La flor de la vida

This is a film about love, related by people who should know: all the participants are at least 80 years old. Do they look back on a passionate life with many lovers, or were they in a stable marriage that lasted more than half a century? What starts out as a collection of interviews soon zooms in on the turbulent love lives of 83-year-old Aldo and his wife Gabriella. Aldo's narcissistic character has prompted him to record all the significant moments in their long life together in home videos. Not only are we transported through these stories, photos and videos into a world of nostalgia, but we also see Aldo watching the films of his life, including one of him as a young man kissing his newborn son. This evokes a familiar feeling of melancholy: being able to see what was, but not to touch it. When Aldo tells filmmakers Adriana Loeff and Claudia Abend that their visits are a welcome feature in his often empty days, it becomes painfully clear how growing older goes hand in hand with loneliness and loss.