Until recently, a person’s life was clearly divided into non-repeating stages. Childhood — youth — maturity — old age. The place of love was determined somewhere at the end of adolescence. She preceded the creation of a family, which, in turn, became something of a certificate of maturity. In the future, love was to be embodied in love for children, and not in romantic unrest. Love is the destiny of the young, such was the opinion of all previous centuries.
Old lover? Funny. Old lover? Impossible! The old man in love was presented as a comic character (Lope de Vega’s «Dog in the Manger», 1613). Or, on the contrary, tragic (Gerhart Hauptmann «Before Sunset», 1932). In any case, it was an extraordinary event. And he fell in love (after all) with a woman much younger than himself. Such a plot seemed at least «biologically» justified and therefore acceptable. Well, the heroine, winding her gray hair around the buttons of a young lover (Guy de Maupassant «Dear Friend», 1885), could only cause pity or disgust. And such a view of things seemed not only correct, but the only possible one. And suddenly something happened.
The first signs of Soviet cinema — «Office Romance» (1978) and «Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears» (1980) — made a lot of noise. Mature woman finds new love! With more or less the same age. And their children are already adults … The era has changed. What’s next? In the television series Friends (1994–2004), six thirty-plus characters were still looking for their mate.
Then came the film «Sex and the City» (2008), the heroines of which were born around the same time as «Friends». But a decade has passed — and they are already over forty. They are still searching, falling in love with one or the other. Today, in the series for intellectuals House (Universal Channel), In Treatment (HBO) and Lie to Me (Channel One), we again meet couples where both partners are over forty.
And, revealingly, love in them is no longer the main storyline. Which indicates that this phenomenon has become common. It no longer has to be the focus of our attention. Series and action movies are a good indicator of public consciousness. Popular genres are the first to respond to changing trends and are the fastest to meet new demands. Recently released action movie «RED». Beauty Helen Mirren, born in 1945, runs around with a grenade launcher, and in her free time from shooting she attends social receptions. The makeup on her face does not hide the wrinkles.
But when the partner, gently hugging her in the dance, asks: “Tell me, do you love me?” — I believe that it really interests him very much. It’s touching, maybe melodramatic. But not funny and not tragic. Have we finally believed that both women and men can love each other … not just at any age — but in general, no matter how old they are? Or has life just become so long that some stages begin to repeat in it?