Tatie Danielle

This movie is brilliant. I would love to meet this aunt, or better, have this aunt. I wish all aunties were like her. She's the inner character inside of some of us -screaming out against all the algorithms by which one is supposed to live one's life by. She's a dissatisfied rebel. Her relationship with the paid housekeeper is one of the most touching I have ever seen in film. Very moving and deeply human. A great film for all who struggle and rebel. Tatie cuts through the crap!! The film is brilliantly acted and paced. The scenes of all the ordinary people doing their ordinary things are filmed with great compassion and tenderness. Which is why the ending of the film delivers such a great emotional punch line. This is a very memorable film. Everyone should have it in their library and show it to their children.

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.

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.

Etienne Chatiliez can keep a cool head! After the commercial and critical success of "Life is a long quiet river" (1988), there must have been an immense pressure on him to make a second movie. Two years later, he resurfaced with a new feature-length film, "Tatie Danielle". At first sight, this film seems to be less original than its predecessor. It is nevertheless a fact that it is a funnier movie to watch and it shows once again Chatiliez's brilliant talent.

Etienne Chatiliez's strength comes from his skill at making laugh of a serious topic, always with a caustic and devastating humor. Furthermore, he always finds place to insert in it a little touch of social satire. These film-maker's particular gifts were already present in "life is a long quiet river". We find them again with pleasure in "Tatie Danielle" where the director is surpassing himself and is going further in daring. Roughly, he is having a tremendous time with the adventures of this old malicious lady who is going to make life impossible for her nephews. The movie is bursting with comical sequences and no-one makes sparks fly of powerful dialogs as well as Chatiliez does. Through the Billard family's trouble then Sandrine with "Tatie Danielle", a progressive tension grows which reaches its climax in the sequence when Tatie Danielle, hopeless after Sandrine's departure ransacks her nephews' flat and accuses them!

Like in "Life is a long quiet river", the contrast constitutes one of the author's main weapons. On one hand, Tatie Danielle, an old lady full of nastiness and on another hand, her nephews with an excessive kindness. It is useful to point out that the director makes a somewhat mocking description of his characters. For example, Tatie Danielle may be unbearable, she is also a very lonely old woman. She can only confide in her late husband. The latter is depicted in a photography and he is squinting! Through this characteristic, Chatiliez cocks a snook at her main character. On another hand, in the Billard family, the father and the children have got pretty much the same first name: Jean. A discreet way to laugh at this average French family

But Etienne Chatiliez has more than one string to his bow. Indeed, he also understood that sometimes it is better to use the power of suggestion to make particular moments successful. Thus, we learn that Tatie Danielle stirs up ill-feeling in the old people's home through the nurses and the head doctor's words.

And especially, especially, Chatiliez has got a sharp sense of observation. His movie abounds of little black ideas or details that irresistibly kick the bull's eye.

"Tatie Danielle" also proves one thing. Sometimes it is no-use hiring famous actors to secure the success of a movie. At the time of its release in 1990, nearly all the actors were virtually unknown. But Tsilla Chelton gives a flawless performance and it is a delight to see Isabelle Nanty subduing the tough octogenarian.

If we make an exception of some little weaknesses (Florence Quentin, the scriptwriter has forgotten to delete a few clichés linked to old people and there are some predictable sudden new developments), you come out elated of the projection of Etienne Chatiliez's intelligent and malicious second movie. He passes us on the pleasure he took in shooting this story. A really funny movie and there's no reason to deny oneself of it.

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.