Hollywood would do Joan Plowright as the sweet old Grandma, but this is a French film, so it's as mean-spirited as you'd like. There's no arched-eyebrows at your tyrannical repartee or smirks at your own posturing here - just a bona-fide cyanide witch who doesn't care a jot who knows it. After the death of her put-upon housekeeper, which may or may not have been an accident, the curmudgeon is taken in by her kindly, trendy Parisian relatives - a fertile ground for her spiteful venom where she reigns with aplomb. She will not entertain, "raw fish in lime juice, kiwi salads and cheese as starters," and instead satisfies herself with making her hosts' lives hell, whether its by abandoning a wee lad in the park or berating an ageing female relative on her lack of suitors.
Chatilliez is abandoning traditional age clichés and puts the view instead that old girls like Tatie Danielle don't think twice about knocking whatever unfortunate over with some withering put-down, because to be honest about one's feeling is important. To smile, put up with other people's ludicrous requests and unreasonable behaviour for the sake of avoiding embarrassment and fitting in to polite society are perhaps the root of much discontent in society these days. For example well-meaning but dim wife of the family can only acknowledge her burden in furtive whispers to which he family can only meekly agree.
Instead of confronting this cackling chip-pan of evil, they flee to Greece for a month, leaving Tatie with a no-nonsense young matron. Like most bullies who realise the cards aren't all stacked in their favour, Tatie comes to co-operate although it's only a matter of time before one last flare-up leads Tatie to wallow in her own filth and burn the apartment down. In most countries people would soon suss out Tatie for the Gorgon she is, but this being Paris she's treated as the hard done-by old lady.
It's at this point the film really comes into its own as a nasty piece of work. Tatie remains a dangerous element, someone we laugh but heaven forfend you'd ever want to meet her in real life. The family, their kindness considered, are emotionally palsied and stilted in their middle-class ways. Like the best films, we appreciate the maliciousness, the sardonic jibes, the pretence - just as long as it all stays safely on the screen.
Chatilliez is abandoning traditional age clichés and puts the view instead that old girls like Tatie Danielle don't think twice about knocking whatever unfortunate over with some withering put-down, because to be honest about one's feeling is important. To smile, put up with other people's ludicrous requests and unreasonable behaviour for the sake of avoiding embarrassment and fitting in to polite society are perhaps the root of much discontent in society these days. For example well-meaning but dim wife of the family can only acknowledge her burden in furtive whispers to which he family can only meekly agree.
Instead of confronting this cackling chip-pan of evil, they flee to Greece for a month, leaving Tatie with a no-nonsense young matron. Like most bullies who realise the cards aren't all stacked in their favour, Tatie comes to co-operate although it's only a matter of time before one last flare-up leads Tatie to wallow in her own filth and burn the apartment down. In most countries people would soon suss out Tatie for the Gorgon she is, but this being Paris she's treated as the hard done-by old lady.
It's at this point the film really comes into its own as a nasty piece of work. Tatie remains a dangerous element, someone we laugh but heaven forfend you'd ever want to meet her in real life. The family, their kindness considered, are emotionally palsied and stilted in their middle-class ways. Like the best films, we appreciate the maliciousness, the sardonic jibes, the pretence - just as long as it all stays safely on the screen.