In the autumn, when the summer holidays are over and the children are safely back in school, the movie industry decides that it’s time to entertain the adults.
Every other part of the year, of course, is devoted to dazzling and distracting the under-20 set. They’re treated to noisy, explosive superhero films and often disgusting horror pictures on the solid economic principle of supply and demand: children are out of school for the summer and essentially lazing around aimlessly, and therefore have a hefty appetite for movies.
In the autumn, though, the supply of children goes down – there’s schoolwork and sport and all sorts of competing activities – which means the movie studios have to look for demand elsewhere.
And they find it in the parents. Or at least they used to.
I’m describing a long-lost time when the difference between children and adults – well, to be fair, the difference between teenagers and adults – was a bright and obvious one. The line between the behaviour and taste of an adolescent – loud music, fiery explosions, a single-minded fixation on the physical attributes of the naked human body – and what grown-ups are supposed to prefer – witty dialogue, complicated plotting, subtle romantic chemistry, restrained tension – has been slowly erased over time.
This autumn, for instance, when the studios traditionally release their more thoughtful adult fare, among the biggest movies in cinemas are a Matt Damon-starring science-fiction-action-adventure picture called The Martian, an animated comedy called Hotel Transylvania 2, and the teen action movie Maze Runner.
In other words, just because the kids are back in school doesn’t mean kids aren’t going to the movies. They are. It’s just that now it’s mostly grown-ups who think and act like children.
Your concept of what an adult is depends, of course, on how old you are. If you’re around my age – and never mind exactly how old that is – grown-up people have always been serious and sober types in suits and ties, polite and restrained and as a rule born before 1950. But that isn’t quite accurate any more. Old people these days are essentially fully-grown hippies – the product of the do-anything go-go 1960s. Their hair may be grey (or simply gone) and they may be walking a little more carefully, but they’re still the unreconstructed, unashamed adolescents of the 1960s and 1970s, just all grown up.
Which is why animated movies that have traditionally appealed only to children – or over-the-top action pictures, graphic horror movies and lowbrow comedies – now garner a sizeable audience from among the over-50 set. Old people, it seems, aren’t all that different from teenagers.
America and Europe and large parts of Asia are facing increasingly older populations. The “baby boom” years of the last century are tapering off, and the children born during that time are now well into their old age. Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney – two icons of the young and happening 1960s and 1970s – are now 72 and 73, respectively. They don’t seem like the retiring types, heading out to the garden to do a bit of pruning, followed by a visit to the local senior centre for a game of bridge. Why, then, do we expect the rest of their age cohort to do the same?
They don’t. Popular matchmaking sites and smartphone apps like Tinder and OKCupid now have well-funded and targeted competition for the older population of single people. There’s an app called Stitch that is a matchmaking service for people in their late 50s and older, so they too can enjoy the soulless and ultimately creepy activity of swiping through photographs on the phone, choosing which ones seem promising. There are even apps that help connect old people with young tech gurus who can help them with their technology – we all know someone in our lives who is too old to truly understand how to work a smartphone. Now there’s an app to help summon a young person to help an old person use their phone to act like a young person.
The losers here, obviously, are the young people, who keep trying to carve out their own styles and habits, only to have them co-opted and enthusiastically embraced by their grandparents. What’s the fun of watching some truly trashy movies in the summer if there are a bunch of old people behind you, enjoying the same experience? And worse, what if they’re on dates, too? Or busily working their phones at the same time – texting and swiping and surfing – like unfocused and hyper-active teenagers?
This is all good news for the movie studios, who now no longer have to worry about the demographic vagaries of the laws of supply and demand. There’s an inexhaustible supply – for the next 30 years at least – of teenage-minded old people.
The trouble will come when, as inevitably happens, the next generation breaks the tradition and discovers the joys of quiet and more thoughtful entertainment. If old people insist on behaving like children, we have to hope that children will start behaving like old people.
Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood
On Twitter: @rcbl
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Jordan cabinet changes
In
- Raed Mozafar Abu Al Saoud, Minister of Water and Irrigation
- Dr Bassam Samir Al Talhouni, Minister of Justice
- Majd Mohamed Shoueikeh, State Minister of Development of Foundation Performance
- Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- Falah Abdalla Al Ammoush, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Basma Moussa Ishakat, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Ghazi Monawar Al Zein, Minister of Health
- Ibrahim Sobhi Alshahahede, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Environment
- Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aburamman, Minister of Culture and Minister of Youth
Out
- Dr Adel Issa Al Tawissi, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research
- Hala Noaman “Basiso Lattouf”, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Mahmud Yassin Al Sheyab, Minister of Health
- Yahya Moussa Kasbi, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Nayef Hamidi Al Fayez, Minister of Environment
- Majd Mohamed Shoueika, Minister of Public Sector Development
- Khalid Moussa Al Huneifat, Minister of Agriculture
- Dr Awad Abu Jarad Al Mushakiba, Minister of Justice
- Mounir Moussa Ouwais, Minister of Water and Agriculture
- Dr Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education
- Mokarram Mustafa Al Kaysi, Minister of Youth
- Basma Mohamed Al Nousour, Minister of Culture
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
Martin Puchner
Granta
If you go
- The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
- The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
- The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
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THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
The past Palme d'Or winners
2018 Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
The BIO:
He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal
He ascended Mount Everest the next year from the more treacherous north Tibetan side
By 2015, he had completed the Explorers Grand Slam
Last year, he conquered K2, the world’s second-highest mountain located on the Pakistan-Chinese border
He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push
His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level
Surianah's top five jazz artists
Billie Holliday: for the burn and also the way she told stories.
Thelonius Monk: for his earnestness.
Duke Ellington: for his edge and spirituality.
Louis Armstrong: his legacy is undeniable. He is considered as one of the most revolutionary and influential musicians.
Terence Blanchard: very political - a lot of jazz musicians are making protest music right now.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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