Author Archives: rinaross
NURSING SCHOOL
I started the nursing school. As I mentioned before, I had no idea that the school itself was run by nuns and the last results were supervised by men of the church. It is much later in the two years … Continue reading
Grand Lycee Franco-Libanais
I was resigned to stop my schooling at this stage. Did I have a last exam to enter the last two years of my school education? Not the slightest recollection. All I can remember is that the night before this … Continue reading
MY ROOM
I suddenly find myself in the recently built block of flats: the Hanei-Moglu buildings. My only memory of our stay on the ground floor is a mild earthquake nevertheless strong enough to send us all rushing to the balcony at … Continue reading
MY FAVOURITE HOUSE
After the war we moved to Beirut where my father got a job with a firm that imported French cars. His advantage was that he was fluent in French as well as Arabic. Our house was an old building with … Continue reading
Autumn
Finally access to my computer after a few days of thechnological problems abstinence. The temptation to give it all up is strong. But Helas my intellectual activities are few and far between due to my dementia: no reading possible and … Continue reading
THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN ALEPPO
At the moment I find that I am more interested in the changes in myself than in films and old women. I have the strong feeling that my brain is divided into then and now with very vivid memories of … Continue reading
IT MUST BE HEAVEN (2019)
21st. July 2021 A massive event in my life. My husband has a heart attack and a couple of strokes/ 2 weeks in hospital and self discharge with a couple of replacement body bits…. Luckily younger daughter had arrived just … Continue reading
A Really Bad Film : Se Souvenir des Belles Choses (2001)
My last blog dates to Sept 2020. Since then my computer refuses to follow my instructions and I gave up blogging until the visit of a young relative found the offending mistake…… With our daily viewing of feature films during … Continue reading
MY FRIEND AND ALZHEIMER
It was the time when there were major reorganisations of the National Health Service and I was not prepared to give up the lab I worked in. I was part/time in this lab where I specialised in EEG and involved … Continue reading
23 WALKS (2020)
How I miss my older-women-in film groups. Both the Brent U3A one and the Ealing Oldies Network group. Both groups were very well attended (no fewer than 8 in bad weather and up to 40 people per session) by older … Continue reading
LOVE AND DEMENTIA
On 31 Jan 2021, at 17:49, Rina Rosselson <rinaross@mac.com> wrote: Why is it that the film Amour is often quoted in reviews of Still Mine? And do all stories with old couples fall into the same genre? Isn’t Still Mine also a film about dementia? … Continue reading
MUM AND ME – DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
The newly released film on Netflix: Kirsten Johnson’s Dick Johnson is Dead (2020) reminded me of the blog I wrote in October 2008: Sue Bourne’s Mum and Me. Both documentary film makers made the films about a relative. Sue’s about … Continue reading
OLD AGE AND CARE : Amour, Chronic, A Woman’s Tale
Autoethnography Isolated from family and friends under tier 4, unable to research with any enthusiasm I have decided to end the writing of 2020.But first I must come back to my blog of December 19th, where I touched on an … Continue reading
NEW PATH : DEMENTIA IN FILMS….
In my plan to write about and study films about dementias I realise that the research involved is too complex and beyond my available time and interest. I know nothing about horror films and it seems to me that it … Continue reading
STILL ALICE (2014)
I was distracted from my blog about the subject of Couple Separations In Feature Films by Nicole Davis’s article in the Guardian. (see Film And Dementias in the Guardian) In my research about the representation of old women in feature … Continue reading
AWAY FROM HER (2008) and Still Alice (2014)
Of all couple separations the separation due to dementia can be the most painful. Major illnesses in a partner, a child are also difficult to live through. It is the erasing of the partner and his/her annihilation that is unbearably … Continue reading
FILMS AND DEMENTIAS
I was about to write about Away From Her when I caught a surprising article in the Guardian online. FACING THE FEAR : CINEMA FINALLY CONFR0NTS THE REALITY OF DEMENTIA by Nicole Davis I have been diagnosed as suffering from … Continue reading
COUPLE RELATIONSHIP IN AMOUR
There are two big films about old couples in my list of blogs : Amour and Iris. I did not think that Iris was entirely fiction and I did not include it in my studies. However I mentioned it because … Continue reading
INNOCENCE (2000)
Why did I pair Cloud9 and Innocence? After 20 years of examining films about older women I wonder. The two films have little in common except sexual desire and sexual scenes. The first has been lauded the other neglected. The … Continue reading
CLOUD 9 (2008)
Old couple separation: Two films come to mind when I consider an older woman who leaves her husband for another man. Innocence (2000) and Cloud9 (2009). Innocence was not distributed in UK but I still remember the fuss made by … Continue reading
Death of Wife: Tokyo Story.
“Critics have frequently observed that Ozu Yasujiro’s Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo Story, 1953) was inspired by Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). David Bordwell sees Ozu as “recasting” the American film – borrowing from it, adapting it – and briefly … Continue reading
COUPLE SEPARATION
June. Already ten weeks in lockdown and the stress of the pandemic is starting to bite. Forced to change my activities and interests. My social life, film blog and film research neglected are replaced by housekeeping chores and occasional Zoom … Continue reading
EPILOGUE (HAYUTA VE BERL) 2012
March 1st. 2020 I was looking for a film to present to our Secular Jewish group and I suddenly thought of EPILOGUE dir: Amir Manor shown at the BFI festival in 2012 that had impressed me. Amour and Quartet also … Continue reading
QUARTET (2012)
It was a pleasure to meet again with EON members (Ealing Over 60 Network) to watch a film together. I chose Quartet (2012) for this session. There were 21 people. As usual male presence was of 3 only. Personally I … Continue reading
Shoplifters (2018) – Palme d’Or Cannes – Director Kore-eda
I did not grasp all the richness of this film on my first viewing in the cinema. As a rule I make a point of not reading the reviews or synopsis before seeing a film. What struck me in the … Continue reading
AFTER THE STORM (2016)
AFTER THE STORM ( 2016) Warm and equal relationships between old woman and adult daughter are very rare in the films I have written about. Kore Eda in Still Walking (2008) portrays mother and daughter conversing and cooking together but the … Continue reading
THE FAREWELL ( 2019)
The Farewell Of all the films featuring an old woman that I have seen and written about none has coincided with my experiences as much as this film. I saw it in my local cinema on a Saturday at 18h … Continue reading
POETRY (2010) -2-
Recently, a friend recommended Lucy Bolton’s chapter The Intertextual Stardom of Iris: Winslet, Dench, Murdoch, and Alzheimer’s Disease,Feminisms: Diversity, Difference and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures (2015). This took me years back before I started my blog. Coming back to … Continue reading
Old Age and Feature Films 
STILL WALKING (2008)
Still Walking (2008) As with some family reunions, my second viewing of Still Walking was quite painful. I saw it at home with a cousin with whom I had shared family reunions in my youth. Her general comment was: there … Continue reading →