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. Playing variations on their own New York–honed personas, Shawn and Gregory, who also wrote the screenplay, dive in with introspective, intellectual gusto, and Malle captures it all with a delicate, artful detachment. A fascinating freeze-frame of cosmopolitan culture, My Dinner with André remains a unique work in cinema history.
Cast
| Andre Gregory |
| Wallace Shawn |
| Jean Lenauer |
| Roy Butler |
Credits
| Director | Louis Malle |
| Screenplay | Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn |
| Producer | George W. George and Beverly Karp |
| Music | Allen Shawn |
| Cinematography | Jeri Sopanen |
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- 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
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Amy Taubin and the prefaces written by Gregory and Shawn for the published screenplay
Oct 1, 2009
Tonight the New York Film Festival will honor Dan and Toby Talbot and their the legendary, erstwhile New Yorker Theater in a special event marking the publication of Toby Talbot’s http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14566-4/the-new-yorker-theater-and-other-scenes-from-a-life-at-the...
Jul 10, 2009
In the epic table talk à clef that is My Dinner with André, André, a theater director (played by theater director André Gregory), tells his old friend Wally (played by playwright and actor Wallace Shawn) about a long journey he took in search of enlightenment. A key figure for André in this...
Jul 3, 2009
“If you want a break from all the summer bombast, My Dinner with André is out . . . in a fabulous new two-disc package,” suggests NPR’s Glenn McDonald in a review of the new Criterion special...
by Amy Taubin
Jun 26, 2009
Seemingly nonchalant, impeccably crafted, borderline delirious, My Dinner with André is the result of an inspired collaboration among its actor...