My Dinner With Andre

A film by Louis Malle famous for consisting in its entirety of a conversation over dinner between two old friends, Andre and Wallace. The film plays out in real time in a restaurant in New York City (although it was actually filmed in a old deserted hotel in Virginia). It was released in 1981. The conversation ranges over the theatre, Andre's experiences since he stopped being a theatre director and then modern life in general. Now, I realise that this sounds almost unbearable, but, much to my surprise, it was utterly compelling. The conversation draws you in and you begin to feel much like a third person at the table. I found myself wanting to offer my own opinions. By the end I felt disappointed that dinner had come to an end and wanted to spend more time with these two brilliant conversationalists. Whilst, much as you would expect in real life, nothing is resolved in the conversation, the film leaves you sharing Wallace's elation as he is driven home in a taxi through the late night streets of NYC. There is something particularly moving about the film's final words. In voice-over Wallace says that when he got home he told his girlfriend about his dinner with Andre.