I think he should write for a Hasidic Newsletter or some other religious group preaching abstinence. It would be the most successful campaign ever.

hahahahahahaha.... skin and ahg you gave me the laugh of the night!

"Do older people abdicate the right to be open about their physical and sexual needs because of the slackening of their skins and the onset of bunions?" - Yes. Apparently they do.

Newsflash: YOU are not an old person! If I see old people romancing each other, holding hands on the subway, exchanging kisses - I think it's absolutely lovely. Presumably these people have sex and they are as entitled to that experience as anyone else. But you manage to describe aging in the most unforgiving way, making it sound extremely unpleasant and then you claim to be celebrating the process. It's not the aging process that's distasteful, it's your treatment of it.

rampling is just as creepy as swanson... always horrible, has ruined many a film for me including STardust Memories and The verdict...

ahg: Because I treat it literally, acknowledging the less ecstatic truths about the body? So older people don't have to reckon with liver spots and vericose veins or swollen abdomens or dry crusty callouses? That's not a valid part of physical encounters? It's only the visually assonant that can be arousing? I find that more off-putting than a little bluntness about the temporal shortcomings of the body, which we have such a bad habit of idealizing and objectifying in the first place.

prof: Charlotte Rampling is pretty, but she's always been too boney. I'd smoke her cigarettes but I'd probably go for the young thing with the freckles in the Swimming Pool. A hypocrite to the last...

I guess you win today's "missed the point" award.

Does one have to "miss" a point just because they don't buy into it?

Nope. You miss the point because you somehow are positioning yourself as the old person's erotic champion, but you describe age in the most depressing and condescending way. I have friends in their 60's who, in their own words, "fuck like bunnies". I can guarantee that they don't see each other as a sagging heap of wrinkles and age spots.

You are not old. You don't have the trappings of age like children and grandchildren. What you appear to have is an obsession with skin imperfections.

Old people being sexually active is fabulous. Someone writing about it from a position of experience is pretty great too.

Reading a young mans writings about physical deterioration that he has yet to experience is distasteful.

Toluca - funny you should say that...

toluca: I'm not trying to turn anyone on by writing here. It's not like the language is made-up. Part of what makes those descriptors unappealing is their universal familiarness. We've all seen them at the beach, in hospitals, in the office etc. Bodies change with age. That idea is not a turn-off to me, but it's clearly a squeamish subject since some people seem revolted by such a literal description without any extra floralized writing to buffer the "eww" factor.

"Part of what makes those descriptors unappealing is their universal familiarness" and people apparently don't like that familiarness, which is a shame because it's part of reality. The grit and bones of your writing reminds me of Henry Miller, my favorite writer - simply because of the unattractive language he uses when describing life in general. He puts it all out there, the ugly and the beautiful. I think you're on the same train as him, which is a good thing - in case others feel the need to disagree.

People on this blog are way too hostile.

I think what jumps out in my mind at least about this post isn't the fact that Swanson is particularly old - she isn't, only 50 at the time of the film - it's that she's fucking CREEPY !!... Which just makes this whole thing kind of comical to me, Amboabe, the blog's resident Vincent Price. Also, no offense to Amboabe, but anyone that's ever actually READ Miller could not compare the two stylistically in any way... I mean, that's some major talking out of the ass there..

Oh Z, whatever you say.

Z: it's the part that was creepy, not the person playing the part, which is what I was attracted to.

spjv: Thanks. It's like fruit, just because there are bruises on the skin doesn't make the fruit any less desirable and sweet. Up until a point, anyway. The fuzzy line between ripe maturity and broken down mush is probably the sticking point of disgust, I reckon...

loob: I have no idea what you're doing here, but you keep coming back and back and back. Do you really believe anything you're saying? Who do you think you're fighting with? All these swipes at phantoms that aren't really there. Why do you need to actively wallow in the things you think are "shitass?" Are you waiting for someone else to parrot your thoughts so you can feel vindicated, finally? Less alone? I'll go first then. I'm a shitass writer. Wanna hug?