Browse Categories
-
Join 150 other subscribers
-
Recent Posts
Archive
Author Archives: rinaross
Ageism and Anger
April 10th 2011 Before going back to Volver, my blog today deals with instances of ageism that I have mentioned occasionally but that I would like to put together. I took Morganroth Gullette’s Agewise to read while away on holiday. … Continue reading
Old couple
I do not usually comment on films that I have seen only once. I know full well that the immediate response to a film is very subjective and comments are often too biased by ideology and life experience to have any general … Continue reading
Great Expectations (1946)
The showing at the Lexi this month was David Lean’s Great Expectations. It was very well attended; whether it was due to being half-term or to the film itself is difficult to establish. It seems that the non U3A attendance … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
2 Comments
All About Eve (1950)
In my previous post I had planned a comparative study of Make Way for Tomorrow, Tokyo Story and Baghban. The deaths of two people close to me interrupted my schedule, but also made me reconsider my thoughts about the three … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Baghban
29th November, Last week the U3A Lexi group was introduced to Bollywood. Baghban (2003) lasted 3 hours and there was no time for a measured response. However, rushed comments were: I loved it, it was too long, very moralistic, what … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
October 31st. After the Feminism in London Conference, learning how to manage the Older Feminist Website (www.olderfeminist.co.uk) and the consuming London Film Festival I can finally concentrate on Sunset Boulevard. As usual the majority of women who attended and they … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Images of Old Women
24th October, At the exhilarating “Feminism in London Conference”, there was a workshop called “Old Feminists/Young Feminists: getting to know each other”. I pasted on the wall over 20 postcard pictures of old women and passed round a folder of … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing, Ageism
Leave a comment
LEXI Autumn Season and “Look at Me”
21st September 2010 After a long summer recess we are back at the Lexi for the new U3A academic year. It is wonderful that the cinema is hosting us again and that we are given the freedom of programming our … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing, Ageism, Conferences and comments
2 Comments
IN HER SHOES (2005)
Before I present films at the Lexi I read a great many reviews, and study the film screen by screen. The majority of reviews were favourable, but a few dismissed the film as superficial, made by robots etc… When studied, … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
1 Comment
CLOUD 9 ( 2008)
June 3rd 2010 What are the factors that affect the reception of films? The literature on the subject is sparse. Stuart Hall’s model of dominant, negotiated and oppositional decoding of texts has often explained my personal reactions. Being aware of … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing, Ageism, Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Central Station (1998)
This month’s film at the Lexi was Walter Salles’s Central Station. The audience loved it. Contributions were very interesting and became more challenging after I proposed that it was a very male film. In my quest to find films where … Continue reading
Tokyo Story – What is the film about ? And who is in it ?
April 1st. 2010 These are questions I am asked by some people before they decide if they will attend our U3A session at the Lexi cinema. These two questions I find impossible to answer. Trying to describe a film in … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing, Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Alexandra part 3
February 13th, Before coming back to Alexandra I would like to consider the specifity and generality of the film. There are some elements that are not understandable unless one knows some details of the Chechnya war. Thus the behaviour of … Continue reading
ALEXANDRA looks
February 10th In Alexandra, Galina Vishnevskaya has a formidable screen presence which is effective even when it is not known that she was a great diva. Her acting is subtle but Sokurov gives us in this film a woman of … Continue reading
ALEXANDRA 2007
February 7th. 2010 Since my MA dissertation on Le Chat (le chat.pdf) I have been fascinated by the various factors that affect the reception of a film. I mentioned in November how the description of Since Otar Left in the … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Tagged army, grandmother, group of old women, intergeneration, war
Leave a comment
Mrs. Caldicot’s Cabbage War
This month people braved the snow flurries and bitter cold, to come to the Lexi for our film club. They all enjoyed the film, so imagine my surprise to read Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian the very next day … Continue reading
Mid August Lunch
December 14th, 2009 Mid August Lunch is out on DVD and I am nervous writing about it. The film has been highly praised by reviewers and has obtained a few awards, in particular the Satyajit Ray Award at the London … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing, Ageism, Film Analysis
Tagged drink, food, group of old women, heatwave, sons and mothers
Leave a comment
Mid August Lunch
This month both the Phoenix and the Lexi cinemas screened Mid August Lunch. Both sessions were well attended. At the Phoenix the panel consisted of Pauline Moran for Equity, and Michelle Hanson columnist in the Guardian. There was a lively … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing
Leave a comment
The ‘otherness’ of the older woman
November 25th 2009 The ‘otherness’ of the older woman It is very common for people to quote in an amused way their older relatives say “No I would not want to go to a retirement home and stay with all … Continue reading
Pauline and Paulette
November 16th 2009 Pauline and Paulette The film shown at the Lexi at the October U3A film group meeting was Pauline and Paulette (2001). The session was well attended. Although the film is simple and gentle it provoked in the … Continue reading
Since Otar Left
November 1st. 2009 Supported by Film London, the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley started a series of monthly events consisting of a matinee screening of a film featuring an older woman, followed by a panel talk and a discussion. The … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Tagged daughter, granddaughter, grandmother, intergeneration, mother, old woman
Leave a comment
The Ladykillers
October 21st 2009 The Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise offered the University of the Third Age Film Group a trial period to use their screen for their meetings. We would show a film and then ask the audience to participate … Continue reading
Posted in Film Analysis
Leave a comment
Why this blog
Why this blog? I am 74 years old and since my retirement at the age of 60 I have been studying the representation of older women in feature films, as well as ageing and ageism. I have been concentrating on … Continue reading
Posted in Ageing
Leave a comment
Old Age and Feature Films 
Misrepresentation again
The full-page article in the Guardian of Saturday 19 March is headlined “Older women criticise ‘grotesque’ portrayal as cinema is accused of lazy stereotyping.” Since the Film Council Survey on diversity is not available on their website at the time … Continue reading →