Two artists question the meaning of existence and their work, while eating quail.
My Dinner with Andre (1981) is a film
about a conversation meant to inspire further discussion from the audience. It
is art that discusses the philosophy of art and how life interacts with the
process, while encouraging viewers to follow the filmmakers down the
rabbit-hole of logic and apply it to their own lives. Deliberately pretentious
and decisively contradictory, My Dinner
with Andre imitates life by presenting two artists playing themselves in a
fabricated sense of realism. In the end, it is only the ideas we can trust to
be entirely true, though even these are merely theories meant to be deliberated
rather than decided upon. It is somewhat like Michael Winterbottom’s recent
food-driven series, The Trip (2010)
and The Trip to Italy (2014), without
the focus on food or bad jokes and irritating impressions to attempt lightening
the mood.
Winterbottom is
hardly the first to have attempted an imitation or homage to the style of Louis
Malle’s famed film. One can easily imagine this being a great influence on
Steven Soderbergh in the creation of his debut feature, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) as well. But what is it about this
film which inspires such praise and admiration, especially considering it is
simply two men debating the ideology of their craft over a meal in a stuffy
French restaurant? This is the type of film that is either praised or dismissed
entirely, and I can’t say that I would find fault in either reaction. It is
hardly an accessible piece of entertainment, but that seems to be the point.
Though they have
stated that the roles they are playing were merely characters that retain their
names, the idea for My Dinner with Andre
was born out of real conversations between longtime friends and theatrical collaborators
Wallace Shawn and André Gregory. These conversations were developed into a
screenplay that provided French filmmaker Louis Malle the perfect English-language
film to fit his desire to experiment with new ideas in each project. The
challenge of making a film that is made up of a single conversation must have
greatly appealed to Malle, enough for him to collaborate with Shawn and Gregory
again with his final film, Vanya on 42nd
Street (1994).
Although Shawn
had already established himself as a popular character actor by the time of the
film’s release (primarily for his supporting role in Woody Allen’s Manhattan
Gregory
discusses his many travels and adventures after having abandoned the theater in
search of life’s true answers. He describes a series of self-involved artistic
experimentations in his travels with pure narcissism that simultaneously feels
slightly judgmental of his far more grounded friend. It isn’t until the second
half of the meal/film that Shawn puts down his fork and begins to fight back
with his own philosophy, though we get the impression that some of his argument
is made out of defensiveness. While Gregory has thrown all caution to the wind
in favor of personal enlightenment (even selfishly abandoning his family for
long periods during his travels), Shawn has taken a more pragmatic approach to
his career as an artist. When his career as a playwright is failing to pay the
bills, Shawn turns to acting as a way to make money, describing this as though
he had shamefully sold out despite having little more financial success in this
endeavor. In the opening voice-over, Shawn admits to thinking more about money
with his artistic projects as he grows older, though he argues in defense of
this mentality while in conversation to Gregory. In the end, both must admit
that they each have doubts about their paths, and each find truths in the
polarized opinion of their meal companion.
Arriving on
Blu-ray for the first time, My Dinner with Andre is presented with a 2K
digitally restored print, along with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. There
are no new special features, though a 2009 interview with Gregory and Shawn
conducted by Noah Baumbach is included, along with a 1982 episode of the BBC
program, “Arena,” which has Shawn interviewing Malle. Also included in the
package is a booklet insert featuring an essay from critic Amy Taubin and a
short preface by Gregory and Shawn from a publication of the film’s screenplay.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 9/10
Historical
Significance: 9/10
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