Israel Horovitz’s ‘My Old Lady’

Like The Ides of March and August: Osage County, My Old Lady was originally written for the US stage. Israel Horovitz turned his script into a screenplay and then directed this film of the same name. Although shot in Paris by a largely French crew (judging from the credits), the film is an Anglo-American production with New York post-production.

The plot is straightforward enough. Mathias (Kevin Kline), impecunious after three divorces, travels to the Marais in central Paris where he has inherited an apartment from his father. He finds it occupied by 90 year-old, Mathilde (Maggie Smith) who, with the support of her célibataire daughter, Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas), intends to stay put. The apartment was sold to Mathias’ father en viager, that is to say by a sale which gives the vendor tenancy for life and an annuity from the purchaser. Mathias’ original intention of selling the apartment for millions of euros looks shaky from the start and then some dark and complex family secrets begin to be revealed.

The three leads are all top class and Scott Thomas is able to drop frumpy, for which she is inherently unsuited, fairly early on. If you know the Marais, you will recognise and enjoy the setting, while the schmaltziness common in American films in Paris, France is mostly avoided (apart from the Mozart duet by the Seine, sans blague!).  Although the appeal of My Old Lady to under-45s might be limited, it doesn’t deserve to be categorised as cinema geriatrica in the vein of Quartet or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.



 

Dustin Hoffman’s ‘Quartet’

Another month, another film actor turns director – after Ben Affleck comes Dustin Hoffman. His Quartet is in the British genre of cinema geriatrica and probably has an eye to the same market as Tea with Mussolini, Ladies in Lavender, and, more recently, The King’s Speech and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. On this occasion Maggie Smith (78) has a leading part but not Judi Dench (78). However, Michael Gambon (71), Pauline Collins (71) and Tom Courtenay (76 next month) turn in faultless performances not quite matched by Billy Connolly (70). Hoffman is 75, incidentally.

Quartet, based on a play and sreenplay by Ronald Harwood (78,) is set in the Beecham Home for retired opera singers and other old musical folk. They are putting on a concert. Will Jean, the new arrival character played by Smith, join with some of the other big names above and perform the quartet Bella figlia dell'amore from Verdi’s Rigoletto? You see, Jean was once married to Reginald, played by Courtenay – can you guess the outcome?

Practically every shot in Quartet is beautifully framed and the location is charming. Sheridan Smith (31) plays the Home’s young resident medic with great aplomb given the thespian seniority of the leading lights. Many of the supporting cast seem to be retired musical professionals, all enjoying themselves thoroughly. Most people above 40, say, won’t dislike Quartet but Haneke’s Amour might make them think harder about the realities of old age, should they want to. Whether the introduction of rap was meant to extend the film’s appeal to a wider demographic or just make the target oldies feel “with it”, as they might once have said, who knows? Knowing very little about rap, I still didn’t find it convincing.

David Gritten’s Daily Telegraph article explains how Hoffman came to direct such an English film. Quartet (2012) has no connection with James Ivory’s Quartet (1981) although Maggie Smith is in both!