‘The roses are long gone but the chrysanthemums are magnificent’: Late-life Creativity in Quartet and Youth

Abstract

This article employs Boden's (2004) understanding that creativity can be defined in terms of both ‘big C creativity’ associated with high culture and ‘small c creativity’ concerned with constructive, life-affirming strategies in its comparative study of the films Quartet (2012) and Youth (2015) focusing on their representations of ageing artists and musicians and the ways in which each film suggests that life experience informs artistic endeavour and vice versa. With each film based on varying scenarios of late-life ‘big C creativity’, the article explores the contrasts with ‘small c creativity’ that are suggested in storylines. The article argues that to varying degrees and with different ideological implications each film points to the importance of relationality and embodiment in late-life creativity.