{"id":984,"date":"2016-05-31T16:26:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=984"},"modified":"2017-08-08T19:31:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T18:31:56","slug":"the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2016\/05\/31\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"The Screening Room: old age, loneliness and cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Loneliness,\u00a0and Belonging in the\u00a0Age of\u00a0Photoshop<\/strong><\/p>\n

Short film, directed by Amjad Abu Ala<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Review by Professor Robert C Abrams, Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a world of life portrayed in the few brief minutes of the poignant but joyous short film, \u2018Studio\u2019, by Amjad Abu Ala (in Arabic with English subtitles).\u00a0 The film is an affecting portrayal of loneliness in old age and the restorative grace of fantasy.\u00a0 Through its brevity and intensity it delivers the kind of impact one feels from a tightly crafted short story, where there are no extraneous words or gestures and everything tells.<\/p>\n

\u2018Studio\u2019 opens as a man in late middle age stares intently ahead: \u00a0More on him is to follow later.\u00a0 The scene shifts quickly\u2014as it must, since this film runs for barely 8 minutes\u2013to a view of a photographer\u2019s portrait studio, followed in rapid succession by several of the photographer\u2019s clients posing against a neutral background. They comprise a random but somehow representative sample of humanity. The photographer himself is introduced as a kind of hipster-businessman, a young man immersed in the photo-technology in which reality can be wondrously manipulated.<\/p>\n

First on deck is a young woman anxiously fretting over her appearance, followed by a shy little boy, with abundant budding confidence, who seems destined for a happy life surrounded by a loving family.\u00a0 The subsequent characters are mostly young people.<\/p>\n

Eventually the older man returns, this time with a peculiar request.\u00a0 He asks the photographer to replace the patriarchal figure in a family group portrait with an image of himself.\u00a0 The wife, son, daughter, and grandson in the original portrait are now to become, with a couple of clicks on a mouse, his new \u201cfamily.\u201d But the old man encounters a technical problem: for such a momentous transformation, the background of his own \u2018family photo\u2019 must have exactly the right color and texture before it is \u2018photo-shopped\u2019 into the collage. Like everyone else, however, he must settle for what is available.<\/p>\n

That the loneliness of old age is the principal theme here is readily apparent, and one appreciates how it can surpass in its depth of suffering the anxiety of younger adulthood, exemplified by the self-preoccupied young woman. In his innocent appeal, the old man manages to persuade the skeptical young photographer to go along in altering reality.<\/p>\n

The older man\u2019s stance evokes a particular passage from Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s celebrated novel, Never Let Me Go,<\/em><\/strong> where the protagonist asserts that if, nearing death, you have no happy memories upon which to reflect, it is justifiable to \u201cborrow\u201d them from someone else and regard them as your own.<\/p>\n

\u2018Studio\u2019 is also a story of the photographer\u2014revealing as much about the observer as the observed.\u00a0 The photographer does not seem to think of himself as an artist, and that he is primarily in business is emphasized by shots of the window of his studio featuring advertisements for his services. \u00a0The photographer, who starts out with a brisk \u201ctime is money\u201d stance, evolves over the few minutes of the film, moved by the pathos and urgency of his client\u2019s request. \u00a0When the photographer is able to identify with the older man on a human level, the request to construct an imagined family no longer strikes him, nor ourselves the viewers, as outlandish.\u00a0 Perhaps the photographer considers whether the older man could be widowed, grieving, estranged from or abandoned by his \u201creal\u201d family, and there is nothing laughable or ironic about created families.<\/p>\n

The young photographer also appears to have realized that his work, whether intended as art or as commerce, has the potential to console. The healing effects of art are thus implied, as is the possibility that the old man can be immortalized in the finished photo: that product now exists, it is real, and it will stand forever as proof that he was once the progenitor of a loving family.<\/p>\n

By end of the film the photographer\u2019s smile (now he\u2019s part of the portrait too) reveals his feeling of kinship with the older man. They are both in the business of life, though at different phases. Two lives have now been altered by the clicks of that mouse.<\/p>\n

After the old man carries his treasure, the portrait of his \u201cfamily,\u201d through deserted streets with high, whitewashed walls that further speak to loneliness, the film closes with a few unforgettable lines about the principal dread of old age, loneliness. In common with physical pain, it is felt most keenly at night when there are no moderating distractions. \u00a0\u201cWhen sleep refuse\u2026\/my eyes stay awake. \/even that shadow. Left me alone, \/Please shadow. don\u2019t leave me alone.”<\/p>\n

To view the film, please access https:\/\/vimeo.com\/52411016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Address for correspondence: rabrams@med.cornell.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Loneliness,\u00a0and Belonging in the\u00a0Age of\u00a0Photoshop Short film, directed by Amjad Abu Ala   Review by Professor Robert C Abrams, Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York There is a world of life portrayed in the few brief minutes of the poignant but joyous short film, \u2018Studio\u2019, by Amjad Abu Ala (in Arabic […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Screening Room: old age, loneliness and cinema - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2016\/05\/31\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Screening Room: old age, loneliness and cinema - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Loneliness,\u00a0and Belonging in the\u00a0Age of\u00a0Photoshop Short film, directed by Amjad Abu Ala   Review by Professor Robert C Abrams, Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York There is a world of life portrayed in the few brief minutes of the poignant but joyous short film, \u2018Studio\u2019, by Amjad Abu Ala (in Arabic [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2016\/05\/31\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-31T15:26:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-08T18:31:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"The Screening Room: old age, loneliness and cinema\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-31T15:26:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-08T18:31:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":816,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Film and Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/31\\\/the-screening-room-old-age-loneliness-and-cinema\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Screening Room: old age, loneliness and cinema - 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