My Old Lady

1/5/2025

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 leaseback arrangement that entitles them to live in, and collect rent from, an house they've already sold! Clever, eh? Who better to portray such a crafty old woman than Dame Maggie Smith, and her "Mathilde" is more than ready for the visiting heir to the property "Mathias/Jim" (Kevin Kline) when he comes to claim his inheritance. He's perplexed, to put it mildly, and that only gets worse when he meets h