Representation and narrative

Image credit: photographed by Alex Bajan for Unsplash

The project draws on WHO and gerontology definitions of old age as the third life age after youth and middle age, a phase of “active retirement”, which starts at 55 (WHO) or 60-65 years of age according to life expectancy measurements. 101.1 million older people—aged 65 years or more— lived in the EU-28 at the start of 2018, that is 19.7 % of the total population. This number is expected to rise to 141 million and peak in 2050 (EUROSTAT). 

As of 2020, 20 million were aged 80 and over, representing a 300%increase in this age cohort since 1960 (EU Commission Ageing Policy). With a current fertility rate of 1.59 children per woman, significantly less than the replacement rate of 2.1, this demographic trend is bound to become more pronounced. 

Old age is often associated with senescence, i.e. physical and cognitive decline. However, older people are increasingly living longer and healthier old ages. With increased longevity and significant advances in health services the nature of old age changes. This requires a pro-active re-definition of social roles and life forms in old age. 

Gender difference plays a key role in this re-definition. Up to the late 20th century women were consistently viewed as aging more rapidly and sooner than men, even as life expectancies for women were higher than men. Further compounding this perceptual imbalance, recent studies show, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, that biases in favor of male vs. female abilities are particularly persistent in more gender-egalitarian countries, which include the wealthy countries of Northwestern Europe and the EU. This discrepancy between perception and fact is an expression of deep-seated attitudes which in turn can be imputed, to a significant extent, to cultural representation. In Jean-Louis Comolli’s memorable phrase, the “social machine” not only manufactures representations, it manufactures itself from representations. Against this backdrop, contemporary representations of old age and gender – i.e. of sexuality, agency and the transformation and renewal of family structures – in media and in film which challenge such biases are not just an indicator, but a factor of social and cultural change.

At the same time, old age is a liminal case of cinematic representation. Film industries worldwide have thrived on the display of desirable bodies of all genders with a bias towards youth since their emergence in the early 20th century, and even more so in moviegoing “golden age” between the 1930s and the 1960s. This is particularly true for female actors. With 75% of global cinema audiences assumed to be under 30 Hollywood films offer few roles for women over 35 (Whelehan 2013, 79). 

By contrast in Western Europe, which has the highest life expectancy worldwide together with Australia and Japan, stars like Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Sophia Loren, Helen Mirren, Carmen Maura, Senta Berger, Barbara Sukowa, Mari Törőcsik or Luminița Gheorghiu headline films in their late 60s to 80s, while films about old age like Haneke’s “Amour”, Meneghetti’s “Deux” (César 2021) or the German tragicomedy “Honig im Kopf” about Alzheimer’s win awards and succeed in cinemas (Handyside 2016). If we consider the importance of film stars as social role models, idols of consumption and paradigms of sexuality (Dyer 1998), the starring roles for older female actors in particular offer a productive challenge to established perceptions of gender and old age. They allow audiences to “age along with ageing stars” (Jerslev 2018), pushing more diverse representations in terms of sexuality, agency, and the renewal of family structures (Hallam 2016).

The emergence and increasing prominence of starring roles for older women in European cinema is without doubt a response to demographic trends. More specifically such films respond to the fact that cinema audiences age along with the general population. Recent statistics in Italy show a consistent growth of audiences over 60, which also have higher levels of customer fidelity than younger cinema goers. Art cinema is at the forefront of this trend. If blockbuster films continue to appeal to audiences under 30, 31% of art house cinema audiences in Germany in 2020 were ages 60 and over. A further 20% were between 50 and 59 years of age, while the age groups of 20 to 49 made up for only 43% of the total audience (Koptyug 2021). Similarly pre-pandemic data collected by the British Film Institute indicates that between 50% and 70% of the primary audience for UK independent film is over 45 (BFI 2019). Art house cinema, a category to which the majority of films produced in Europe can be assigned, may itself be described as an ageing art form. 

While old age is often discussed with a view to the economic cost of health services, this trend also creates economic opportunity. Audiences above 60 in Europe often have substantial disposable incomes and time budgets. Continuing the role of stars as “idols of consumption” into old age (Jermyn 2012) film actors work, however subliminally, as role models and templates for such audiences.

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