"Too often, cinema presents a pervasive fear of aging."
Sally Chivers, a professor at Trent University (Canada), stressed at the ICS of the University of Navarra that films portray youth as a set of vital expectations "that disappear for the elderly characters."
"Too often, cinema presents a pervasive fear of aging, as something that necessarily implies illness, disability or need for some subject care, from which family or economic problems stem." So said Sally Chivers, Professor of English Literature and founding executive member of the Centre for Ageing and Society at Trent University's Trent University (Canada), at framework of the international workshop 'Taking the Pulse of Our Times: average, Therapy and Emotions', organized by the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra.
From agreement with Professor Chivers, films often show aging "as something to be avoided, rejuvenating appearance or active lifestyle to unrealistic limits even for younger people". In that regard, she lamented that there is "no set of films that show the everyday life of any elderly person."
The life expectations of young peopleAccording to him, this is related to the exacerbated cult of youth: "Youth is portrayed as a set of promises about the steps one is going to take in life: having a happy childhood, meeting a great love, having a successful professional degree program ... Life expectations disappear for the elderly characters".
The Trent University professor was also keen to point out that the film industry does not treat actresses and actors equally. "For example, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood play more or less the same roles now as they have throughout the rest of their degree program, albeit with some humorous touch about their loss of physical Schools . Actresses often disappear from the screen as they age because they have a much harder time finding roles; when they reach 40, they play women older than their age."
The international workshop 'Taking the Pulse of Our Times: average, Therapy and Emotions' was part of the project of research of the ICS 'Emotional culture and identity', which is funded by Zurich Insuranceand was attended by historians, psychologists, sociologists, communication and film scholars from the USA, UK, Canada, Germany and Spain.
In addition to addressing emotionally charged topics such as aging, disability and death, the congress addressed issues such as anger, the management of emotions, emotional intelligence, 'happy' emotions of relaxation and self-enjoyment.
