Shakespeare’s ‘foolish, fond old man’ of ‘fourscore and upwards’ is a cultural archetype, illustrating, among other things, one of our greatest fears about growing older. First Lear loses his wits and then he loses everything else. What makes this production so special is not just Read More …
James Ivory immediately sets the tone for his film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day. In late 1950’s England, Stevens (Anthony Hopkins), head butler of over 30 years for the once thriving Darlington Hall, wanders down or peers into hallways that are Read More …
Do we really believe that wisdom, joy, peace, and courage are the fruit of old age? We may know it from saints or from special people in our own lives, but we probably don’t know it from the movies. Here, then, is our antidote to Read More …
Growing older, in many ways, is a slow and steady reckoning with one’s own mortality. For silent film star of yesteryear Norma Desmond, (Gloria Swanson) growing older is a continual process of denial. The reality that she will not perpetually be twenty-five is a horror Read More …
Spinning inspired variations on Ozu’s Late Spring, Claire Denis draws us close to pensive railway engineer Lionel (Alex Descas, quietly magnetic) and his daughter Josephine (Mati Diop, radiant). They share routines of quiet affection, having grown through grieving the loss of a wife and mother together. Read More …
As Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) aged, so did his films’ protagonists. Gone are the unformed young men of earlier decades, ripe for a jolt of enlightenment. Instead, the leads in his late films are reaping the consequences of decades of character formation, either condemned Read More …
British filmmaker Mike Leigh finds the extraordinary in everyday circumstances, focusing on characters who navigate difficult emotional tasks with a sense of optimism and hope. The happy couple in Another Year is Tom and Gerri Hepple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), an elderly pair who love food, Read More …
Persuasion opens with Sir Walter expressing disdain for those in the military who, he believes, have been aged prematurely by their experiences. It climaxes with a pair of lovers walking against the flowing of traffic, literally and figuratively leaving the parade of life behind. It concludes Read More …
A saying that I have heard several times is ‘To make God laugh, tell him your plans.’ Philosophy professor Nathalie (Isabelle Huppet) does not tell her plans for her life to any divine being or even to most of her family in Things to Come, but Read More …
‘New organs of perception come into being as a result of necessity.’ This observation comes to us from Rumi, that beloved Persian poet, in his three-volume work of poetry called The Masnavi. His wisdom is evident in the direction he then gives us: ‘Therefore, O man, Read More …