期刊名称：International Journal of Ageing and Later Life
印刷版ISSN：1652-8670
出版年度：2012
卷号：7
期号：2
页码：73-96
出版社：Linkoping University Electronic Press
摘要：This article looks at three recent films in which a person with dementia isthe principal character. These films have been chosen according to thefollowing criteria: representing different stages of dementia (early,moderate and advanced); films where the demented is the protagonist;and films challenging the biomedical view of dementia. Two of thecharacters are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease: the protagonist ofCortex (2008) is at a moderate stage, the one in Pandora’s Box (2008) isdiagnosed when already in advanced stage and the third, the protagonistof Old Cats (2010), while not officially diagnosed, is in early onset ofdementia. While the number of dementia films has significantly increasedduring the past decade, only a few access the subjective world andacknowledge the personhood of people with dementia. Made outside themainstream film industry, making elaborate use of cinematic image andmetaphor, these films, each in its own particular cinematic idiom, succeedin conveying the psychological, social and spiritual realities of dementia asthey are experienced from within the protagonist’s psyche. While notdenying the often bleak and painful aspects of dementia, these recent productions go against the grain, inspiring a complex, richly nuanced picture of dementia that centres around the protagonist’s stubbornly courageous struggle to forge a meaningful existence even in the direst of circumstances. These films, we believe, offer a richer and profound understating of the human aspects embedded in the phenomena of dementia.
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