Brent U3A film group session. We were 5 women and 2 men.
None of the group attending had seen the film when I showed it in 2011.
In my post then I concentrated on the representation of the old woman and the ageist/sexist attitude of critics, in particular Bradshaw in the Guardian.
This new group led by another member of the Brent U3A concentrates on old age generally.
5 women and two men attended the session. They all liked the film and an interesting discussion ensued. I realised then how child neglect and mother inadequacy, violence, alcoholism, grief, lover betrayal, ageing physical decline mix with good will and love in the two main characters. The realism of the rural cafe, and the lives of its staff and clients, was convincing. As in life feel good episodes tempered the hardness of the back story. I enjoyed the two representations of retirement homes. I did not find the film contrived, full of cliches as some reviewers maintained. Casadesus aged 97 and Depardieu give a great performance.
Old Age and Feature Films 
Dear Mrs Rosselson,
I have been following your blog with great pleasure. I can see that you are interessed in gender and age. A great topic though underesearched are men and their transition to old age and retirement. I would have some comments on My afternoons with Margueritte ( with double tt of course), I am a professor of andragogy and Head of the R$D department at our Slovenian Third Age University. Currently we are dealing with issues of functional literacy in older people and preparing an International educational event. I hope I am not casing any inconvenience asking you how you managed to get a DvD of this film ? It seems to be impossible to purchase the subtitled version and our small education event is approaching. I would be grateful if you could provide me with this information.
The film is about lack of motherly care, emotional deprivation leading to irregular schooling … and the life prison in which Germain finds himself being illiterate like so many others for different reasons. I really liked the scene where Margueritte says “You’ re a good person” and show respect to Germain. There are many things we can do for each other…… Thank you
Sincerely,
Dušana Findeisen
http://www.utzo.si
Thank you for your interest. I bought the DVD a few years ago (maybe Amazon but not sure) when it was available at a reasonable price. I see now on Amazon’s site that some copies are still available with private sellers through Amazon. About ageing men I found Eternity and A Day the most remarkable film about the subject. Also After Life and more….