Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue intro music**
It's been a while movie goers and since it's the Christmas holidays, I found time to watch an early 80's gem via YouTube.
Tonight's movie flick is My Dinner with Andre (1981), which feels like listening to a podcast but really highlights a dialogue between 2 men in a restaurant that runs for over 100 minutes. This indie film directed by Louis Malle and written by the underrated Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, who are playing themselves, converse around whether the world is a stage and whether people are acting to fit into their respective roles in life without realisation. The two discuss topics such as not living, not being authentic, the disconnect they feel among the society they find themselves in and how society are institutionalised to think a certain way, to talk a certain way and to live a certain way.
In my opinion, this film is designed to wake people up from slumber and monotony of life or in simple terms this movie represents a spiritual awakening. This is where these two characters contrast each under during their meet up, where we have Andre, who is on a quest for spiritual awakening and enlightenment in the name of growth while on the other side you have Wally, hiding under electric blankets, an anodyne to the suffering of the world because "our lives are tough enough as it is." Wally's character who is happy with his morning cold coffee as long as there are no cockroaches, represents the norm, the individuals who are self-aware enough to know what's coming but not yet brave enough to get out of the institutionalised system they feel trapped.
The film is a deceptively simple two-hander. A playwright and actor named Wally (Wallace) Shawn is on his way uptown to have dinner with his old friend, the theatre director André Gregory at a poshy upscale restaurant of Andre's choosing. The movie is narrated by Wally and we soon learn that he dreads seeing Andre and the reason is that he has heard his old friend has experienced transcendent experiences by randomly spending the last few years traveling around the world and has resulted into Andre sobbing on the street and talking to trees. This has of course has led to Wally not wanting to see his friend in this state.
Once the two friends meet for dinner, it starts off with Wally commenting how good Andre' looks, this invites the audience on how society is trained to be nice and touch on surface level discussions rather than diving deep into what really matters for human connection; authenticity. For the next forty minutes, Andre talks almost nonstop, barely pausing to dismember the succulent quail that both he and Wally have ordered, Wally, on the other hand, limits himself to such comments as "Gosh" and "Uh-huh," or such probing questions as "What happened then?" and "Andre! How can you say something like that?"
Andre talks about his time in a forest in Poland, his journey to the Sahara with a Japanese Buddhist monk, his time in a Scottish town, his mundane experience in India and a ritual he participated where he was buried alive. The stories sound outlandish and weird in particular where Andre imagined an SS officer identifying with Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, a book that has great significance for Andre.
The adventures of Andre aren't so much about what he did nor is it his seductiveness as a storyteller speaking in a smooth, urbane style, but rather his desperation to reach out to someone who can possibly make sense of what he has put himself through and reassure him that he's not insane. The second half of the film slowly shifts to a vehement argument between the two men where Wally who is bugged by Andre's comment on the world, is on the attack. Wally presents himself as a scientific rationalist and an individual who likes comfort. He views Andre's brand of "magical thinking" as ridiculous and that people should be happy in their lives regardless if it means been stuck in a cold city such as New York.
We might have a sense of the anger that Wally has been keeping and directing at Andre is more of how he is projecting how mundane his life is and knows that the city he lives is in, is a jail centre which he cannot escape. This can be demonstrated of how Wally keeps defending his position in life and the more he challenges Andre, the more he's forced to admit his own confusion and frustration. And it's the same for Andre where he is unable to share how one can shift one's consciousness to be awakened in this world rather than sleeping with the comfort the system provides in order to make you feel dead inside.
The movie is what it is on the surface...two friends having dinner and talking, while much of the movie is just Andre & talking experiences and philosophy, which to be honest isn't easy to follow, the movie feels much more real when Wally begins to call him out. And the responds from Andre not only challenges Wally but to you moviegoers, which makes this film feel like you are listening to a podcast. A notion that hit the cord was fitting a role and to be stuck on the idea of a son, a daughter and a wife when in reality one should be living their lives rather than looking for the perfect Insta or Kodak family moment.
This isn't a movie that you can expect to watch and understand, but it is a movie you can watch and debate and may end up changing moviegoers' views over time...maybe once you'd side with Andre and the next time Wallace. It also changes with time and ideas. To me this movie is worth a visit, overall 9/10.
It's been a while movie goers and since it's the Christmas holidays, I found time to watch an early 80's gem via YouTube.
Tonight's movie flick is My Dinner with Andre (1981), which feels like listening to a podcast but really highlights a dialogue between 2 men in a restaurant that runs for over 100 minutes. This indie film directed by Louis Malle and written by the underrated Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, who are playing themselves, converse around whether the world is a stage and whether people are acting to fit into their respective roles in life without realisation. The two discuss topics such as not living, not being authentic, the disconnect they feel among the society they find themselves in and how society are institutionalised to think a certain way, to talk a certain way and to live a certain way.
In my opinion, this film is designed to wake people up from slumber and monotony of life or in simple terms this movie represents a spiritual awakening. This is where these two characters contrast each under during their meet up, where we have Andre, who is on a quest for spiritual awakening and enlightenment in the name of growth while on the other side you have Wally, hiding under electric blankets, an anodyne to the suffering of the world because "our lives are tough enough as it is." Wally's character who is happy with his morning cold coffee as long as there are no cockroaches, represents the norm, the individuals who are self-aware enough to know what's coming but not yet brave enough to get out of the institutionalised system they feel trapped.
The film is a deceptively simple two-hander. A playwright and actor named Wally (Wallace) Shawn is on his way uptown to have dinner with his old friend, the theatre director André Gregory at a poshy upscale restaurant of Andre's choosing. The movie is narrated by Wally and we soon learn that he dreads seeing Andre and the reason is that he has heard his old friend has experienced transcendent experiences by randomly spending the last few years traveling around the world and has resulted into Andre sobbing on the street and talking to trees. This has of course has led to Wally not wanting to see his friend in this state.
Once the two friends meet for dinner, it starts off with Wally commenting how good Andre' looks, this invites the audience on how society is trained to be nice and touch on surface level discussions rather than diving deep into what really matters for human connection; authenticity. For the next forty minutes, Andre talks almost nonstop, barely pausing to dismember the succulent quail that both he and Wally have ordered, Wally, on the other hand, limits himself to such comments as "Gosh" and "Uh-huh," or such probing questions as "What happened then?" and "Andre! How can you say something like that?"
Andre talks about his time in a forest in Poland, his journey to the Sahara with a Japanese Buddhist monk, his time in a Scottish town, his mundane experience in India and a ritual he participated where he was buried alive. The stories sound outlandish and weird in particular where Andre imagined an SS officer identifying with Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, a book that has great significance for Andre.
The adventures of Andre aren't so much about what he did nor is it his seductiveness as a storyteller speaking in a smooth, urbane style, but rather his desperation to reach out to someone who can possibly make sense of what he has put himself through and reassure him that he's not insane. The second half of the film slowly shifts to a vehement argument between the two men where Wally who is bugged by Andre's comment on the world, is on the attack. Wally presents himself as a scientific rationalist and an individual who likes comfort. He views Andre's brand of "magical thinking" as ridiculous and that people should be happy in their lives regardless if it means been stuck in a cold city such as New York.
We might have a sense of the anger that Wally has been keeping and directing at Andre is more of how he is projecting how mundane his life is and knows that the city he lives is in, is a jail centre which he cannot escape. This can be demonstrated of how Wally keeps defending his position in life and the more he challenges Andre, the more he's forced to admit his own confusion and frustration. And it's the same for Andre where he is unable to share how one can shift one's consciousness to be awakened in this world rather than sleeping with the comfort the system provides in order to make you feel dead inside.
The movie is what it is on the surface...two friends having dinner and talking, while much of the movie is just Andre & talking experiences and philosophy, which to be honest isn't easy to follow, the movie feels much more real when Wally begins to call him out. And the responds from Andre not only challenges Wally but to you moviegoers, which makes this film feel like you are listening to a podcast. A notion that hit the cord was fitting a role and to be stuck on the idea of a son, a daughter and a wife when in reality one should be living their lives rather than looking for the perfect Insta or Kodak family moment.
This isn't a movie that you can expect to watch and understand, but it is a movie you can watch and debate and may end up changing moviegoers' views over time...maybe once you'd side with Andre and the next time Wallace. It also changes with time and ideas. To me this movie is worth a visit, overall 9/10.