I am sitting in a hotel room in Germany, watching the (very long) German Film Awards gala. Two acceptance speeches stand out, the shortest and the longest:
Both Best Supporting Actor and Actress go to 65+ actors. Michael Gwisdek, who you might remember from GOOD BYE, LENIN!, even wins the award against his son. Christine Schorn, also of GOOD BYE, LENIN! fame, here wins for LIFE IS NOT FOR COWARDS and plays out a little stand-up routine: ”(sighs) So my agent calls and says ‘Christine, I have a job for you, but again … it’s a grandma role.’ – ‘Oh, but I can pull it off, don’t worry!’”, the seasoned theatre and film actress jokes.
TIFF's Piers Handling announced last August that one of TIFF 2012's notable themes was aging --”It seems like the baby boom generation has grown up and is dealing with issues of aging, what it means to age.”-- and for me a motif came into focus that I had felt more than scrutinized for a while, in international (from AMOUR to QUARTET) as well as German films (from the feel good movie BIS ZUM HORIZONT DANN LINKS to the Alzheimer documentary FORGET ME NOT).
I knew I wanted to present a series of films around the different phases of life when last fall, after our presentation of CRASH COURSE, an older audience member thanked me for showing a film, based on real events no less, that non-condescendingly showed a grouped of seniors actively opposing the banking crisis.
Indiewire's Steve Greene had earlier this year written about "How the Oscar Shorts Deal with Aging and Generational Differences": “Amour” [is] a film with perhaps the most explicit depiction of the truths of aging. But over the past two years, both the nominees and winners in the short film categories at the Oscars have presented a noteworthy arena for showcasing the stories of past generations. Many of these tales equate the issues of advanced age with physical isolation. But beyond the superficial connection lies an undercurrent visible in many of these shorts: the elders in their respective communities see their apprenticed youngsters as means of a self-preservation." (I have included two oustanding shorts in our series as well, judge for yourself how intergenerational relations play out there.)
One simple explanation for this trend is that the ranks of
post-war stars, whether Jane Fonda or Otto Sander (recently leading a gang of seniors home escapees in BIS ZUM HORIZONT, DANN LINKS!),
are of a certain age now and have to reinvent themselves. No more MONSTER-IN-LAW let alone BARBARELLA, hello grandparental roles and/or senility. A challenge actors share with the rest of us when entering the (allegedly) post-production and post-sex phase in life.
Another simple answer is that
the classic cinema goer is the boomer, now also 60+, while the kids use Netflix/streaming/gaming at home or on the go. Although many boomers would reject such classifications. As the Berlinale write-up for Michael Klier’s AGE AND BEAUTY observed:
"It seems here that men today only grow up when they reach their fifties.”
UND WENN WIR ALLE ZUSAMMENZIEHEN? ("Et si on vivait tous ensemble?"), the German-French comedy by Stéphane Robelin with an international cast starring Daniel Brühl, Geraldine Chaplin, and Jane Fonda, portrays aging with a mix of irony and sentimentality while avoiding the unpleasant aspects of getting older, as German film magazine epd pointed out. Whatever the motivation, whatever the often uneven portrayal of people in the second half of life in the cinemas right now, the "affirmative action" at this moment in (film) history lies in the fact alone that people over 65 can be seen, are protagonists and aren't ignored or hidden away.
The films I have chosen over these three nights of our new GOETHE FILMS series reflect many of the themes that loom large when dealing with where we perceive ourselves at different stages of our lives. And obviously, these are films about all of us, gettingoOld & staying young. They oscillate between
memory (CHERRY BLOSSOMS),
social and familial isolation (HOME FOR THE WEEKEND),
more or less tentative or radical new beginnings (HOME FOR THE WEEKEND),
the gutsy rejection of if not rebellion against preconceived roles (CLOUD 9). The latter, directed by master Andreas Dresen marked a sea change in dealing with old age when it came out in 2008, an unusual film about physical and mental longing that won numerous awards and keeps on playing.
Interestingly, these are issues we have long known from coming-of-age films about entering, not leaving society. Of course films and life don't fall into neat categories as our title ”Young & Old” might suggest, but only come to life where the generations intersect and interact. I'll continue this train of thought in a few days with a closer look at director Hans-Christian Schmid, who not by coincidence is the opener and closer of this program, with his early work CRAZY and his latest Berlinale success HOME FOR THE WEEKEND. There are many more films I would have loved to show, such as Sophie Heldman's astounding debut SATTE FARBEN VOR SCHWARZ about how we can keep our love alive over decades and whether we can live without each other at the end. Nearly all films I have seen on the topic hover around the central hot-button topic of
dignity & self-determination.
The highlight of the German Film Awards last week was Best Film for Jan Ole Gerster's OH BOY (plus five more Lolas, against, no less, Tom Tykwer's CLOUD ATLAS, nominated in nearly every category). When I saw OH BOY last year, I fell in love with it –admittedly after struggling with its deliberate unwieldiness for about 15 minutes-- and absolutely wanted to show in this series but couldn't secure rights and a copy in time. Look out for it later this year!
What the media are saying about the films in our series GOETHE FILMS "Young & Old":
"No one has ever portrayed the drama that is youth so succinctly." Stern on CRAZY
"A mournful yet exhilarating film. In a highly sensitive and touching manner, Dörrie tells about loss, grief, and the zest for life. Her strongest piece." Der Spiegel on CHERRY BLOSSOMS
"Groundbreaking!" Indiewire on CLOUD 9
"The film never loses its symmetry, it remains in the position of an intent, intelligent observer, collecting details, willing to understand. The German answer to THE CELEBRATION." FAZ on HOME FOR THE WEEKEND
Email jutta.brendemuehl@toronto.goethe.org for a chance to win pairs of tickets to our screenings on May 6, 8, 12, 6:30pm each at TIFF Bell Lightbox. (Only the winners will be contacted.)
by Jutta Brendemühl, Goethe-Institut Toronto
