#2: Man in Search for Meaning: Masculinity and Ageing in a Transnational European Context
Free in-person public lecture by our team member Dr. Luis Freijo, King’s College, University of London
15.11.2023, 6-8 p.m.
Goethe University Frankfurt, Campus Westend PEG-Building, Room 1G191
The decade of the 2010s and the early 2020s have witnessed the release of several high-profile films in different European countries which featured male protagonists over 60 years of age who were faced with reformulations of their notions of maleness and masculinity and subsequent losses of meaning. Films such as La Grande Bellezza in Italy, Western in Germany, Dolor y Gloria in Spain or The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in the UK presented a variety of male protagonists in search for meaning while existing in different national and socioeconomic contexts within a wider European milieux.
This lecture proposes to connect ageing, masculinity and representation through the psychoanalytic works of Viktor Frankl and his system of “logotherapy” (1959). Frankl, psychiatrist and survivor of the Holocaust, proposed that the “primary motivational force in man” is the search for meaning. Applying logotherapy to La Grande Bellezza, Western, Dolor y Gloria and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, this lecture proposes to compare similarities and differences in how these searches for meaning by ageing male characters are articulated. The analysis will enable to chart how ageing is conceived and how it intersects with other notions of class, gender values, national constructions and European politics and economic dynamics. Ultimately, the purpose of this lecture is to explore a methodology for a flexible understanding of European identity as it relates to ageing and masculinity.
Image credit: “Claire Darling”, directed by Julie Bertuccelli, produced by Yael Fogiel and Laetitia Gonzalez, 2018.
Please follow the Link to read a short summary of the lecture prepared by Dr. Luis Freijo:
Here you can also find the audio recording of the lecture:
Related films:
- The Great Beauty is a 2013 art drama film co-written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It stars Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli.
2. Pain and Glory is a 2019 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. It stars Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Navas, Julieta Serrano, and Penélope Cruz.
3. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a 2023 British drama film directed by Hettie Macdonald. It is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Rachel Joyce. The film stars Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton.
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