My Dinner with André

A collaboration between theatre director André Gregory and playwright Wallace Shawn, My Dinner with André remains one of the most unusual films in the history of cinema. Depicting a reunion between two friends and former colleagues, the film devotes nearly all of its running time to a meandering conversation that they have over dinner. Shawn and Gregory wrote the script based on conversations they had over several months and appear in the film as themselves, or rather as exaggerated versions of themselves – although they have also said that the film might as well have been cast differently, with Wally playing André and vice versa. At the end of the conversation, which moves from the Polish woods through the pros and cons of warm blankets and cold cups of coffee all the way to the ultimate questions, the viewer is nearly ready to believe them. By turns philosophical, poignant and hysterically funny, the film is both a monument to the nearly lost art of conversation and hopefully an inspiration for many conversations to come, providing perfect fodder for an after-screening dinner.

Veikko Suvanto

Louis Malle (1932-1995) was a French filmmaker. He first studied Political Science at the Sorbonne, before studying at the IDHEC film school in Paris. As a cinematographer and co-director, he worked with Jacques-Yves Cousteau on the documentary The Silent World (1956), which won a Palme d’Or and an Oscar. He made his debut with the crime film Elevator to the Gallows (1957). His next work, the melodrama The Lovers (1958), caused a scandal. He worked both in France and in the United States.