La representación cinematográfica de la soledad en la vejezSelección de films

Abstract

Loneliness is a public health problem that affects particularly the elderly population because of their vital circumstances. Different investigations show associations between loneliness and depression, health problems and mortality. Movies are a way of representation and knowledge, an interesting tool to study psychosocial phenomena, like the manifestations of loneliness in old age. Objectives. To analyze psychosocial aspects from the elderly characters shown in the movies that deal with the loneliness topic. Method: Search of movies registered in Internet Movie Data Base, with the keywords loneliness, elderly, aging and old age. 62 movies were identified. The speeches of the 12 most relevant movies were analyzed through the study of the ideas included in the them. Thereon a psychosocial portrait of the elderly characters was built and scenes and dialogues associated to the feelings of loneliness and to lonely living were selected. Results. Issues such as social support, interpersonal relationships, family and care were perceived and represented. Conclusions. Loneliness is not a priority subject in the movies, even though it is an important social problem outside of the screens and the older female characters are a minority.