Shown: November 3, 2024 at 6pm
Director : Israel Horovitz
Country : UK
Release Date : 2014
Duration : 102 mins
Language : English
Subtitles : No
Performed by the arresting trio of Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas, each of them playing characters with demons to face up to, this film exudes Gallic charm, brocante and beaucoup du vin. Kline’s dishevelled Mathias, a failed playwright, arrives in Paris to claim an apartment left to him by his much-loathed late father. He is soon embroiled in archaic French law when he realises the opulent home he has inherited comes complete with an elderly woman, Mathilde (Smith) and her daughter (Scott Thomas), to whom he must pay a monthly fee while they remain there until the old woman dies.
“Having Maggie Smith on screen is like biting into a crisp, slightly sour apple. Even when she is playing a woman in her nineties, quilted with wrinkles, the interior is deliciously tart.” (Kate Muir – The Times)