My Dinner with Andre [Criterion Collection]

Director: Louis Malle Louis Malle

Overview

"My Dinner With Andre may have been the most audacious film Louis Malle made over the course of a career full of daring projects -- the notion of a full-length feature that's just two men talking over dinner sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but Malle, with the help of actors and screenwriters Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, managed to make this recorded conversation compelling, entertaining and genuinely cinematic, allowing the power of the words to carry the picture while the visuals were both subtle and keenly intelligent. While Fox Lorber released My Dinner With Andre on DVD in 1998, the Criterion Collection's 2009 edition of the film is markedly superior and is easily the movie's best presentation on home video to date. My Dinner With Andre has been given a widescreen transfer to disc, letterboxed at the 1.66:1 aspect ratio on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16:9 monitors. My Dinner With Andre was shot with 16mm film stock on a quick production schedule, and even under optimal circumstances this isn't going to be one of the best-looking discs Criterion has ever released, but this edition reduces the film grain as much as possible, presents an accurate and attractive color balance, and sources the material from a clean print with no blemishes -- it's the most attractive presentation the film has had on home video to date, and looks just as good as it did in theaters on its initial release. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, and the audio cleanup is impressive, making this version a major sonic improvement over the Fox Lorber release. The dialogue is in English, with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. Given the film's simplicity, it's fitting that the bonus materials included with this release are very straightforward. The complete film appears on disc one, and disc two includes new interviews with Gregory and Shawn (both conducted by Noah Baumbach) as they talk about the genesis of the project and working with Louis Malle. Also on disc two is My Dinner With Louis, a 1981 profile of Malle (produced for the BBC cultural affairs series Arena) in which he's interviewed at length by Shawn while clips from his films illustrate Shawn's analysis of Malle's life and work. Finally, the accompanying booklet includes a new and informative essay by Amy Taubin as well as short introductions Gregory and Shawn wrote for the published version of the screenplay. My Dinner With Andre remains a singular cinematic achievement, and Criterion have at last treated it like the unique triumph it is; if you've never seen this film before, Criterion's top-notch DVD edition should give you a perfect excuse to absorb its eclectic wisdom."

Product Details

Release Date:	06/23/2009
UPC:	0715515046114
Original Release:	1981
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:51:00
Sales rank:	13,627

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; New video interviews with actors André Gregory and Wallace Shawn by filmmaker and friend Noah Baumbach; "My Dinner With Louis" an episode from the BBC program Arena, in which Shawn interviews director Louis Malle; A booklet featuring an essay written by critic Amy Taubin and the preface written by Gregory and Shawn for the published screenplay

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Wallace Shawn	Wally Shawn
Andre Gregory	Andre Gregory
Jean Lenauer	Waiter
Roy Butler	Bartender

Technical Credits

André Gregory

Wallace Shawn

George W. George	Producer
Beverly Karp	Producer
Louis Malle	Director
André Gregory	Screenwriter
Wallace Shawn	Screenwriter
Jean-Claude Laureux	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

It would be difficult to sell Hollywood producers on a movie that was nothing more than an extended conversation between two friends at a restaurant. Yet the risk-taking director Louis Malle turned this talk-fest into an art-house success. My Dinner with André is in many ways the ultimate art-house movie: low budget, highly philosophical, and demanding an intellectual audience's unstinting attention. Malle used two theater veterans, actor-playwright Wallace Shawn and director André Gregory, to play themselves, using a script based on their actual discussions. The film works surprisingly well, primarily because the two men seem to have opposite temperaments: Shawn shy and cynical, Gregory curious and adventurous. The camera rarely wanders away from the dinner table, yet the film's impact is considerable; Malle lets the audience unloosen its own imagination and thoughts, and the effect is much like listening intently to an excellent radio play. My Dinner with André is a one-of-a-kind film, and its success is unlikely to be repeated.

Playing variations on themselves, playwright and actor Wallace Shawn and theater director André Gregory meet over dinner to discuss art, philosophy, love, and other weighty matters. Essentially a talking-heads picture offering little cinematic variation, Louis Malle's surprise art-house hit fascinates but still drags as it unfolds in real time. In separate interviews, the leads provide interesting tidbits on making Dinner, while Shawn engages the late Malle in a revealing older interview. This is one entrée with intellectual sustenance.

Library Journal