Travels and Transformation of the Existential Condition: Narratives and Representations in Films Starring the Elderly

Abstract Tourism acts as a catalyst for positive changes in the elderly lives by providing possibilities for socialization, escape from routine, knowledge of new realities and cultures. This paper investigates aging representations and narratives of transformation processes in cinema screenplays focused on travel experiences. Analyzing cultural texts such as music, books, advertisements, television programs and films contributes to an understanding of standards and social norms. This kind of research is quite unexplored on the tourism studies, but it is a fact that cinema has become a universal art capable of revealing deep and intimate aspects of society through its narratives and representations. We have selected four films which links elderly, travel and transformation for content analysis: “The Bucket List (2008)”, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)”, “Last Vegas (2013)” and “A Walk in the Woods (2015)”. Right after, we built three categories of analysis: 1) motivation and choice of experiences; 2) consumption; 3) aging and stigma. The final discussion is based on existential philosophy to identify the transformative role of travelling on the elderly lives presented on the movies. Travelling is shown as possibilities to create existential authenticity, as it is capable of decrease negative feelings such as anxiety, depression and physical and psychic isolation.

摘要：旅游业可作为催化剂，为老年人生活带来积极改变，为其创造社交、脱离日常常规、了解全新现实与文化的契机。本文聚焦以旅行体验为核心的电影剧本，探讨其中的老年形象表征与转型过程叙事。分析音乐、书籍、广告、电视节目与电影等文化文本，有助于理解社会标准与主流规范。这类研究在旅游研究领域尚未得到充分探索，但毋庸置疑，电影作为一种普适性艺术，可通过其叙事与形象表征，揭示社会深层且私密的面向。我们选取四部关联老年人、旅行与转型主题的电影开展内容分析：《遗愿清单》（"The Bucket List"，2008）、《涉外大酒店》（"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"，2011）、《最后的维加斯》（"Last Vegas"，2013）与《林中漫步》（"A Walk in the Woods"，2015）。随后我们构建了三类分析维度：1）体验的动机与选择；2）消费行为；3）老龄化与污名。最终的讨论基于存在主义哲学，旨在识别影片中呈现的旅行对老年人生活的转型作用。研究显示，旅行为人们创造存在本真性提供了可能，因其能够缓解焦虑、抑郁以及生理与心理隔绝等负面情绪。