My Dinner with AndreMy Dinner with Andre is a film with a simple concept, but is a film that is anything but simple. The basic premise is this: Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory play fictionalized interpretations of themselves, and have dinner together at a nice restaurant, catching up with one another. "For two hours," you might be asking yourself, along with, "what kind of enjoyment can I get from something so mundane?" Well, answering that question requires that you search a little deeper into your own life, your own past, maybe recall that important conversation you once had with a friend, and how it affected you. That's a good place to start.
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Wally narrates the film (directed by Louis Malle), although his narration really bookends the film--the majority of the action (yes, action) occurs in the restaurant. Wally begins wandering around New York City, perhaps psyching himself up for his dinner appointment with a man who he claims that he has been "literally avoiding for years". Why the avoidance? Although Wally credits Andre for "discovering" him as a playwright, he has heard rumors that Andre has gone a little crazy, having emotional outbursts and flying off to Tibet. But, at the prompting of a mutual friend, Wally agrees to meet Andre, and the two begin a dinner in the way that any two friends who had not seen each other in a while might: small talk, niceties, superficial stuff. But it's Andre who throws the gauntlet of "profound truth" into the ring first--and early, too. Andre himself is a playwright and theater director, but when asked by Wally what he's been up to, he begins with one story about how he felt aimless, and went into the forests of Poland with forty Jewish women who played instruments to perform a "beehive"--an improvisational exercise that amounted to throwing around a teddy bear, singing, dancing, et cetera--and culminating in a christening for Andre, where he is given the new name of "Yendrush". And here--as with Wally--we suspect that Andre has experienced something...unique, but we just can't quite get a handle on it yet. Perhaps like Wally, our agent in this verbal adventure, we also feel unseated and ill-equipped to respond to this kind of forthrightness and honesty about the trials that another friend has undergone. Andre is, for the most part, our master of ceremonies in this film, a veritable bard of confessional vignettes, earnest accounts of transcendent experiences. And Andre's deft skill and silky artistry is such that we envision each scene with complete clarity.
My Dinner with Andre might be sufficient as a collection of strange stories related over quail and "bramborová polévka", the collected, scripted conversations between two extraordinarily talented theater personalities, talking to us by talking at one another. No--the film has a greater meaning for those who remember Wally's attitude prior to his dinner with Andre, and afterwards. Wally begins the film as a petty, cynical man. He proclaims while waiting for the subway (pre-NYC gentrification) that when he was a boy, he was rich, an aristocrat, riding in taxis, surrounded by comfort, and all he thought about was "art and music"; at thirty-six, now all he thinks about is money--this thought is key for understanding him going into this dinner. Prior to his dinner, he had forgotten about all those great elements that make us human, those "humanities" that endow us with a higher sense of being. Over his conversation with Andre, little by little, he becomes more involved in the conversations--quite reluctantly at first, mind you--but he responds to Andre more frequently, if only to provide a dissenting opinion. We uncover that in contrast to his proclamations at the beginning of the film, Wally does have values about art and reality, bigger themes that have lain under a blanket of proverbial dust for too long. His soul has been a light that had grown too dim, but by rekindling that flame through a deep, insightful conversation with a friend who does not simply expectorate a tirade of platitudes and banalities, he finds a kindred spirit in Andre again. Andre and Wally do not see eye to eye on the same perceptions of what it is to be "human", or of the definitions of "reality", or how to reach that deeper sense of self. But, over the dinner, they are both involved, and both share their ideas openly with one another without fear of reproach or chastisement. They become real friends, and that camaraderie as playwrights, as thinkers--as human beings--cracks open Wally's self-inflicted shell so that he can see his world in a new way again, as evidenced by his wistful taxi cab ride home to his girlfriend. Andre treats Wally to more than just dinner--he treats him to a new lease on life, real life. My Dinner with Andre is a journey of the soul, one that doesn't require that we all go to Mt. Everest to enjoy...but reminds us to just listen to another person, and be awakened to yourself.
Recommended for: Fans of stimulating conversation and the kind of rare film where the dialogue is the action, and the feelings it evokes of love, misery, loss, and hope come through our own ability to imagine ourselves in this very relatable situation of having a deep, meaningful talk with another human being.
My Dinner with Andre might be sufficient as a collection of strange stories related over quail and "bramborová polévka", the collected, scripted conversations between two extraordinarily talented theater personalities, talking to us by talking at one another. No--the film has a greater meaning for those who remember Wally's attitude prior to his dinner with Andre, and afterwards. Wally begins the film as a petty, cynical man. He proclaims while waiting for the subway (pre-NYC gentrification) that when he was a boy, he was rich, an aristocrat, riding in taxis, surrounded by comfort, and all he thought about was "art and music"; at thirty-six, now all he thinks about is money--this thought is key for understanding him going into this dinner. Prior to his dinner, he had forgotten about all those great elements that make us human, those "humanities" that endow us with a higher sense of being. Over his conversation with Andre, little by little, he becomes more involved in the conversations--quite reluctantly at first, mind you--but he responds to Andre more frequently, if only to provide a dissenting opinion. We uncover that in contrast to his proclamations at the beginning of the film, Wally does have values about art and reality, bigger themes that have lain under a blanket of proverbial dust for too long. His soul has been a light that had grown too dim, but by rekindling that flame through a deep, insightful conversation with a friend who does not simply expectorate a tirade of platitudes and banalities, he finds a kindred spirit in Andre again. Andre and Wally do not see eye to eye on the same perceptions of what it is to be "human", or of the definitions of "reality", or how to reach that deeper sense of self. But, over the dinner, they are both involved, and both share their ideas openly with one another without fear of reproach or chastisement. They become real friends, and that camaraderie as playwrights, as thinkers--as human beings--cracks open Wally's self-inflicted shell so that he can see his world in a new way again, as evidenced by his wistful taxi cab ride home to his girlfriend. Andre treats Wally to more than just dinner--he treats him to a new lease on life, real life. My Dinner with Andre is a journey of the soul, one that doesn't require that we all go to Mt. Everest to enjoy...but reminds us to just listen to another person, and be awakened to yourself.
Recommended for: Fans of stimulating conversation and the kind of rare film where the dialogue is the action, and the feelings it evokes of love, misery, loss, and hope come through our own ability to imagine ourselves in this very relatable situation of having a deep, meaningful talk with another human being.