My Dinner With Andre (1981) is one of the best films of the past thirty years – a unique viewing experience that redefines what great filmmaking can be. Essentially an unbroken 100-minute conversation between two friends in a restaurant, it has no right to work at all cinematically. However it succeeds marvelously - not only as a philosophical discussion, but as a portrait of two friends who often disagree yet are bound by mutual respect for one another and the search for significance in their own lives.
The Criterion Collection’s new 2-disc DVD edition is probably the best treatment a fan of the film could hope for. It includes a beautiful, new theatrical-ratio transfer, and illuminating interviews about the project’s creation. The idea for the film came from its stars, playwright Wallace Shawn and theater director Andre Gregory. They wrote the screenplay together over 18 months, based on their on-going conversations. Playing characterizations of themselves on screen, Shawn is an experimental playwright who also acts to make ends meet. Gregory is an established New York theater director who suddenly left his career to travel the world, and rethink his life and identity.
When the film opens, Wally is walking across New York City to meet Andre at the restaurant. He tells us in a voiceover that he is stressed about money, and the last thing he wants to do is to meet an old friend who, according to colleagues, appears to have suffered some sort of mental breakdown. Shawn is the character that most people will identify with – someone who is inquisitive, pragmatic, and a little skeptical. Gregory is an idealistic dreamer who goes with his hunches and says exactly what he thinks. Their differences are immediately apparent when greeting one another. (Shawn: “You look terrific!” Gregory responding enthusiastically “Well, I feel terrible!”) After some typical small talk, Shawn presses Gregory to tell him about his life-changing experiences. It’s here where the film really takes off -- with Gregory spinning fascinating stories for forty-five minutes about working with theater groups in the Polish forest, traveling through the desert with monks, and basically stepping outside normal society in order to rediscover his purpose in life.
In a typical movie, most filmmakers would cut away during these stories to dramatize what Gregory is talking about - but director Louis Malle never does. He keeps his camera focused on the two friends having dinner. Because of this stylistic choice, not only are we able to focus on the philosophical debate taking place, but we also can see the friendship between Wally and Andre evolve. This also creates a wonderful ‘theater of the mind’. Instead of being shown Gregory’s stories of “beehives” and a simulated “death and burial”, you the viewer imagine and experience them yourself. In an interview on the DVD, Gregory himself correctly mentions that the film has just as big a canvas as an epic like Lawrence of Arabia – the difference being that it all takes place in the audience’s imagination.
Though the film begins with ideas of theater and dramatic techniques, it quickly evolves into a philosophical discussion about what it means to be human – whether you’re really living or just doing things out of habit and avoiding real expressions of feeling and connection. Shawn begins to speak more in this second half – passionately arguing that some of Andre’s experiences (which Gregory interprets as fated signs or supernatural messages directed at him) are merely coincidences. He also argues that while many people may live their lives on autopilot, why should they have to go to Mount Everest to have a life-changing experience when they could just as likely have an epiphany in their own home?
My Dinner With Andre may seem more conventional by today’s standards, but it was a revelation back in 1981. The film defied easy categorization, and although seemingly improvised, was painstakingly written and organized. It almost died a quick death upon its initial release, but thanks to critics and word of mouth became a sleeper hit that played in some cities for over a year, and attained a beloved cult status among film buffs that remains to this day. In the DVD interviews, Gregory comes off very much as he does in the film – an articulate, enthusiastic storyteller. Shawn acts like a friendly college professor – happy to answer questions, but viewing the film and its history with some bemused, intellectual detachment. Also included is a 1982 BBC profile of Louis Malle, hosted by Wallace Shawn, who interviews the director about his career. The profile only skims the surface of Malle’s work, but it’s a nice introduction to an artist who never stopped challenging himself up until his death in 1995.
My Dinner With Andre ends with an epilogue that’s just about perfect. Played out to Erik Satie’s beautifully pensive piano piece “Gymnopedie No. 1” (which seems to evoke the passage of time – a theme in the film), it’s in stark contrast to the graffiti-strewn subway and garbage that Shawn comes across at the beginning of the movie. What the film seems to say, is that it doesn’t matter whether you go to Mount Everest, or what answers you come up with on your own individual passage through life. It’s that you ask the necessary questions for continual growth, that you appreciate the journey, and make the essential connections to others that make us all human beings. As Andre so aptly puts it “If you’re operating by habit, you’re not really living.” The movie and its theories will be valued for decades to come by people who value true friendship, the exchange of ideas, and the art of conversation.