A look into middle-aged-woman nakedness in Chilean film Gloria
she's here to dance and maybe find romance
Playing the background of my life in 2016, you could hear Prince and I sing with nihilistic joy “we’re all excited/ but we don’t know why/ maybe it’s cause/ we’re all gonna die” as the the failing government titter-tottered on the edge of a high cliff, one that felt would plummet me into an even worse hellscape than the current one I was in. All I wanted to do at the time was dance and find love. Similarly, so does Gloria, a 58-year-old Chilean divorced woman in the film, Gloria.
Gloria was first released in 2013 and set in Chile, showing us the life of a woman (played by Paulina Garcia) not easily defined by her circumstances. Admittedly, I had my own preconceived assumptions about the character, but was pleasantly surprised to see the story of an older woman who wasn’t afraid to face her own vulnerability and relish in the freedom that opens up for her. The film wonderfully lets us into Gloria’s world, beginning with her at a disco where other middle aged people go to dance and drink. She goes alone, with no friends, and nonchalantly dances to the beat of disco classics like Frequencia Mod’s “Duele Duele” and Donna Summers’ “I Feel Love” underscoring her more passionate tendencies. While Gloria may have a normal office job, grown up kids who don’t call her often enough, and a dark apartment, she has a burning energy that she adamantly nurtures. At one of these disco nights, a man called Rodolfo seems to be intoxicatingly drawn to her and picks her up asking her “Siempre estas tan feliz?” but she smiles and responds that sometimes she gets sad in the mornings and sometimes it happens in the evenings. Her honest answer feels real and universal across ages.
What I loved most about this film was the relationship between nakedness, vulnerability, and exuberance in an older woman that I had not seen in a while. As someone that loves fashion and uses clothes to evoke my emotions and express other parts about myself, seeing an older woman like Gloria in moments of complete or semi-nakedness, whether on her own or along with her partner, had me lingering on the relationship between ourselves and our naked bodies as we grow older but continue to find joy and euphoria.
Aging bodies may sag and fold, but it doesn’t mean they have to drag us and keep us stuck in the past. Rodolfo, an aging man himself, talks about recently getting a gastric bypass and losing a lot of weight. He wraps himself with a velcro girdle to keep his sagging stomach in place. Gloria, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to think of her body in any particular way; perhaps she is in the body neutral camp. At one point, she compliments Rodolfo with “You look good, too.” Gloria isn’t afraid to find beauty and love in the moments she shares with him, unlike Rodolfo who is stuck in the past. Amidst the everyday reality of her life—historically, Chile was dealing with the fallout of an old regime and police were clashing with student protestors—Gloria is adept at understanding the changing world around her.
Throughout the film, I don’t necessarily think Gloria is lost or missing something innate that prevents her from knowing herself. She seeks romantic love, yes, but the lack of this romantic love doesn’t make her complacent. From the start of the film, you can easily pick her drinking from the rest of the others dancing in the disco. Her journey in the film is one where we see her have agency, including in the aftermath of her choices, even the bad ones (ahem, Rodolfo). She isn’t afraid of life, but lives it with minimal hesitation.
While some people may find her misadventures with Rodolfo comedic, I think the actress Paulina Garcia’s portrayal masterfully shifts the humor of bad dates and humiliations as an older woman away from Gloria herself. In a couple of scenes, Garcia stands and moves completely naked–no tummy tucks, no body doubles–as does Sergio Hernandez (Rodolfo) with folds and wrinkles. I think of the actors’ and characters’ vulnerability in the context of Hollywood glamour and today’s regressive obsession with thinness, youth, and whiteness. Rather than begrudge or feel insecure about her aging body, the narrative skips all that and rather shows us a woman who is simply ready to choose things that bring her happiness over obsessing on things that may leave her feeling lonely or insecure. This is why I was disappointed to learn that the director actually remade the movie (Gloria Bell, 2018) for a Hollywood audience a few years later, starring Julianne Moore and John Torturro. Not much was changed in the newer version except the actors, and the setting–which actually inevitably does affect the context of the story. This english version slants a bit more into the comedy of the story, no doubt to appeal to an American audience. Much like The Substance, the vulnerability of the story of an aging woman gets lost in the moments of intentional comedy. Even with movie producers releasing more romanticized movies around middle-aged women, like The Idea of You or Babygirl, there’s a certain understanding from audiences that the premise is outlandish because it’s too fantastical and that women are somehow more palatable if they’re desired by younger men or they look like Anne Hathaway or Nicole Kidman.
While a good laugh can help relieve the harsh circumstances, especially ones beyond our control, we experience in our day to day, earnestness brings something even more special and real, something usually hidden yet more naked and essential. In a film interview, Garcia explains that in playing Gloria, she would unlock parts of herself that would otherwise stay quiet or hidden, moving the energy of herself from one way to another. So not only is she performing for the camera, but also revealing something real, from herself to the character in another form of exposure or nakedness.
And while it may seem counterintuitive in today’s environment, I’ll be searching for my own nakedness, vulnerability, and joy as I face society’s suffocating limitations and expectations. And like Gloria, if the world is ending, I rather dance my life away!