My Dinner with Andre (USA, 1981)

Language: English | Genre: Drama | Direction: Louis Malle | Staring: Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn | Year: 1981

I always felt proud by seeing some unique films. If you look back to FilmBulb posts, you can witness the uniqueness of the films which I tried to introduce- To name few- Baraka, Russian Ark. My Dinner with Andre is one such unique film. This shouldn't be considered as a normal film, because there is no conventional 3-part Hollywood-ish story telling. 

Louis Malle

The plot is simple. Two playwrights meet after several years in a dinner and their talking is the film. Isn’t that simple enough!. While the subject-matter of the film is very lite, but the subjects they discuss becomes interesting. Directed by Louis Malle. Written and acted by Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. 

Andre Gregory

The film starts with Wallace (They acted with their same name!) walking in the streets of New York, with his voice over suggesting how tough the life of the playwright is, informing about his daily activities, his struggle to earn and how the art is superseded by the need of money. His voice over informs us about Andre and why he is meeting him. Louis Malle is a French director, so no wonder the voice over of Wallace travels throughout the film.

Wallace Shawn

Within 10 mins of the start both the characters are on the table for the dinner and the rest 100 mins is their conversation. I know it might sound odd, but that’s the film.

Andre starts the conversation by sharing his experiences in Poland, his experiences in Sahara desert, travelling to India, his take on surrealist art and his traveling to Findhorn, Scotland- where they talk with plants and insects. 

The talk slowly moves to death and manipulative characters. They discuss about the courtesy talk, which we always start when we meet someone- is a dream world which we create, because we can’t be direct and we end up saying weird things. The other things they touch in the conversation is how when a group of people gather together for a party. And all they talk is nonsense, grotesque things and insane jokes. 

The talk moves into deeper insights of the human relationships and how in the normal life we are faking it. Writing about the conversation in details will be a spoiler. Let me tell you this one, which I liked the most and also which I always thought about- “making a habit”. I personally feel, making something as a habit will limit or prevent my -selves to learn or gain new knowledge. So I never concentrate or put my mind to one thing, I always keep a wavering mind and activity.

Having talked about all these fantasy and philosophical talk, Wallace takes the talk to the square one; he tries to redirect Andre to the reality. Did Andre agree to disagree is to see for yourselves in the film.

With all the 100 minutes of talking, the film can be quite heavy if you don’t follow of what both Andre and Wallace are talking about. If you like those, I’m sure you’ll be making notes of it.

Trailer

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