Gender and Age/Aging in Popular Culture Representations in Film, Music, Literature, and Social Media, 2023
After being recognised as one of the most interesting filmmaker of post-millennial Italy in conte... more After being recognised as one of the most interesting filmmaker of post-millennial Italy in contemporary film studies, Paolo
Sorrentino seems to lead the new Italian cinema as a proper auteur following the tradition of such important figures as Fellini,
Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni and Bertolucci. The Great Beauty, released in 2013, was his major hit and raised his career to an
unthinkable level of fame and recognition in the international milieu. In his film, Sorrentino pays homage to Fellini’s universe with
some intertextual allusions to La dolce vita (1960), 8 ½ (1963), and Roma (1972). However, this homage is not exempt from an ironic
gaze about the excessive and grotesque landscape inherent to the eternal city; moreover, the old age of Rome explicitly displayed in
interrupted shots of the ruins of the Roman Empire is symbolically related to the protagonist’s awareness of his ageing. That the film’s
narrative which starts with the celebration of his 65 th birthday is nothing less than a meaningful hint, since it symbolically marks the
age of retirement, physiological changes, and the starting point for the last phase in any man’s life. It is the intention of this chapter to
analyse the issue of ageing masculinity embodied in the male protagonist and expanded to the presentation of the decadent city of Rome
as a technique for producing a film narrative consisting of two separate sets of sequences working together and constructing a short-
circuit for the logics of the plot. Firstly, the protagonist’s monologues are expressions about an introspective conflict, which defines
male old age as a stage of contemplation, reveries, and nostalgia for the loss of youth, and, secondly, the insistent exhibition of social
strident partying introduces a sense of psychological noise that conveys a sort of consolatory device, which unsuccessfully enough hides
the reality of his self.
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Papers by Leonor Acosta
Sorrentino seems to lead the new Italian cinema as a proper auteur following the tradition of such important figures as Fellini,
Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni and Bertolucci. The Great Beauty, released in 2013, was his major hit and raised his career to an
unthinkable level of fame and recognition in the international milieu. In his film, Sorrentino pays homage to Fellini’s universe with
some intertextual allusions to La dolce vita (1960), 8 ½ (1963), and Roma (1972). However, this homage is not exempt from an ironic
gaze about the excessive and grotesque landscape inherent to the eternal city; moreover, the old age of Rome explicitly displayed in
interrupted shots of the ruins of the Roman Empire is symbolically related to the protagonist’s awareness of his ageing. That the film’s
narrative which starts with the celebration of his 65 th birthday is nothing less than a meaningful hint, since it symbolically marks the
age of retirement, physiological changes, and the starting point for the last phase in any man’s life. It is the intention of this chapter to
analyse the issue of ageing masculinity embodied in the male protagonist and expanded to the presentation of the decadent city of Rome
as a technique for producing a film narrative consisting of two separate sets of sequences working together and constructing a short-
circuit for the logics of the plot. Firstly, the protagonist’s monologues are expressions about an introspective conflict, which defines
male old age as a stage of contemplation, reveries, and nostalgia for the loss of youth, and, secondly, the insistent exhibition of social
strident partying introduces a sense of psychological noise that conveys a sort of consolatory device, which unsuccessfully enough hides
the reality of his self.
La intención de la conferencia es mostrar la manera en que se ha ido consolidando una representación de las detectives/inspectoras/investigadoras como enfermas por trastornos bipolares o esquizofrenia, medicadas y extremadamente intuitivas. En el caso de estudio que se trata aquí (Serie española TV "La Caza", tres temporadas), la protagonista desarrolla su aceptación de la enfermedad a la vez que despliega una incredulidad acerca de la medicación que le lleva a abandonar las pastillas para ser ella misma, mientras es capaz de resolver todos los casos complejos que se le ponen por delante.
Conferencia impartida en la Universidad Simón Bolívar (Barranquilla, Colombia). Jornadas investigativas: Derechos que salen de un closet. Mayo 2017
Conferencia impartida en la Universidad Simón Bolívar (Barranquilla, Colombia). Jornadas investigativas. Derechos que salen de un closet. Mayo 2017
La selección de estas tres películas se sustenta en una línea argumental que presenta tres tipos diferentes de tramas, con diferentes tipos de mujeres que se desarrollan a través de ellas, y con diferentes accesos formales en cuanto a los géneros fílmicos utilizados: Flores de otro mundo (Icíar Bollaín, 1999) relata el mundo claustrofóbico de un pueblo castellano y sus reacciones ante la llegada de inmigrantes nacionales e internacionales, mientras que Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 1995) se atreve a colocar temas femeninos en medio de un thriller policíaco a la manera del cine norteamericano, y finalmente Salto al vacío (Daniel Calparsoro, 1995) se inmiscuye en el submundo de la droga a través de la mirada andrógina de su protagonista.
Conferencia impartida en la Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Antropología Social. Abril 2016
Entre los directores que están apostando por esta innovadora forma de atender a la masculinidad en pantalla, se seleccionan para esta conferencia tres que exploran el tema de forma diferenciada:
Los lunes al sol (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2002), Una pistola en cada mano (Cesc Gay, 2012), Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (David Trueba, 2013).
Conferencia impartida en la Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Antropología Social. Abril 2016.