With all the Licorice Pizza buzz and the related topic of May-December love affair flicks, I was startled to read about Richard Donner‘s Lola (aka Twinky), a 1970 dramedy about a 38 year-old novelist (Charles Bronson) falling for and marrying a 16 year-old (Susan George, actually 19 during filming). Looks awful! Bronson’s character writes porn novels (!).
A much better film in this vein was Bertrand Blier‘s Beau Pere (’81), about a 30-year-old pianist (Patrick Dewaere) who has an affair with his 14-year-old stepdaughter (Ariel Besse) after her mother dies in a car accident. Can you imagine Twitter’s reaction to such a film? Can you imagine anyone even flirting with making it? Much, much worse that the Woody and Soon-Yi thing.
Yeah, I know — the Licorice Pizza situation isn’t exactly “May-December” but it’s close enough, I guess. A 25 year-old woman (Alana Haim) being attracted to a 15 year-old male actor (Connor Hoffman) doesn’t seem too beyond the pale, but it keeps Haim from getting entangled with Hoffman for most of the running time.
There was a slight age-inappropriate discussion with Luca Guadagnino‘s Call Me By Your Name (’17), due to Timothee Chalamet‘s Elio being 17 to Armie Hammer‘s Oliver being 24. But mostly no one cared.
Older women falling for younger fellas movies are much more palatable. And no one thinks there’s anything tragic or hurtful about teenage guys having it off with older women…c’mon. When I was 15 and 16 I used to dream about getting lucky with this or that female teacher. It would have been heaven on earth. And when I was in my 20s I used to dream about women in their 30s.
Best older women-younger dude movies: Simone Signoret in Room At The Top (’59). Adrien Lyne‘s Unfaithful (’02), The Mother (’03). Notes on a Scandal (’06), Rushmore (’98), The Reader (’08), Y Tu Mama Tambien (’01). Others?