Saturday, April 21st - 5:30 pm - Bell Auditorium   Director: Jean-Luc Raynaud   "The advantage of aging is that we continue living intense passions, but we are now able to hold them before us and turn them around slowly in the light." - Virginia Woolf    French director Jean-Luc Raynaud’s film, The Art of Aging (L’Art de Vieillir) received the Award for Best Documentary at the 2006 Montreal Film Festival. “Two men and two women, between the ages of 77 and 90, mine the unexpected riches of old age. Theirs is a time of life in which platitudes and preconceived notions drop by the wayside, one by one.

They are at a time of life when conventional notions and convictions are often replaced by new passions and insights. Madmen, lovers, characters in Reynaud’s film are described as “living in both a state of horror and wonder, like tightrope walkers on a high wire of time.” Aging is a most natural part of biological existence, indeed, beginning when one is born. Aging with dignity and grace, of course, is a cherished image we all share, yet part of the popular portrayal is old age as a “shipwreck.” Yet, “before any shipwreck, there is first of all the journey, the exploraiton of a still-unmapped continent: the Antarctica of human existence ...” Here are some of the most vital characters, who at 90, you would ever want to meet.  

Director Jean-Luc Raynaud, first feature Revivre (Living) was also shown at the Montreal Film Festival in 1995. Raynaud has also directed Madame Verdoux (1998), Mon Film Maudit (2000) and Jardin Secret (2005).

Award for the Best Documentary at the Montreal Film Festival, 2006.

In French with English subtitles, France, 76 minutes, 2006, DigiBeta.