention (Martínez, 2017).

The type of films that shows and reflects on old age has been baptized as gerontocine (Ogando-Díaz, 2016). One issue that should not go unnoticed is that cinema is a phenomenon that produces and reproduces political and social messages, it is not neutral (Klein, 2016). This means that society, its history and its material and sociological basis are the sustenance that the roots of film production absorb. In addition, the subjective approach of the person who directs or scripts the cinematographic work - also conditioned by their own society - is evident (Martínez, 2017), and adds an additional variability to the approach. There are recommendations that indicate that social communication media have the task of helping to create an image of the elderly appropriate to the reality of the moment: active people, with experience and relevant information for society (Pinazo, 2013). The cinema, therefore, can offer us the different visions that are had at a social level about old age and help to modify them.

Main themes

The selection of films that appear in the different studies included is extensive (Aguilar, 2017; Klein, 2016; Martínez, 2017; Ogando-Díaz, 2016; Parejo, 2016; Pinazo, 2013). If someone wants to enjoy viewing some of the films that these studies have used to draw their conclusions, it is recommended to go to the original manuscripts and find them there (see References). The films included in some studies are scarce (for example, in the study by Ogando-Díaz (2016) only three films were included), but in others it exceeds one hundred (case of the study by Pinazo (2013)). One of the most complete classifications at the thematic level is provided by the study by Pinazo (2013), which is also used as a reference in the study by Parejo (2016) that analyzes older women in Almodóvar's cinema. In addition, the study by Pinazo (2013) performs a first screening distinguishing between films in which old age is treated in a positive way (active old age and intergenerational solidarity) and in a negative way (pathological old age and care). The most extensive classification, after this first screening, is shown in the following graph.

Graphic. General themes of films dealing with old age

Source: Own elaboration based on (Pinazo, 2013)

In addition, each of these topics is made up of several subtopics:

• Life changes-events. Social changes.

This topic includes issues related to retirement, widowhood, the empty nest, the proximity of one's own death and death. Some examples of films on this theme would be About Schmidt, Cherry Blossoms, Elsa and Fred, or Volver.

• Intergenerational relationships, generativity and wisdom.

This topic includes issues related to the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, transmission of teachings or help between generations, and intergenerational solidarity. Some examples would be Charlie and the chocolate factory, Cinema Paradiso, Up or The flower of my secret.

• Social and family relationships and psychological-emotional health.

This topic includes subtopics related to affective-sexual relationships or the relationships of aging parents and adult children. Some examples would be Amour, Cherry Blossoms or Big Fish - I personally add this latest Tim Burton film, because, in addition to being one of my favorite films, it reflects an intense father-child relationship and helps to reflect on myths and truths in life, delving into adult personal relationships with first degree kinship.

• Active participation.

The sub-themes of this category are the social and civic-political part and the cultural-educational-formative part. Movies categorized under this theme could be Conversations with Mother, The Student, or Talk to Her.

Paradigms in old age: their representation in the cinema

As detailed by Klein (2016) in his article, there are three paradigms that represent old age in cinema.

In the first place, it includes two large groups of paradigms: the helplessness of life and the fullness of life. Both must solve three questions: what is done with death (their own and that of others), responsibility of the state (society) with the elderly subject and how will the corporal change be signified (decrepitude, aging or will an aesthetic be generated?). In the first paradigm, the author indicates that the ontological subject is called "old" and faces death, loneliness and helplessness. The older person is seen as vulnerable, unproductive. Some of the films that offer this paradigm are Umberto D., Three colors: red, One separation or Amour. In the second paradigm, by contrast, the subject has potential, there is an opportunity in old age: they are older adults. Thus, they are productive people, with full mental, emotional and physical capacity, socially legitimized, active. Some examples of these films are It is never too late to love, Elsa and Fred or The bucket list. These two paradigms coincide with the first screening carried out in the study by Pinazo (2013), where they contrast films showing active and passive old age.

On the other hand, the author offers another paradigmatic perspective including two visions —outside the two previous paradigms—: the messianic and the terrifying. In the first, the older person is shown as a bearer of cultural and social values, respected, as in Wild Strawberries. In the second, the older person is shown as an entity capable of conscientiously harming others, as in My poor little angel, La Nona or What happened to Baby Jane?

Finally, the third group includes the transition paradigms. For the author, there is no clear paradigm of what old age is and, furthermore, they are constantly evolving and there are no closed frameworks that represent the aging society. That is to say, currently, the paradigm is the non-existence of a consensus paradigm.

Concluding

Cinema has the virtue —or the defect— of possessing the necessary potential to stir the conscience of the spectator. It can help to better understand the aging process, as well as the aging society; to draw on the canvas of the ideology of society different ways of understanding old age, to which many and many of us will arrive due to our own human condition. Until now, the main themes of old age in cinema have focused on changes due to age, showing intergenerational relationships, social relationships or the participation of older people in society. The main paradigms seem to be either to understand old age as a process towards decrepitude or to understand it as a process full of opportunities, with possibilities and paths still, in many cases, unexplored.

In this century, the vision of old age as a gloomy, dull, gray process, as a slow and inexorable withering, seems not to make so much sense. Old age can be a living, joyful, colorful process, with the beauty offered by the perspective of time lived.

References

Aguilar, J. Í. (2017). La vejez en el cine: género y vida cotidiana. In Género y vejez (pp. 25–47).

Klein, A. (2016). Paradigmas en la vejez: homogeneización y transiciones cinematográficas. Comunicación y Sociedad, 26, 201–221.

Martínez, J. R. (2017). Las personas mayores a través del cine. Gerokomos, 28(2), 56–62.

Ogando-Díaz, B. (2016). Geriatría y cine: una mirada desde la salud. Revista de Medicina y Cine, 12(4), 196–204.

Parejo, N. (2016). Mujeres mayores en el cine de Almodóvar. http://riuma.uma.es/xmlui/handle/10630/11249?show=full%5Cnhttp://hdl.han...

Pinazo, S. (2013). Reflexionando sobre la vejez a través del cine. Una aproximación incompleta. Informació Psicològica, 91–109. http://www.informaciopsicologica.info/OJSmottif/index.php/leonardo/artic...