Cross-generational companionship: Representations of ageing in contemporary French cinema

Abstract

French cinema has consistently represented ageing in terms of a series of well-worn stereotypes which portray older people as ‘the enemy other’, to use Simone de Beauvoir’s phrase. Such negative images reflect a pervasive fear of ageing which is perceived as a threat to social models of adult identities. However, as this article shows, a number of recent French films have begun to question such dominant constructions of ageing. A detailed analysis of three films – Rue du Retrait (2000), La Tête en friche (2010) and Paulette (2012) – focuses on the significance of intergenerational relationships in the formulation of a positive and empowering vision of ageing. The article begins by exploring the films’ critical representations of ageing in the context of a society that is deeply hostile towards its older citizens. I argue in the subsequent sections that, in all three films, cross-generational companionship becomes a means of counteracting the social exclusion of elders and of constructing different models of ageing identities.