Mixed Media Messages on Elders

In Vancouver, B.C., there is now a movie theater that specializes in films about and for elders.

“You have to hand it to that grey fox, Leonard Schein – he’s tapped into a niche – movies for seniors, silver cinema, call it what you will. The Park has become the theatre of the elderly. As the population gets older, entertainment that speaks to the experience of the aged is boffo box office.”

The Tyee, 27 April 2007

It’s not certain that elder entertainment is yet boffo, but what a good idea that theater is. When I was a kid, there were theaters that specialized in movies for children, especially on weekends, so why not an elder theater in every town.

Nevertheless the writer, Dorothy Woodend, set my teeth on edge in the same story with this take on the film, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont:

“…it’s got all the requisite things that oldsters love: British ladies, stately homes, lovely scenery, a few moments of sadness and even more of sentiment.”

There’s nothing wrong with British ladies, stately homes, etc., but who says that’s all elders like? What is objectionable is yet another false stereotype in the media – in this case, that elders haven’t the wit of younger people to take in or enjoy anything more complex than sentimentality.

Then, just when my dudgeon was reaching screech level, this turns up in the review:

“The one thing that films like Ladies in Lavender or Mrs. Palfrey have, in comparison with their shrill American counterparts…is the quality of life made slower, more thoughtful.

“What if you don’t want 60 to be the new 40? What if you actually want to act your age? No more Suzanne Somers senior sex, or exercising your brittle bones till they break. Why can’t you simply be old and be done with it?

“The air of gentility that pervades British films, the small rituals of daily life – the right kind of marmalade, the cups of tea that become as necessary as life’s blood – come with their own deep sense of comfort. Quiet rooms and distant voices provide the time to think about what it all means, without the constant, relentless gallop of trying to be something you’re not.

“It’s rather a relief after the media barrage that tries to convince older people that they ought to behave like younger people.”

It is astonishing that someone who can turn out that clarion call for elders to be themselves can write something as tone deaf as the paragraph above.

[Hat tip to Marja-Leena Rathje.]

[EDITORIAL NOTE: There is a short, funny story from Kent McKamy at The Elder Storytelling Place today titled What Do Men Know Anyway?]