Page 28 - SeniorsToday October
P. 28
directed by Marc Forster. It is rare that gypsies. They travel from place to place, in
the loneliness of old age can be portrayed campers, vans or RVs, taking up seasonal
without mawkishness. The book and its jobs. They are people who either have no
movie adaptations retain the warmth and families, or have been abandoned by them.
humour of the novel – which is so brilliant, Their financial situation does not permit
that anyone not moved by it, must be them to hold on to their homes, and they
heartless. Ove or Otto in the English movie, are too old to work at the conventional
is seen by his neighbours as a cranky old jobs, which they did all their lives. The
man—though he is barely 60-- forever protagonist of Zhao’s film is Fern, played
griping about rules. After losing his wife, by the brilliant Frances McDormand,
Otto has lost his desire to live, and is about loses her husband and her job when the
to hang himself, when there’s a knock on gypsum mine that employed most of the
the door. A boisterous young woman has town of Empire, shuts down during the
moved into the house across the street 2011 recession. She sells her home and
with her husband, two kids and a third on possessions, packs the bare minimum
the way. No matter how rude Otto is, and into a van repurposed with sleeping and
however hard he tries to push her away, storage arrangements, and sets off on a
she refuses to let him be. Every time he journey to nowhere. It may look like a sad,
finds a seemingly fool proof way to end solitary life, but to the elderly nomads, it is
his life, he is interrupted by the cheerful a community of hopeful souls.
neighbour. By the end, he is drawn into
their family and is not lonely any more. Amour (2012):
The book and film say something very
simple—it does not take much to bring
some joy into the world.
Nomandland (2020):
Micheal Haneke’s heart-breaking
Cloe Zhao’s Oscar-winning film, based masterpiece, winner of the Palme d’Or at
on a terrific non-fiction book by Jessica Cannes, starred the legendary Jean-Louis
Bruder, titled Nomadland: Surviving Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva as an
America in the Twenty-First Century, octogenarian couple—Georges and Anne.
which documents the heart-wrenching, One day, after the stress of their house
yet hopeful phenomenon, of retired people, being broken into, Anne has a stroke and
living an itinerant life, like modern day over the next few months, her condition
28
