Thanks to an article on BBC.com, we now know that the vast majority of moviegoers would prefer not to see people post-60 having sex onscreen. This fact dovetails with the vast majority of people post-60 who would prefer not to watch themselves having sex. In spite of this, filmmakers have lately started to encroach on this verboten territory. This is significant for two reasons. One is that this is the first time Life in the Boomer Lane has used the word "verboten" in a post. The second is that as more films choose to show elder sex, one of the few remaining barriers in film may come down.
As more and more awareness is thrust upon elder sex by boomer sites and articles ("Why Elder Sex is Best Sex Ever!" "Why Boomers Have the Best Sex on the Planet!" "I started to Have Wild Sex Only After Age 70!"), it's inevitable that the idea of elder sex should morph into the actual vision of elder sex.
This is a major change in the way elder sex has been shown up until now. While there have been movies involving sex among mature people, they have mostly shown:
Implied sex, behind a closed bedroom door, and then someone makes pancakes in the morning.
Older man/younger woman sex provided by any older actor and any younger actress who doesn't notice that she is having sex with her grandfather.
Older woman/younger man sex provided by some still-great looking older actress and some random young guy who thinks older women must have vast collections of sex toys.
Sex between two 50-year-olds who are still too young to qualify as "elder" and who have sex under lots of sheets and blankets and the next morning the woman wakes up wearing a bra.
The article notes that "... even older viewers prefer to watch a sex scene with younger people in it -- it makes them forget that they're not young anymore."
That statement is being tested right now. You will soon be able to see what happens when two elders get it on, on camera. Andrew Haigh's new film "45 Years" just won a prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, who are in their late 60s and early 70s.
If the film is a success, we may not know whether it's because people are watching it for the sex, or in spite of the sex, or because LBL's legion of followers will read this post and immediately rush out and see the film.
The questions remain: Can older baby boomers, who, as everyone knows, are able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, reverse the preference for viewing only young sex?
And, will they still have pancakes in the morning?
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
