Why is it that when someone says “sex” our ears perk up, and when someone says “age” we tend to tune out?

Actually sex and age have a lot in common.

• Both are three letter words.
• How you relate to each of them is dependent on your attitude.
• Your attitude toward each depends in great part on the attitude of your environment, what you were raised to believe.
• What you get out of sex and out of age is influenced by what you put into each.
• You control how you live with both your age and with sex.

Having an intimate relationship can improve your health and longevity.  – Just be sure to practice safe sex.

Bonnie AgeEsteemers, Happiness at Every Age, Health Factors age, attitude, intimate relationship, longevity, safe sex, sex

At The Movies

Superb  ****    Very Good  ***     Good  **      Mediocre   *    Forget It  -

Why Not ?

The Back-up Plan (Le Plan B) ** Jennifer Lopez just can’t find the man of her dreams, so she gets pregnant by artificial insemination. And then she meets Mr. Right (Alex O’Loughlin) – what else? Actually their chemistry is pretty good, but will he commit? Can she hang in there? Romantic comedies are difficult to pull off just right, and some of the side shows here don’t gel – the women’s group is a useless bore – must we constantly hear the “v” word and assist in prolonged births? But Jaylo is lovely and O’Loughlin is surprisingly good.

Imogène   *1/2 (vo French)     Here’s another one of the silly, minor comedies that France keeps grinding out, which is no better than banal TV fare. Such top actors as Catherine Frot and Lambert Wilson are wasted here with all the required overacting. It’s a limp spy farce and no more.

At your own Risk

Camping 2   *1/2 (vo French)     The first one was fresh and such fun – a super summer holiday. Like most sequels, this one falls flat with a silly script and humdrum characters who go nowhere. Too bad, for there are good actors here.

Chaque jour est une fête  *1/2 (vo Arab)     The scenario is everything and this one, about a busload of women going to visit their men in prison, lacks any verve or finesse. The fine actress Hiam Abbas can’t do much without the right structure or direction.

Street Dance  *1/2 Some good dancing, forget the story and wish they would stop with those cumbersome 3D glasses. Who needs it!

Date Night (Crazy Night) * Here’s another foolish, embarrassing dud of a “comedy”. Tiny Fey was wonderful as Sarah Palin, but her range doesn’t go much further – or is it the awful script and direction? The only thing that shines is a moment of Mark Wahlberg, with his amazing body and cool poker face.

Mammuth  * (vo French)      And then there’s this Depardieu “event” that’s gotten lots of positive press. Don’t bother. Like the avant-garde works of the 60s, it’s framed by sloppy, grainy, shaky camerawork that follows the action mainly from behind Depardieu’s head – that’s not the way our eyes see the world, so why should film do it?! This is the story of a loser – un con (excuse my French) – who goes on a road trip looking for documents that he needs for his retirement. But he is utterly inept. What’s the use of glorifying stupidity? Some fine co-stars along the way – Benoît Poelvoorde and Anna Mouglalis – supply moments of respite to the dullness. What a waste of talents such as Depardieu, Adjani and Yolande Moreau!

Neptune Ingwersen

Bonnie Au Cinema, Entertainment & Fun Adjani, Alex O'Loughlin, Anna Mouglalis, Benoit Poelvoorde, Catherine Frot, Depardieu, Hiam Abbas, Jennifer Lopez, Lambert Wilson, movies, Neptune Ingwesen, Sarah Palin, Tiny Fey, Yolande Moreau

Lavender for Age Esteem

Do you remember the song, “Lavender blue dilly, dilly, lavender green…”?

The lavender plant usually blooms in June-July with the vibrant purple flowers covering fields.  Carpets of lavender blooms highlight areas of Provence in southern France, England and in many other places adding dashes of color to gardens and backyards.

This lovely plant also has a sweet fragrance and calming effect on the nervous system.  Lavender has many uses in treating medical conditions as well as in making cosmetic products and even in food!

Aromatic oils are extracted from the various parts of the plants to use in aromatherapy.  -  A way of healing which utilizes the scent and medicinal properties of the plant. Forms of aromatherapy have existed since the very beginning of civilization.

Lavender essential oil is the most versatile of all the essential oils and is very beneficial for high blood pressure, stress, bronchitis and muscular pains.  These conditions can be treated by soaking in a warm bath of lavender oil or lavender bubble bath, or with a massage using the essential oil.

Lavender is also used in perfume and in beauty products. Even in this way the perfume can be beneficial for medical conditions as well as giving off  a beautiful scent.

Finally, the lavender flower may enhance a delicious crême brulée or even a cake.
So enjoy this aromatic plant and look and feel wonderful at the same time.  It can help to enhance your age-esteem.

Grandma Nature

Bonnie Health Factors, Nourishing Factors age-esteem, AgeEsteem, aromatherapy, lavender, perfume, Provence

At The Movies

Superb  ****    Very Good  ***     Good  **      Mediocre   *    Forget It  -

Worth your While

Cinco Dias Sin Nora (Nora’s Will) *** (vo Spanish)     Mexican director Mariana Chenillo charms and amuses with this wry drama about a woman who plans her own wake. It features a stubborn atheist ex-husband who gets stuck with arranging the funeral while the local rabbi wants to take over the corpse. It’s Passover, the table has been set and the maid is preparing the Seder meal that the woman has left in the fridge. Close friends and the son and his family are arriving while the ex begins to discover some long-hidden facts about their past. Fernando Lujàn is fine as the husband in this revealing gem of a social comedy of errors.

Solutions locales pour un désordre global  *** (vo French)     From the socially-crusading director Coline Serreau, of such films as La Belle Verte, La Crise and Chaos, this documentary is a vital message about the killing of the soil and our atmosphere as a result of pesticides that have been disingenuously forced down the throats of farmers of the world by huge conglomerates (such as Monsanto, the biggest and most ruthless of them all). To put it in a nutshell, when you next sit down at the table, instead of saying good appetite, say good luck! That’s how far we’ve come in this battle between money and common sense. Serreau has a myriad of experts and workers tell of the perils of pesticides and the possible solutions. Both frightening and hopeful, this is an important, informative film for all who care about their health and that of our earth. (The site: www.solutionslocales-lefilm.com.)

Cold Souls (Âmes en Stock) *** Sophie Barthes directs this weird, metaphysical film about a depressed actor (Paul Giamatti playing himself – like Malkovich in the film Being John Malkovich) who decides to store his soul with a specialized company in N.Y that keeps them in vaults. But things get complicated when it is trafficked to Russia (in the shape of a chickpea!) and borrowed by the spoiled wife of an oligarch. Something between a farce and a serious metaphor on the state of our lives in a morally and financially corrupt world, this is both touching and amusing – a tongue-in-cheek change from big Hollywood productions.

Rabia *** (vo Spanish)     Here’s another fine film from the southern hemisphere – this time from Ecuadorian director Sebastian Cordero via Columbia/Spain. A love story between two South American immigrants in Spain turns perilous when the man, who is tired of being treated as a second-class citizen, accidentally kills his foreman and then hides out in the huge house where his girlfriend is working as a maid. This is a torturous study of an upstairs/downstairs situation, with tension that is palpable and an outcome that is like a Greek tragedy still valid in our modern times.

L’amour c’est mieux à deux  **1/2 (vo French)     It’s trés French, it’s a sweet romantic comedy, and it has the always charming Clovis Cornillac (powerful in dramas such as A la petite semaine or hilarious in Brice de Nice) along with an adorable Virginie Efira as the girl he wants to fall in love with, but only accidentally! You’ll see – check it out for a heartwarming feeling…

Neptune Ingwersen

Bonnie Au Cinema, Entertainment & Fun Clovis Cornillac, Coline Serreau, Fernando Lujan, Mariana Chenillo, movies, Neptune Ingwersen, Paul Giamatti, Sebastian Cordero, Sophie Barthes

Many of the films for May/June are from around the world: France, Spain, Argentina, Switzerland, Norway, Mexico, United States.  I no longer dare call them foreign films since AgeEsteem readers come from most areas of the globe so many films will be foreign to most.

Films are a wonderful escape into another world and other lives far removed from our own, or perhaps not so different.   They are good for our age-esteem.

• We continue to learn through movies.  They stimulate our minds.
• Going to a theater is a social event, as is watching a DVD with friends.  We share the film and our impressions and reactions.
• Films often make us laugh or cry.  Laughter is a great preventive medicine..  Crying is also a good release that rids us of toxins.
• Films help keep us abreast of what is ‘in’.
• Watching films can be an intergenerational activity.  It offers us the occasion to ask questions and to learn from others, including small children and teens.

Research also shows that to watch a film in another language, whether or not we read subtitles, helps to connect our mental neurons in new ways.

Bonnie Across-generations, Au Cinema age-esteem, AgeEsteem, films, foreign films, intergenerational, laughter, social event

At The Movies

Superb  ****    Very Good  ***     Good  **      Mediocre   *    Forget It  -

Unmissables

El Secreto De Sus Ojos ( The Secret in their Eyes) **** (vo Spanish)  It seemed an upset when The White Ribbon from Austria/Germany did not receive the best foreign film Oscar and this Argentinean film picked it up instead. Well, I just saw the film and am still in awe as I write this. Using flashbacks to some 25 years ago, director Juan José Campanella has woven an elegant tale of love, injustice, loyalty and empty lives around a crime of rape and murder that was never quite resolved. This intricate account is exceptional on many levels. It’s about a retired justice official (Ricardo Darin) who is writing a novel on the unsolved crime that will not leave his mind. It’s a love story that has remained locked in the hearts of the two colleagues (Darin and Soledad Villamil) involved in the old investigation. It’s a reminder of the duplicity and power politics of revolving-door governments. And above all, it’s a manifestation of the exquisite quality of South American and especially Argentinean cinema – the dialogue, direction, the subtlety of the acting, cinematography and editing – you name it, they excel.

Une Exécution Ordinaire  **** (vo French)  During the last days of Stalin’s life, an infernal triangle forms between a doctor who has extraordinary healing powers in her hands, her physicist husband and the father of the country himself, who summons her to alleviate his pains. Marina Hinds continues her brilliance (after her tender portrayal of Lady Chatterley) as the frightened healer, while André Dussollier becomes Stalin, in all his power, ruthlessness and enigma. This is quite an intimate foray into what was the terrible pressure on common citizens under Stalin’s vicious reign. With great sensitivity and discretion, the multi-awarded writer Marc Dugain directs here his first film based on his own book. Impressive!

Romans d’Ados 1- 4  **** (vo French)   Béatrice Bakhti as director and her husband Nasser as producer, backed by the Swiss TSR, have created an exhaustive documentary about a group of teenagers in Yverdon whom they followed from the ages of 12 to 18. This is an amazing, caring work about personable characters as well as a psychological quest through the turmoil of growing-up. The families give of themselves completely, without inhibition, while the individual teenagers grow on us with their emotional disclosures. The four episodes of approximately two hours each are as gripping as any fine work of fiction, beautifully filmed, paced and edited, as well as being important pedagogically. This is truly a revelatory tour-de-force of courage, pain and joy in a cycle of continuity.

Troubled Water (En Eaux Troubles)  ***1/2 (vo Norwegian)  A kidnapping gone terribly wrong and the guilt over a child’s death are shown from two points of view – that of the kidnapper who has been released from prison and that of the child’s mother. Brilliantly and delicately balanced, it bares the truest of reactions on all sides – responsibility, revenge, redemption – casting the spectator in the role of Solomon. The acting is superb all around (young Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen has the makings of a world star – might help to drop a few of those names) and the Norwegian director, Eric Poppe, grabs our attention from the first tentative minutes till the end, using music as a balm for so much sorrow.

Moon  ***1/2 Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) has deservedly picked up a slew of awards for this first feature film, a science-fiction tale about a lone man on the moon who works for a company that extracts helium for energy use on earth. Impatiently waiting for the end of his three-year stint, he begins to have delusions that develop into some sinister realities. Sam Rockwell is excellent, as is the voice of Kevin Spacey as Gerty, his indispensable computer. There are obvious shades of Kubrick’s Hal and 2001, A Space Odyssey, though this one is a far more personal, engrossing and well-written version of what can happen up there. Sorry Stanley, but I never could warm to that film of yours.

Robin Hood (Robin des Bois) *** The dynamic Oscar-winning duo of Ridley Scott as director and Russell Crowe as star are back again (They’ve done Gladiator, A Good Year,  American Gangster and A Body of Lies together.), this time with an old classic which they’ve decided to turn on its head, by telling it as a historical prequel. You will be surprised, for this is not your everyday outlaw-in-green-tights. As Crowe (who’s also producer this time) puts it, “It’s anarchy, violence and adrenaline… with an instinctively heroic Robin Hood who could have really existed…With research you discover the story is probably based on up to 30 real people” in the late 12th century when King Richard the Lionhearted was returning from the Crusades. With a top-notch cast including Cate Blanchett and Max Von Sydow, it blends history, grand battle scenes (the one of the French invasion at the cliffs of Dover is reminiscent of the sea landing in Saving Private Ryan), the struggle between royal power and a just social order and a tender love story growing between Robin and Lady Marion. As always, Crowe is simply riveting.

La Tête en friche  *** (vo French)  Jean Becker tends to make nostalgic films of bucolic friendships, such as his Les Enfants du Marais or Dialogue avec mon Jardinier. This one, with the monumental Gérard Depardieu (the Marlon Brando of France, in so many ways), is a wonderfully gentle tale of a simple man who meets an elderly lady (Sophie Guillemin) on a park bench and gradually becomes what he could have been, through her love of books. It’s moving, amusing and so human, with an array of quirky characters. Don’t listen to the negativism of snob critics.

Kick-Ass  *** How can one say that a film is entertaining and super fun if it’s also terribly violent, with an 11-year-old girl who ends up pulverizing more men than Schwarzenegger?! But it is brilliantly done, which makes it that much more dangerous for the kids who will end up seeing it. It’s smart and a treat on various levels – the reality of being a nerdy teenager, the fantasy of becoming a super-hero, and the collision of a criminal gang (headed by Mark Strong), a surrealistic father/daughter revenge machine (Nicolas Cage and Chloe Moretz) and the wannabe Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson). British Matthew Vaughn (producer of Guy Ritchie’s films and husband of Claudia Schiffer) does an amazing job of creating thrills and comedy drenched in violence. I guess you could just say it’s kick-ass…

Neptune Ingwersen 

Bonnie Au Cinema, Entertainment & Fun, Uncategorized Beatrice Bakhti, cinema, Duncan Jones, Gerard Depardieu, Juan Jose Campanella, Marc Dugain, Marina Hinds, Matthew Vaughn, movies, Neptune Ingwersen, Nicolas Cage, Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen, Ricardo Darin, Ridley Scott Russell Crowe, Sophie Guillemin, Stalin

Susan Barber 65

Esteem means to honor and so I’ve always esteemed age.  My grandfather was mayor in Birmingham and he was my great model.  Three of my dearest friends, my dad, a friend in India and another in New York all lived into their 90s.  And I held the hands of two of them as they passed on, which I understand is a great gift because it means that they chose you to be the passage to heaven.

I’ve never been very involved in age because I’ve always felt I was very old, even when I was five.  I’ve never understood people who say what number of years people are because you can find 35 year old people who are seemingly dead to living and some friends 89 I know are very active.  AgeEsteem seems to bring great respect.  This seems to be something that is not very strong in America.  I was admiring Madonna the other day because she’s doing a book now because she’s 50.  She’s saying that Americans don’t think there’s life thereafter.

Susan’s tips:  The people I know who are in their 90s and very alive and very active love this life.  They love young people; they love to learn; and they all have religion as a very integral part of their being, Christianity, but it could be any religion.  So those are the inspirations for me every day.  What I can learn in life and who I can learn from.  Who I enjoy as people.  I think we have to live with society.  Of course we all wish for good health because that is a pathway to aging well.

Susan Barber who resides in New York specializes in marketing European hotels.

Bonnie AgeEsteemers, Secrets to AgeEsteem active, AgeEsteem, aging well, esteem, Madonna, religion, respect, Susan Barber, young people

Nutritious Tidbits to feel better at the age you are today, every day:

• Olive oil: Never cook with extra virgin olive oil which should not be on high heat. Use regular olive oil cold pressed for frying on high heat.
• Milk: Use low fat milk.
• Oatmeal: Add walnuts and dried cranberries when cooking oatmeal. Top with brown sugar, maple syrup or honey.
• Juices: Always check to see that juices, in any form, do not have additional sugar added. Fruits already have a lot of sugar when pressed.  It is healthier to eat the fruit than drink the juice.
• Kiwi: Kiwi is an excellent source of vitamin C.
• Vitamin C and calcium are both good for controlling blood pressure.
• Cramps in your legs?  It may indicate lack of magnesium.  Halibut, dry roasted almonds and spinich are a few excellent sources of magnesium.
• Today’s consensus is that we should eat 5 fruits and vegetables daily.

Grandma Nature

Bonnie Health Factors age, feel better, nutritious

Maureen Bell, 53, Canada

When I hear Age Esteem I think of being happy with who you are whatever.  Just being happy with who you are so that when you are 14 you don’t wish you were 21 and when you’re 50 not wishing you were 40. It’s living your life as it is, enjoying what you’re doing and not being conscious of how old you are.

Maureen’s Tips: I can’t say that I’m doing anything to prepare for my own age esteem other than living.  I never think, “Well I’m too old.”  I go and do it.  I ran the 10K because I realized I hadn’t run the 10K for awhile and it would be a fun thing to do.  I enjoyed the race and it got me onto a whole new level so that I started doing other things too.  I don’t really think about how old I am.  When it sort of comes to mind when I have a birthday and I add it up in my head I think, “Oh, gee, I’m older.”  It doesn’t bother me.

Maureen Bell is a financial specialist and treasure of the World YWCA.

Bonnie Secrets to AgeEsteem age-esteem, Canada, happy with who you are, Maureen Bell, World YWCA

Having fun and meeting with people of different generations keeps us up to date on what is happening in the world as seen from other age groups.  It also gives us opportunities to share from our own point of view.

A delightful way to meet with others is through traditions that we share.  The tradition of having an annual family picnic to celebrate the national holiday creates memories for each member of the family.

If you don’t have a family, borrow neighbors and friends to create an intergenerational tradition.  Here are some ideas.

• Organize a treasure hunt mixing ages on each team.  It is a great way to learn to value the qualities of others as you follow clues that demand creativity, logic, technical skills, physical agility…  Different members get to shine at different moments.  You can be certain that it will become a tradition as participants beg to have another.
• Produce a play and perform it for friends and neighbors each summer.  All ages can work together as actors, prompters, ticket sellers…  You can perform outdoors or in a garage.
• Orchestrate a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  Each person can arrive with a homemade hat or you can encourage them to bring material, ribbon, paper, flowers and food like string beans with them for everyone to share while they make their hats on the spot.  You can also break them into teams to make one hat among them which is then modeled and judged.  Be sure to have a judge from each age group on the jury.

Ideas are endless.  Fly kites.  Line dance.  Have a day at the beach.  Organize a spelling contest.  You will be surprised how much fun it can be to begin an intergenerational tradition.

Bonnie Across-generations, Happiness at Every Age celebrate, intergenerational, Mad Hatter's Tea Party, memories, traditions, treasure hunt