QUARTET at the Violet Crown

"Growing old is not for sissies."  Not if you do it with a lust for life and appreciation that you can REALLY say what you think and how you feel.  Dustin Hoffman has directed a wonderful film about a variety of old people in a nursing home for retired opera singers from the UK.  Many of the actors are now elderly famous opera singers and I beamed to see their earlier photos during the credit sequence.  Maggie Smith is the grande dame who has a much harder time accepting her aging than the rest of her quartet.  Pauline Collins is just brilliant and adorable as the Alzheimerish (I know that's not a word) Cissy and her husband played by Billy Connolly is adorable as the sex fueled Wilf.  I cried and laughed simultaneously throughout this film while I drank some wonderful concotion made with orange juice, cucumbers and oh yes!  vodka!!  For me "growing older" has been loads of fun.  And I welcome more films like this which will bring the world of aging into it's proper place called "life."