Sunflowers are majestic. They shine like a reflection of the sun. And like people with age esteem, they become models for others. They are looked up to as something of beauty and wonder. They share many lessons with us.
Bonnie Fatio
It always puts a smile on my face to see fields of sunflowers in bloom. They have such a generous attitude. The sunflower not only shares its beauty as it lifts its face to the sun as though laughing with joy. – It also provides a landing field for all kinds of airborne insects from bumble bee to butter fly who in turn spread the flower’s pollen.
This is easily understood by people with age esteem. Age-esteemers also have an attitude of generosity.
Bonnie Fatio
The sunflower is beautiful! – Not because it is perfect, but because it shines with a natural beauty both in the sunshine and the shade. In fact, the sunflower brightens any setting. It raises its head with confidence and brings a happy glow to the world.
Age-esteemers bring their happy glow to the world as well, as they find ways to brighten the days of others.
Bonnie Fatio
The sunflower is a wonderful teacher. Even before it opens into all of its splendor, it teaches us that
Age esteem is also like the sunflower. It grows out of that glow on the inside.
Bonnie Fatio
Some people may say that the new 65 is the new 45. It isn’t. The new 65 is the NEW 65! – And this is just one glimpse of what it looks like.
Today’s 65ers are visiting new places, testing new limits, and living exciting adventures like my friend Evie shown here sliding in a Costan Rica rain forest. Evie is also among those who are constantly seeking unique ways to contribute their talents to society and she volunteers her time in a local shelter. – A 65er full of Age Esteem!
Bonnie Fatio
Bonnie Fatio, founder of AgeEsteem, will speak at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland on Does Age Matter? on September 7.
Age is important to the work of the WHO. In 2007 WHO created the Department of Ageing and Life Course (ACL). ACL focuses on helping people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental well-being throughout the life course and to participate in society, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they need it.
AgeEsteem is aligned with the WHO in its focus to help people to realize their potential. Age esteem is an essential element to remaining healthy and reaching your potential as you age no matter where on our globe you live.
AT YOUR OWN RISK
Les Petits ruisseaux *1/2 (vo French) A film about an oldie discovering life after his buddy dies and leaves a collection of funky nude paintings. Pleasant but quickly forgotten.
L’Age de raison *1/2 (vo French) A career woman’s childhood comes back to haunt her in letters arriving from herself as a child. Go figure. If the film were as good as Sophie Marceau, we would have one gorgeous movie.
L’Italien *1/2 (vo French) Kad Merad is everywhere these days, but is he really that talented or attractive? This repetitive tale of double identity is neither as deep nor as amusing as it wants to be, nor is Merad charismatic enough to carry it.
Insoupçonnable * (vo French) Two rich brothers; a new girl and her “brother” enter their life; they all live the high life in Geneva. This is supposed to be an elegant thriller; it’s unfortunately only an embarrassing film noir caricature. What is the fine actor, Charles Berling doing here?
Film socialisme - (vo French) This is just a collage of badly-filmed banalities masquerading as art and intellect, for Jean-Luc Godard has been riding on his association with the Nouvelle Vague all these years with very little talent. He did have a few novelties in the early 60s (A Bout de Souffle), but few new ideas or emotions since then. Heresy! – I know, but it’s a case of the emperor’s new clothes…
Enter the Void - If you’re into drugs, psychedelic nightmares or 60s-style abandon, this is your cup of tea. The title says it all – you’ll be entering empty, boring, vulgar garbage. And it’s directed by Gaspar Noé, the man responsible for the ultraviolent, indigestible Irrévérsible. Forget it.
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Why not?
Tournée (On Tour) ** (vo French and English) Desperately trying for a comeback, a failed entrepreneur (Mathieu Amalric – actor and director) brings a troupe of buxom, feminist showgirls from the U.S. over to France. Going from one sleazy joint to another, they begin to get to know each other better. It’s at times touching and gritty, at other times merely depressing and degrading. Shades of Cassavetes.
The Karate Kid ** This franchised film is simplistically obvious and too long and slow, but Jacky Chan is a cutie and Will Smith’s son, Jaden Smith, is a true and striking talent as the new kid on the block – watch him rise.
Crime d’amour *1/2 (vo French) With Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier overacting to the hilt, this crime thriller à la All About Eve is entertaining but a bit too slick to be convincing.
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Movies are good for us. They help to enhance our Age Esteem.
Why not enjoy a good movie today?
WORTH YOUR WHILE
When you’re Strange ***1/2 Narrated by Johnny Depp, this illuminating documentary by Tom DiCillo (the cool director of such films as Johnny Suede and Living in Oblivion) once again opens up the world of the Doors and their charismatic lead singer Jim Morrison, who played so hard with life, music, women and drugs that he was dead by age 27. It’s as though he wanted to reach for immortality through fame cut-short, like Dean, Hendrix and Joplin. Moving and exhilarating.
Copacabana *** (vo French) Isabelle Huppert often plays cold, twisted characters, but here she is terribly human and simply fun-loving. A caring but basically irresponsible mother who realizes that she has to change to gain back her daughter’s respect, she decides to take a job up in Belgium, selling apartments in a god-forsaken coastal town. Amusing and touching, Huppert is at her most vulnerable in years in this tongue-in-cheek film by Marc Fitoussi.
Frontier Blues *** (vo Farsi) This languid, strangely poetic film from Iran features various characters living in the northern Turkman region of that country. With very little dialogue, we encounter an uncle who runs a deserted boutique and his weird nephew who loves a donkey. There’s a photographer from Tehran who has come to capture the mood of area through a local musician and his entourage of four kids. And there’s also a young man who works on a poultry farm and is learning English so he can leave to the city, maybe with the pretty girl he desires but has not yet spoken to nor convinced to marry him. Slow, contemplative and quite hypnotic, Babak Jalali’s film pulls you into this lonely, Jim Jarmusch-like universe with gentle humor. But you must have patience to savor it fully.
Knight and Day **1/2 If you like action, thrills and charm, you can’t miss with this wild and funny ride starring Tom Cruise as a super spy on the run and Cameron Diaz as his unwilling but talented sidekick, directed by James Mangold of Walk the Line. Don’t listen to the sour critics who may still be negative about Cruise – the man has talent, presence and charisma. And these two make an exciting pair.
Inception **1/2 “Pure creation” is what Ellen Page’s character calls these illusions of dreams and reality mixed in various layers. Leonardo DiCaprio, playing an expert at invading others’ dreams – whether planting an idea or stealing one – is on a mission to instill a germ of an idea in a magnate’s mind. But he and his crew may have misjudged the many dream levels and the dangers of descending too deeply into this strange limbo of possibilities… Are you following this? Director Christopher Nolan makes smart, intricate films (such as Memento, in which the story goes backwards, or the powerful Dark Knight) but this one is too convoluted for its own good. It gets lost in mind-bending special effects which serve no purpose but to inflate the director’s ego and often lose the audience in the process. Do we really need the lengthy James Bond-like snow chases and all those blown-up grocery stores or foldable buildings in Paris? Give me clever mind games rather than exaggerated pyrotechnics any day.
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