¿Qué hacemos con la abuela?

I have to say that I don't like this film. I love French films because I think they are more in depth, thought-provoking, and spend more time developing relationships between the characters. Unfortunately, Tatie Danielle is cruel and mean. She criticizes everybody but herself. She makes everybody else's life worse than hers by her actions. The way she treats people including the old woman who cared for her in the beginning of the film is exceptionally cruel when it causes her death. She moves in with unsuspecting relatives who have two young sons. One son is obviously homosexual but the parents either ignore it just turned a blind eye to it. Not Tatie Danielle! You can imagine what she has to say and do. Just look what she does to the family pet dog. Anyway, she finally meets her match in the caretaker assigned to her when the family takes a much-needed Greek vacation for a month. If only Americans could take month-long vacations, how I envy the French. Anyway, they get along until she has to leave her. Then Tatie Danielle gets famous for her poor treatment by getting national sympathy. When she's not in the old folks home after that incident, she is away with her caretaker somewhere. I don't know. I think Tatie's cruelty is just too much for me or anyone.

You have probably read the others viewers comments and you know that this woman Tatie Danielle is very very bad. But I think she's worst than that! In 99 % of the movies, old women are funny, or touching. Not desperados or delinquent. But Tatie is. Or worst... Despite that, this movie is also very sarcastic about middle class families, and a certain way of life. This is truly very unique, a real mastepiece of black humor. One of my favorite comic movie of all time. Let's hope Hollywood will never make a remake.

I can't think of how Holloywood would do a remake of the fine film of social manner "but" I hope they don't bother. The comedy never stops, Tatie Danielle is everyones favourite Aunt, we all love to hate her, and its not that difficult. One of my favourite scene is the bit when the "dog" gets dump in a Paris Street, (removing its collar, so that it can't be identified. The acting is very good. There are some very beautiful women in the film, including the young nurse in the hospital. The film is very French and one can learn a lot about the modern middle class in French today, just by looking at this film. Another plus, the film gets better with repeated viewing, and I have seen it about six or seven times already.

This should be a cult film for those with mean elderly relatives. We have recommended this to folks with hypercritical mothers, mothers-in-law, and others, who also said "She's mean." And nobody else believes them, because the relative can be just so nice to others. we've seen the little smirk that comes across her face when she makes somebody else suffer. She is also willing to suffer herself, if it means others suffer even more.

This film rings so true that it must have been based somebody's actual experience. Packaging family angst as a comedy probably wouldn't sell in Hollywood, so we have to pick this up from the French.

Cinematically, it's better than average, with notable performances from Tati and her niece and nephew.

It's charming and amusing to boot.

Tsilla Chelton gives a flawless performance as the cunning, scheming, mischievous old widow Auntie Danielle, She commands our attention in every scene and she is on the screen most of the time. Her aged housekeeper companion Odile is driven frantic by this cantankerous old shrew who insists she completes the most impossible and dangerous tasks such as cleaning the chandeliers. Her nephew and niece move in to look after her in her supposedly frail state of health and she makes life absolute hell for them, too. She has a framed photograph of her late husband Edouard hanging on the wall and she consults him on all her personal matters. I found these conversations highly amusing. The most entertaining part of the movie is when the relatives take off for Greece leaving Auntie Danielle under the care of a young woman employed to look after her. Sparks fly when these two obstinate individuals come face to face neither giving way to the other, The bed-wetting scene is quite a gem, but there are many other incidents which are equally amusing. The ending of the film in the Alps comes somewhat as a surprise as we see a complete transformation of Auntie. The spirited singing at the beginning and the end has nothing to do with the story, but I think it is a charming and original addition to a film which keeps you chuckling long after the credits have rolled.