“My Dinner with Andre” film review
And Commentary of a Cult Classic
A Prophesy of the Coming Dark Ages in 1981
I saw “My Dinner with Andre” in 1981 about 6 months after its release as part of a double-feature in an Art House in New Haven, Connecticut. It was revolutionary at the time, both for its simple format and its profound subject.
In hindsight, it’s a prophetic piece of cinema about the awakening of a theater director who plays himself in the film. The basic story is two old friends of the theater meet and share a conversation over dinner about an awakening — what it means to be present, an awareness of a coming dark age and how most people are dead inside as part of the developing “world totalitarian state based on money”. And we’re entering a “dark and lawless period” where memory and history are being erased — literally we, as a human species, have forgotten about what it means to be human.
The Filming
Louis Malle, the director, describes the film as a “documentary about fiction” that was shot in two days via improvisations from the script. Apparently, Shawn and Gregory played opposite roles in some of the improvs.
The style of Gregory’s character — playing himself is what you might expect of an insular New York City…
