Watching The Time of Their Lives reminded me of the ancient Greek myth about Narcissus. Narcissus was a beautiful young man who became so enamoured of his own beauty that he endlessly gazed at himself in the glassy surface of a lake until, one day, he fell into the lake and drowned.
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In The Time of Their Lives, Joan Collins, a real life ageing Hollywood star, plays an ageing has-been Hollywood star, Helen, who searches for her fountain of youth only to find a cesspool of regrets.
In her quest to regain her youthfulness, she is joined inadvertently by a British housewife, Priscilla (Pauline Collins), who is unhappy in her marriage and life generally.
The film begins with old people being herded for a day trip to the beach. It depicts them as a doddery bunch who are nothing more than a nuisance.
The director does set them up that way so he can then proceed to look at them more kindly.
Helen escapes an aged care facility and Priscilla flees her marriage prison. Together, they head to France and gradually, as they become friends, reveal secrets and incidents in their respective lives that changed them irrevocably.
When the films centres on Helen and Priscilla, we see a sympathetic view of people as they age and almost become invisible to society.
Along the way, an older Italian man wearing pyjamas, Alberto (Franco Nero), who turns out to be more than a silly old man with no fashion sense who drives an aged Peugeot, helps them in unexpected ways.
The significant people in this film are of considerable age. Even the car is old. Unlike a fine wine, they, especially Helen’s toxic manner, haven’t improved with age.
Helen tries to charm Alberto, while he pursues Priscilla and helps her uncover a sense of self-worth and hidden desires. These desires extend beyond the wrinkles and saggy body to reveal beauty that is more than skin deep.
At one stage in the film, Joan Collins, as Helen and herself, strips away the facade of youth manufactured by layers of foundation make-up, false eyelashes, a wig and thick lipstick to show both the actress and the character in an honest revelation of age.
The film is loaded with sentiment and, at times, an overbearing emotional soundtrack. It might not appeal to a wide-ranging audience due to it’s age-specific focus, but it examines what it means, personally and socially, to get old, and how the physical deterioration of the face and body doesn’t mean that a person is insignificant and should fade into the shadows.
