My Dinner with Andre might be one of the most difficult movies for many viewers to watch. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. My Dinner With Andre Junior: Junior and Olivia invite an excited Bow and Dre over for dinner in their new apartment, but upon arrival, they immediately become concerned with the young couple’s living conditions. (The hotel has since been restored and reopened as a luxury venue.) The artsy crowd would call it minimalist while the more lowbrow among us would say it’s boring! He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living. Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. Ironically, we divide the … Directed by Louis Malle. Wally reminisces during a taxi ride about his childhood and mentions that when he arrives at home, he tells his girlfriend Debbie about his dinner with Andre. The idea for the film arose from Gregory's effort to work with a biographer on his life story, and Shawn's simultaneously coming up with an idea for a story about two people having a conversation. [3][4] Shawn initially thought that the call was a prank, due to Malle's stature in film. Metacritic rated it 83% "universal acclaim" based on 15 reviews. Was this review helpful to you? Both Shawn and Gregory are born storytellers, and as they talk we see their faces, but we picture much more: Andre being buried alive, and a monk lifting himself by his fingertips, and fauns cavorting in a forest. The actors play fictionalized versions of themselves sharing a conversation at Café des Artistes in Manhattan. They agreed that it should be filmed rather than produced as a play. Use the HTML below. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing My Dinner With Andre near you. My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 American comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle, and written by and starring Andre Gregory (Andre) and Wallace Shawn (Wally). Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant. 1981. My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 film about two men who share their lives over the course of an evening meal at a chic restaurant in New York City. IMDb Poll Board Movies That Awoke Your Passion For Cinema. Interview with Mari Walker: I got to know [my characters], and then felt really bad about ruining their lives. Junior and Olivia invite an excited Bow and Dre over for dinner in their new apartment, but upon arrival, they immediately become concerned with the young couple’s living conditions. I wanted to kill that side of myself by making the film, because that guy is totally motivated by fear. 0:15. Starring Wallace Shawn, André Gregory. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. Add the first question. Rick Gregory . Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes rated it 92% "fresh" based on 23 reviews with average rating of 7.3 out of 10. Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews. The set was created to look like the Café des Artistes in New York City.[9]. [3][4] Gregory and Shawn, who had become friends through theatre work, decided to collaborate on the project. The actors play fictionalized versions of themselves sharing a conversation at Café des Artistes in Manhattan. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. I rate it down just a bit on that account (seems unfair to other films), though I find there are some subtleties to be picked up on, and I found Wallace Shawn to give a pretty good performance with his sincere and mildly intense reactions to Andre (and at one point finds something to be INCONCEIVABLE!). As France is nearing the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself torn between a rebellious urge to discover love, and the ever-present, almost dominating affection of his beloved mother. New York actors rehearse Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in a dilapidated theatre. 2:26. Teaser Trailer. Original footage of the prosperous farming community of Glencoe Minnesota, 60 miles west of Minneapolis, was filmed in 1979 for a PBS documentary. [5], The screenplay went through numerous developmental changes in location; in the final version, it was set during a dinner at a restaurant. The rest of the film is a conversation as Wally Shawn tries to argue that living life as Andre has done for the past five years is simply not possible for most people. [3] Although the film was based on events in the actors' lives, Shawn and Gregory denied (in an interview by film critic Roger Ebert) that they were playing themselves. In 1944, an 18-year old boy from small-town France, collaborates with the Nazi-regime and subsequently falls in love with a Jewish girl. What is your favorite opening line from a movie? My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 American comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle, and written by and starring Andre Gregory (Andre) and Wallace Shawn (Wally). Andre Gregory is an intense, highly experimental theater director and playwright in search of life's meanings and spiritual revelations. [14], Throughout the film, Wally refers to his "girlfriend Debbie." Will this help him? Can a little girl cause so much chaos in the heart of the city? Two men converse over dinner in a restaurant. What “My Dinner With Andre” exploits is the well-known ability of the mind to picture a story as it is being told. Review: My Dinner with André I n the decade after its 1981 release, My Dinner with André was canonized as de rigueur art-house viewing, not to mention spoofing, and even 30 years later it stands as one of the pinnacles of East Coast intellectual experimentation and, to some, stuffiness. Gregory, a theater director from New York, is the more talkative of the pair. With her mother away for the weekend, a brash and precocious ten-year-old country-girl sets out to explore Paris during a Métro strike, under her uncle's not-so-watchful eye. View production, box office, & company info. In Louis Malle's captivating and philosophical film, actor and playwright Wallace Shawn sits down with friend and theater director Andre Gregory at an Upper West Side restaurant, and the two proceed into an alternately... Read more . The film focuses on the dinner conversation between Wally and Andre, characterized versions of the actors playing the roles, Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory. Also sign me up for FanMail to get updates on all things movies: tickets, special offers, screenings + more. The movie ends without a clear resolution to the conflict in worldviews articulated by the two men. Saddled with a dull husband and a foolish lover, a woman has an affair with a stranger. He relates to Shawn his tales of dropping out, traveling around the world, and experiencing the variety of ways people live, such as a monk who could balance his entire weight on his fingertips. A despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town. Let our editors help you find what's trending and what's worth your time. He worked with a group in a small piece of performance art on Long Island, which resulted in Andre's being (briefly) buried alive on Halloween night. ENTER CITY, STATE OR ZIP CODE GO. 10 of 14 people found this review helpful. In Louis Malle's captivating and philosophical My Dinner with André, actor and playwright Wallace Shawn sits down with friend and theater director André Gregory at an Upper West Side restaurant, and the two proceed into an alternately whimsical and despairing confessional on love, death, money, and all the superstition in between. But for the next six years Malle was too ... See full summary ». S eemingly nonchalant, borderline delirious, My Dinner with André is the result of an inspired collaboration among its actor-writers, Wallace Shawn and André Gregory, and its director, Louis Malle. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret. (1981). --Jeff Shannon Genre: Biography, Drama. Another article, “On the Origins of My Dinner with Andre” is composed of writings by Gregory and Shawn which prefaced the original screenplay. Meanwhile, Diane bonds with Pops as she asks for his advice on dating. Both primal and sophisticated, witty and profound, My Dinner with Andre is a film that can be savored over time, offering new revelations with each viewing as the listener-viewer develops his or her own appreciation of life's great mysteries. My Dinner with Andre - Full Movie When that happens, there are few opportunities to be influenced by those who march to a different drumbeat and whistle other tunes. By the end I was moved and refreshed, just like I feel after these dinners/meet-ups I've been having that are becoming more and more frequent as … Lloyd Kaufman was the production manager on the film, and Troma Entertainment provided production support. Written by Johnson, Malcolm, "Cinestudio Salutes Columbia", "WHEN NOAH MET WALLY – From the Current – The Criterion Collection", "My Dinner with André: Long, Strange Trips", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmduowlu8U, "Mercedes Gregory, Film Maker, Dead; Documentarian, 56", "Nirvanna the Band the Show: the Interview", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=My_Dinner_with_Andre&oldid=1023295606, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 15 May 2021, at 16:08. The deceptively simple premise of My Dinner with André is what the title states. Shawn listens avidly, but questions the value of Gregory's seeming abandonment of the pragmatic aspects of life. The idea is astonishing in its audacity: a film of two friends talking, just simply talking—but with passion, wit, scandal, whimsy, vision, hope, and despair—for 110 minutes. 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