My Dinner With Andre

Year: 1981

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Malle

Review

a pretty great film. probably the first thing that most people will talk about with this film is its structure – it starts rather simply with wallace shawn (most famously as the mastermind in “princess bride”) walking down the street talking about himself and the fact that he is not looking forward to having dinner with an old friend named andre. the rest of the film is the two of them talking over dinner about life, philosophy, theater etc. i wouldn’t call it a slow film because, to me anyway, the subject matter is very interesting, but it’s certainly not a conventional film. there are cuts and it does avoid (barely) simply being a filmed play. that said, i didn’t find much artistry to the technique behind the cutting or the sets or anything other than the acting and conversation. it’s quite possible that you’ll find the film boring and unexceptional, but i think that most people reading this will receptive to the ideas presented in the film, and for this reason alone the film is worthwhile. there is a lot of philosophical ground that is covered in their discussion and the philosophy of theater, and life as theater, interacts with the structure of the film rather interestingly. in this way the film reminds me somewhat of the speech that sardu gives at the beginning of “bloodsucking freaks” wherein he questions the viewers’ (within the film) motives for wanting to see such a freak show. of course he is really talking to the people who are watching the film, which itself is a freak show. at any rate, it’s a finely layered and thoughtfully constructed film which addresses a lot of core life issues. anyone remotely interested in questioning life should probably watch this film. if, however, you tend to question the playcalling of phil jackson more than the purpose of life, stay away because you’ll just be bored.