Tatie Danielle

Directed by: Etienne Chatiliez

RS: Not Rated

1990 Comedy

You may think twice about helping old ladies cross the street after seeing this fiendishly funny swat at bad senior citizenship from director Etienne Chatiliez and writer Florence Quentin, who previously collaborated on the darkly droll Life Is a Long Quiet River. The aged widow Danielle Billard is called Tatie (an affectionate French term for "aunt") by her nephew Jean-Pierre (Eric Prat), his wife, Catherine (Catherine Jacob), and their two sons when they make semiannual forays from their Paris apartment to Tatie's suburban home in Auxerre. But as played with malicious glee by Tsilla Chelton, Madame Billard is an auntie from hell.

A typical day for Tatie involves mistreating her frail housekeeper, Odile (Neige Dolsky), and sicking her dog, Onyourmark, on visitors. When Odile dies performing one of her mistress's impossible chores, Tatie sells her house and gives the money to her family in return for moving in with them in Paris. It's an offer they should have refused.

Tatie uses every method from faked incontinence to suicide threats to keep her family at her mercy. She is livid that they intend to vacation in Greece and leave her with Sandrine, a no-nonsense young nurse vividly acted by Isabelle Nanty. When provoked, Sandrine provokes back, sometimes harshly. Tatie develops a grudging respect for Sandrine that ripens into friendship. But when Tatie believes that Sandrine has betrayed her, she plots a terrible revenge.

Chatiliez and Quentin shrewdly refuse to supply a feel-good ending. It is not simply the tyranny of old age they are skewering but the condescension of the young that fosters it. Whatever the motive -- greed, anger, fear, guilt -- Tatie's family has opted to treat her like a child, and she has behaved accordingly. They've offered her everything but honesty. Cathartic wit makes this film more than outrageously entertaining; it stings.

PETER TRAVERS
RS 603