My Old Lady (film)
| My Old Lady | |
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US theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Israel Horovitz |
| Produced by |
Rachael Horovitz Gary Foster Nitsa Benchetrit David C. Barrot co-producer David Atrakchi Gael Cabouat Boris Mendza |
| Written by | Israel Horovitz |
| Starring |
Kevin Kline Kristin Scott Thomas Maggie Smith Stéphane Freiss Dominique Pinon |
| Music by | Mark Orton |
| Cinematography | Michel Amathieu |
| Edited by | Jacob Craycroft Stephanie Ahn |
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Production
company |
Cohen Media Group
BBC Films |
| Distributed by |
United Kingdom: Curzon Film World United States: Cohen Media Group |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom United States France |
| Language | English, French |
| Box office | $8,651,792 |
My Old Lady is a British–French–American comedy-drama film written and directed by Israel Horovitz in his feature directorial debut. He had previously directed 3 Weeks After Paradise, a 51-minute testimonial from 2002 about his family's experiences following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center. The film stars Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Dominique Pinon. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Mathias, a down-and-out New Yorker, travels to Paris to sell a large, valuable apartment he has inherited from his estranged father. Once there, however, he discovers an old woman, Mathilde, living in the apartment with her daughter Chloé.
Mathias quickly learns that the apartment is a "viager" — an ancient French system for buying and selling apartments — and that he will not actually get possession of the apartment until Mathilde dies and that he owes her a life annuity of €2400 a month. All this is a surprise to him since his father never told him and Mathias had language problems with the French lawyer.
Mathias has no money and no place to live, but Mathilde allows him to stay in the apartment with her if he pays rent. However, to pay for the next life annuity payment, he steals and sells furniture from the apartment and asks a prospective buyer of his contract for an advance payment.
Mathias discovers that Mathilde and his father had a long-lasting affair while both were married. Mathias and Chloé fall in love with each other after emotionally bonding about their childhood. Since Chloé wants to stay in the apartment, Mathias decides at the last minute to decline a multimillion offer for the apartment/contract. Mathilde points out that Mathias does not have to worry about money: he can sell en viager, allowing him to live in the apartment while also providing him a life annuity, albeit a modest one because of his relatively young age of 57.
My Old Lady received mixed to positive reviews, garnering a 60% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 74 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Although My Old Lady doesn't quite live up to its stars' talents, Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith carry the film capably whenever they're together onscreen." On Metacritic, the film has a 53/100 rating based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
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