My Old Lady

2014 107 min ★ 6.2 Romance, Comedy, Drama

Mathias Gold is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he's shocked to discover a live-in tenant who is not prepared to budge. His apartment is a viager—an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale—and the feisty Englishwoman Mathilde Girard, who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé for many years, can by contract collect monthly payments from Mathias until her death.

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Cast

Maggie Smith

Mathilde Girard

Kevin Kline

Mathias Gold

Kristin Scott Thomas

Chloé Girard

Dominique Pinon

Monsieur Lefebvre

Michael Burstin

Rabbi on Bicycle

Elie Wajeman

Man at Gate

Noémie Lvovsky

Dr. Florence Horowitz

Stéphane De Groodt

Phillippe

Stéphane Freiss

François Roy

Details

Director

Israel Horovitz

Screenplay

Israel Horovitz

Tagline

"He's in the will. She's in the way."

Status

Released

Original Language

EN

Budget

$5,000,000

Revenue

$7,527,232

Production

Deux Chevaux Films, Cohen Media Group, BBC Film, Krasnoff / Foster Entertainment, Protagonist Pictures

Reviews

C

CinemaSerf

January 5, 2025

★ 6/10

I wish someone would have left me an apartment in Paris's Marais district. A lively and vibrant area of the city with some gorgeous old architecture. I might not have been so enamoured, however, if I'd been left a ninety-two year old woman as a lodger to whom I had to pay €2,400 per month too! That's the viager. An ancient bit of common law that enables someone to effect a sort of sale and leaseba...