MY OLD LADY

UK/France/US, 2014, 107 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominique Pignon, Noemie Lvovsky.
Directed by Israel Horovitz.

Not a very helpful title. Yet, it is the title of the play by the writer-director of this film. It sounds too slangy, offhand, perhaps indicating a more comic tone than is the reality.

The setting is Paris. Maggie Smith portrays a 92-year-old widow who lives in an old-fashioned apartment. Suddenly, a man in his late 50s, Mathias, played by Kevin Kline, turns up and starts searching the building. It seems that he has inherited this from his father, a man with whom he could never bond, whom he felt was always putting him down. Pleased that he now has some property, especially since he is broke, has had three wives, has had a drinking problem, he is almost instantly disillusioned – the arrangement his father had made with Madame, with whom he had a liaison long since, was that Madame could stay and, according to a seemingly odd French law, she would be paid to stay there. When he explains that he would like to stay, she tells him that he would have to pay her rent as well is the subsidy for her living there.

What is he to do? Well, he takes a lot of photos of the house and off he goes to a real estate agent to find out its value were he to sell. Then he takes photos of the furniture and hawks them down at a local shop.

There is no telling what he might do when he pops open the bathroom door only to find Madame’s daughter, Chloe, occupying it. They do not get off to a good start.

The film is even more serious when Mathias discovers that his father had the long liaison with Madame, that her husband knew about the relationship and went off to Africa hunting, Mathias finding a lot of heads mounted in the room he occupies. Chloe reveals that she too knew of the relationship. Mathias is dismayed, especially in his memories of his mother and her depression.

When Mathias approaches a buyer for the apartment, inviting him when he has lunch with Chloe and she becomes upset, we seem to see the direction in which the film might go. But, it doesn’t. In his bewilderment, Matthias takes to the bottle again. He discusses the situation in the past with Chloe, which brings them to some kind of understanding and peacemaking.

Part of the enjoyment of the film is listening to the dialogue, as the film is clearly based on a play and is quite theatrical in the amount of talking and discussing, the setting up of scenes inside the house, outside in the garden, as well as the visits to the shops and agents, and in interlude when Mathias sees a young woman singing opera arias and, as the cloud seemed to be lifting from his seemingly gloomy life and he joins in the singing of the banks of the Seine.

Maggie Smith is completely convincing as the 92-year-old Madame, still astute, still sharp of wit and, from her own experiences, rather tolerant of others. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Chloe. She is an actress who can play a plain-looking woman with conviction and can transform her appearance into a woman of plain beauty. Kevin Kline obviously relishes acting with Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas.

While there are a number of moral surprises, taken a bit more lightly by the French than those of the Anglo-Saxon? and Irish perspectives, there is more depth to the story and the characters than we might have anticipated.

There are two interludes during and at the end of the credits.


1. The title and its tone? Too much slang? Belying the seriousness of the characters and themes?

2. The film based on the play, structure, acts and scenes, the strong emphasis on dialogue? Musical score?

3. French story, the tone, characters, personal lives, sexual relationships, adultery, consequences?

4. Paris, the apartment and the interiors, the garden, the sights of Paris, the same, the opera singer and Matthias joining in, the shops, real estate agents? Authentic feeling?

5. Matthias, his situation, Kevin Kline’s presence, his nickname Jim? Broke, his arrival in Paris, his inheritance, searching the apartment and audience curiosity roused? Madame, waking suddenly, the meeting, talking, Matthias and his father, the gift turning out to be a burden, French law and the Viaje, paying the resident? Matthias wanting to stay? Having to pay rent? His disillusionment, especially with his unloving father?

6. Staying in the room, the encounter and Chloe in the toilet, the prickly relationship? his taking photos of the objects in the house? His going to the shop, bargaining, selling the chairs and table? His going to the estate agent, their discussions, getting information about prices? The buyer, making contact, at the meal with Chloe?

7. Madame, teaching English, the doctor in the class? Matthias going to see the doctor and discussions about Madame’s health?

8. Chloe, her age, experience, staying with her mother, her devotion, memories of her father, the Hunter, knowing about the affair when she was ten, Matthias and his challenge to her relationship with a married man, going to his apartment, encountering the wife, breaking the relationship?

9. Matthias’s story, three wives, many suicide attempts, his father and no affirmation for him? His only discovering the thing when talking to Madame? His mother, the gun, shooting herself? Madame not knowing of this?

10. Matthias and his drinking, anger, drinking again, the discussions, Madame and the truth, Madame and her lies? Her declarations about her relationship, love and the consequences?

11. Chloe, her father, knowing of the affair at ten years old? His hunting, the animals in the room, the range of guns? Matthias checking the guns – the possibility of suicide?

12. Madame, Chloe, the photos, with Chloe as a young child? The truth, their sharing, the kiss, the sexual encounter, his writing the diary and giving it to Chloe, his anecdote-age? Checking with the doctor, that they did not share the same father? Matthias, the promise to the buyer, getting cash from him?

13. The night, apprehension, Madame explaining it was not a catastrophe and that they had life yet to live?

14. The final credits, the interruption to indicate there would be no sale, Chloe and Matthias and love, the garden, Madame in the window?

15. The end of the credits – and the joke about the estate agent, his living on the boat, and where he learned English – from American films like Gone with the Wind?