Daddy Nostalgie

Daddy Nostalgie looked promising right from the outset. A film by Bertrand Tavernier (director of the gentle, beautiful 'Sunday in the Country') starring Jane Birkin (so superb in La Belle Noiseuse) and Dirk Bogarde (who stole the show from Gielgud and Burstyn in Providence... no mean feat at all) - it was hard to imagine this being anything other than a quality film.

And yet, even I was surprised by how good it was. So few films allow you to truly empathise with the characters, but this movie is an exception. You really feel for Birkin's character, as you see the hurt she still feels from being ignored as a child. The best scenes are those between her and her father - he, trying to make the most of his last days, and she, trying to make the most of her last days with him. Even the crabby mother is given a degree of character development as the film moves on, but in the end she takes a back seat to the performance of the two superb lead actors.

A sensitive, mature film with truly beautiful cinematography, this is one that will surely be appreciated by anyone who has had to deal with family relationships at any stage in their life.

The other reviewers have captured the essence of this beautiful film about a family searching for love, relationship, meaning. For me it was a bittersweet viewing as I am a devoted Dirk Bogarde fan, and this was his last film. Bogarde, according the the special features section of the DVD, didn't want to do the film to begin with, but changed his mine. How grateful the film audience is for his decision! I noticed his voice had changed somewhat -a bit higher in tone, perhaps because he had aged, or perhaps his characters situation in the film. Still, it was pure Bogarde, subtle, intense, utterly and completely believable always. With the addition of a beautifully written script, exquisite scenery, and the fine acting of Ms. Birkin and the supporting cast it was a delight. During the special features section Ms. Birkin was interviewed and had nothing but lovely things to say about Dirk Bogarde, his special sensitivity to her during the filming, his aid to help her through difficult scenes, etc. The film world lost one of its finest when we lost Bogarde.

I second Victoria's comments. A profoundly moving film.

Caroline loves her father and craves his attention, but he has lived a self-indulgent life and never gave her the time and affection she needed. Now, as time is running out, they both strive to heal their relationship.

A superbly successful investigation of the relationship between a woman and her father, that both analyzes their feelings and narrates their efforts to reach each other, and which ends in a timeless, transcendental moment capturing the bittersweet and ephemeral nature of life.

For me,as a man, the film gave insight into the father/daughter relationship; I notice that young women gave this film a higher rating than other groups.

Also, one of the few English language films of Jane Birkin widely available in the USA, along with Dust and Kung Fu Master. A uniquely sensitive actress with a large body of work in French cinema.

Lovely swansong of actor Dirk Bogarde, playing an English businessman who is dying after a heart operation which only served to postpone the inevitable. The film is an unforgettable final weeks of close interaction between father and daughter (Jane Birkin) which never happened earlier in their life. The mother, a devout Catholic and a bridge addict and once beautiful, is not a person of high intellectual capacity. Bogarde and the charming Jane Birkin are used by Tavernier to put together a family film that could have been a Michael Powell (of Powell and Pressburger fame) product and by a coincidence Powell died the year this Tavernier film was released. Tavernier dedicated the film to Powell, whose works must have made an impact on Tavernier. Bogarde died 9 years after this film. The film belongs to a mature, beautiful and middle-aged toothy Birkin; Bogarde; and Tavernier. The original story was written by Colo Tavernier, who was Bertrand Tavernier's former wife (they divorced in 1981) but the film was co-scripted by both Bertrand and Colo. I wonder if Tavernier was influenced by another Bogarde film, "The Night Porter," in crafting the considerably different-end sequence in his film, with the rainy weather and the camera following the character(s) along the sidewalks.

Dirk Bogarde is wonderful in his last film. Everything we remember from the past is here: the laconic smile, the raised eyebrow that seems to say Oh, really?, the perfect timing. Add to these the lassitude that comes to those whose hearts are functioning far below standard--the story starts just after his heart surgery. Jane Birkin is playing a character for once whose life is not a caricature, as it was in too many of her films--you don't remember the Gainsbourg years when you see her here. Odette Laure as the mother is new to me, but she plays very well indeed; she is the watchful manager of her husband's declining resources.

The use of flashbacks slows the film down, makes it less tense, but that is a minor cavil. The final scenes, with the exasperation of the beginning gone, are terribly poignant: the setting sun remark from Caroline, Daddy's comments on the management of pain as they stand in the garden, then the discussion of love in the car. Here the cinema goes as far as it can in expressing regret and acceptance.