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MY DINNER WITH ANDRE is one of the greatest movies of all time because it works on a seemingly infinite number of levels. Yet at the same time it is one of the biggest failures in film because it only succeeds in connecting to the most insightful of its audience. The resulting paradox only serves to prove the film’s lesson to be true. Brilliant!
This is either a movie you will turn off after fifteen minutes, or it is a movie you will watch over and over again to pick up all the things you missed in previous screenings. The former will be bored and lost by the endless, meaningless talk. The latter will find gold in every word, and veins left to be mined time after time.
In simple terms, the question is understood “If life is a stage, are you going to be an actor, a director, or a playwright?” It is the viewer’s choice. Wally is a struggling playwright who has fallen back on acting. Andre is a former actor and director who has left the theatre entirely. Wally and Andre meet for dinner, and Andre recounts his experiences since leaving the theatre.
But one of the ironies is that their dinner itself is theatre, and both Andre and Wally have roles to fill. [Notice they wrote the script and use their real names. They are not playing characters. They are necessarily playing themselves.] And summarily the viewer also has a role to fill. If life is a stage, viewing the theatre is in itself theatre. The viewer is now in a place of choosing the role. And will that choice be made mechanically or deliberately? Mechanics is acting. Deliberation is playwrighting.
This is a brilliant, brilliant film. One of the greatest movies of all time. And its resolve is purely subjective to the individual viewer. The goal is to deliberate and come away enlightened (literally). Unfortunately the majority of viewers will act mechanically and turn it off.
Rating: 5 / 5
The truth about My Dinner With Andre is (and its a shame to admit this) – but if you’ve become a robot who’s forgotten how to really live life, then you have no chance of enjoying this film.
It can hardly even be classed as a film – rather, it is a special conversation, captured on tape which has the ability to remind us of the life that almost all of us forget we can live.
No sooner do the reunited friends sit down at the table than the watcher is sucked into the film – it is as if we are AT THE TABLE, eating dinner with andre as he relates his personal experiences and what he has learned from them.
Never before have I been sucked into a film in such a way, neither have I ever before been left with the frightening suspicion that the contents of the film were more real than my normal life.
By then end of the film, your entire perspective on life has changed and you realise one thing – something about the way everyone lives their life is wrong and something must be done about it. Now.
If you aren’t inspired by this film then you may be in serious trouble.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have seen this movie several times and have always discovered new revelations during each viewing.
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory are brilliant. They spend almost the entire time before the cameras in animated conversation while eating dinner in a small restaurant in New York City. The conversation is unforgettable and the reason it will not soon leave my memory is that I feel I was there at the table with them. This effect is due to the considerable skills of the director, Louis Malle.
Shawn has been a busy actor and playwright throughout his career with frequent appearances in various productions such as VANYA ON 42ND STREET, a movie with the same kind of appeal as MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. Gregory has worked primarily as a stage director.
Louis Malle is also an excellent director with many film credits including VANYA ON 42ND STREET.
Rating: 5 / 5
There are some films that you catch a few minutes of on tv and you immediately know that it is perfect. “My Dinner with Andre” is definitely one of those.
Who will probably like it? All those who have no problem with going to the theatre either and also like reading books. And you also need to have at least a basic interest in philosophy to find this experience enjoyable.
As you can see, the film was made at the very beginning of the 1980’s and as such it sums up the underlying beliefs of the 60’s and 70’s. You can also see a preview of the decadence of the 80’s when Andre states that the 60’s was the apex of our civilisation, and after which people in some sense locked themselves up in their fantasy world and do not want to notice what is really going on outside that self-afflicted imprisonment. Of course, Wallace protests for the rights of the “little” man and in his words you can hear the commonplace wisdom of the 90’s and the new millennium, by when all idealism has been beaten back and the acute pain caused by the ever more sordid and menacing reality of everyday existence is numbed only by escapism.
Being a theatrical play means that it is best enjoyed if there is one or two breaks (intervals/intermissions) in this dense dialogue between the two playwright-actors. Otherwise, your brain (the speech processing module) gets fatigued and you notice that you cannot pay attention to what is being said because you are still thinking about what has just been said.
There is no subtitling or captioning available on the disk, but luckily you do not even need it, provided you are not hard of hearing. There are no special effects or environmental effects making it hard to make out the words and both actors speak clear, easy to understand English. It’s not the language that might cause problems for some but the thoughts. (If you are not the thinking type, do not try to buy and watch this film.)
Rating: 5 / 5
I first saw this film when I was very ill and confined to bed for several weeks – I’m sure it helped my convalescence! Inspiring, amazing, even astounding film that set me on the path to discovering the genius of director Louis Malle. Unfortunately, the only dvd edition I know of is a very poor transfer of a grainy, faded print. This film deserves restoration and recognition for the masterpiece it is.
Rating: 4 / 5