479, 599, 762 André Gregory & Wallace Shawn: 3 Films

[HerrSchreck]

I think the CC looks lifeless & drained of color.

[Jeff]

I think the CC looks lifeless & drained of color.

Don't make fun; Wallace Shawn was just born that way.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the girth of the supplements. The Baumbach interviews total an hour, and the BBC doc is nearly as long.

[Cronenfly]

Well, the locales within the film are themselves pretty drab (and shot in a fairly unflattering manner to boot), and I wouldn't expect Shawn/Gregory's flesh tones to be anything other than pasty, so it looks fine to me (the colouring of Shawn's jacket in the 2nd/3rd caps supports the CC's correctness in going for a more desaturated colour scheme, IMO, where the Fox Lorber looks so very wrong; ditto the bizarre greenish tinge of the first FL cap).

And yet again I spoke too soon about the supplements (esp. relative to pricing); they look pretty damn meaty/filler free.

[Svevan]

Love the heavy grain, reminds me of Tout va Bien's deliciously grainy SD transfer. Can't wait to get this in the mail!

Re Schrek and "lifeless color" - this transfer seems to have far more flesh tone than Criterion's Trafic, which was a disaster in caps and motion (despite improved sharpness and great supplements that made it a must own anyways).

[cdnchris]

My Dinner with André DVD review

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the colours on the DVD. Honestly I thought they looked pretty good. Jeff's right, though, Wallace Shawn has always been pretty pasty.

[aox]

Just saw this for the first time this afternoon. Pretty great. I have to admit, I thought the first 20-30 minutes were painfully dull and it pretty much lost my attention. Andre's stories of Poland etc.. bored me to tears.

It wasn't until they actually started talking about philosophy, life, politics, etc.. that I was completely swallowed. This would make a great double feature with Rohmer's My Night at Maud's. I couldn't help making the comparison between the two throughout this film.

[psufootball07]

Really intriguing film, certain parts are very interesting, others rather dull. It also seemed to me as the waiters discussed briefly before sending over the bill at the very end that Chris Rock was in the scene.

8:35 into this clip of the film on Youtube

[Highway 61]

I have to admit, I thought the first 20-30 minutes were painfully dull and it pretty much lost my attention. Andre's stories of Poland etc.. bored me to tears.

Andre's stories are so boring that I have to believe that their dullness is intentional. The film's power (for me anyway) stems from the film's shift of emphasis from Andre to Wally. This culminates toward the end of the film when Shawn gives that extraordinary speech about how happiness is not waking up to find a cockroach in his coffee. Yet in order for that speech to have the effect that it does, the movie has to set up Andre and his adventures as less appealing than Wally and his humility, and the film accomplishes this by making Andre's seemingly exotic stories boring.

[Svevan]

I'm glad Amy Taubin mentions Wallace Shawn's horrendous eating habits in her essay - I can't be friends with anyone who chews with their mouth open, and Wally nearly lost all my sympathy as a result. I don't know how Andre got through dinner.

Taubin and others comment that we're supposed to be on Andre's side for the first portion of the flick, and that was most definitely not my reaction. In fact, I felt in communion with Martha's first page rant as far as Andre's character goes: what a dick! I can understand the power of trance theatresports from my own limited experience with theatre, but elevating these things to religious engagement, sans audience, and at the cost of your actual life is, I don't know, so 80s. The film feels like a blast of post-modernism in its desperation: Andre thinks the whole world is going to shit very soon, hence his masturbatory journeying, and Wally is almost as pessimistic about modern life without altogether agreeing with Andre's solutions. Andre's forays feel like a retread of pagan mysticism that is so foreign to me I just could not identify with him, and Wally's blank-smile receipt of Andre's bullshit drove me mad. When Wally finally lays out his reason/logic antithesis, I found myself more on his side, even though his statements don't represent my attitude in life.

Class seems to hover over the film, and I think Taubin and Gregory mention elements of this in the supplements: Wally mentions that Andre has money sitting around somewhere, and Andre does eventually pay for the meal. Wally is an American aristocrat whose chosen profession has made him poor by his own standards, but he's rich in comparison with his fellow travelers on the subway. Andre rails against mainstream society yet he has a comprehensive knowledge of French food, shorthand for elitist.

My favorite evocation of Andre's double standards is when he and Wally have come to agree that no one ever says what they think just as the waiter asks "Is everything alright?" (purposefully vague) and they both reply "Yes" automatically.

[jguitar]

I've just been reading through this thread, and it made me remember my first time seeing this film, not long after it came out. At the time, I was stuck in the middle of nowhere which, in case you're curious, is Macomb, Illinois. There were a group of cinephiles in town who would bring in some arthouse feature once a month at a local cineplex; I saw Kagemusha and Mon Oncle d'Amerique that way. Anyway, when we saw My Dinner With Andre there was a point in the conversation where Andre Gregory made what seemed to us to be a completely off the wall transition; we just couldn't figure out how he got from one topic to the next. Come to find out, they had switched the reels!

[HerrSchreck]

I'm glad Amy Taubin mentions Wallace Shawn's horrendous eating habits in her essay - I can't be friends with anyone who chews with their mouth open, and Wally nearly lost all my sympathy as a result. I don't know how Andre got through dinner.

DUDE!! You just won my heart-- people who chew with their mouths open are one of the biggest pet peeves of my life. Nothing nauseates me more than some imbecile who doesn't have the self-awareness to realize that the mashy, mushy, wet squishing of cud throughout and across the moistened teeth and tongue is about as unwelcome at the dinner table as some chick singing Mister Roboto in queefs. Many's the time my next oldest brother and I would hear some sticky mouth shit coming from some table retard and cast each other knowing glances of culinary hate. In fact I think I learned this particular form of loathing from him-- a fantastic fine artist, yet also a musclebound Bronx guido with a hair trigger temper.

Similar hatreds are for people who clip their fucking fingernails on the subway and bus-- I dunno whats more annoying, the chips flying that way and this, or the fucking >click< sound itself. It makes me so batty that I just sit there glaring at the bastard through a red mist until they get the point and stop.

[knives]

That and double dipping are what kills me. Once got kicked out of a party for throwing out dip that someone doubled in.

[kaujot]

You know, I believe Mythbusters proved that double-dipping being "dangerous" is really, uh, a myth. I dunno. I can see how some find it gross, but it's never really bothered me.

[HerrSchreck]

...a horrendous and unsanitary inclination immortalized forever in a classic Seinfeld episode.

You know, I believe Mythbusters proved that double-dipping being "dangerous" is really, uh, a myth. I dunno. I can see how some find it gross, but it's never really bothered me.

You slurp down the bowl-detritus left from some doubledipper snuffling and sneezing from a cold and leaving his horrendous microbes in the bowl... I on the other hand will relax in my westsuit & flippers under a suit of armor and gasmask...

[kaujot]

...a horrendous and unsanitary inclination immortalized forever in a classic Seinfeld episode.

I know.

You know, I believe Mythbusters proved that double-dipping being "dangerous" is really, uh, a myth. I dunno. I can see how some find it gross, but it's never really bothered me.

You slurp down the bowl-detritus left from some doubledipper snuffling and sneezing from a cold and leaving his horrendous microbes in the bowl... I on the other hand will relax in my westsuit & flippers under a suit of armor and gasmask...

Well, never having seen anyone sick double-dip, and having yet to get sick from eating salsa in a bowl that's assuredly being double-dipped in, I'll keep on keeping on.

[Napier]

My Dinner with Kaujot.

[knives]

You would eat doubled dip? Next you'll tell me you don't carry hand sanitizer in your car or use gloves while in the restroom.

[bearcuborg]

I got the impression most folks here double dipped...

[kaujot]

I hope everyone wears gloves when turning doorknobs.

[knives]

(God, this is more off topic then usual, but oh so fun)
The worst are salt and pepper shakers. I can't imagine anything more germ gathering. Also did you know it takes just three seconds in a bathroom by a toilet for a toothbrush to have shit particles on it.

[bearcuborg]

Please, we should all boil ourselves.

BTW, I just got my copy and hope Baumbach does a better job with this interview than he did with the hack job on They All Laughed.

[Svevan]

Hah, well, Baumbach is not an interviewer - he engages in a conversation with both guys, and sometimes stutters around convoluted phrasings to get to pretty simple ideas. Gregory is a talker, so he responds with stories, but Shawn comes off a bit self-absorbed or perhaps self-conscious, and Baumbach's attempt at probing creates some weird/awkward moments.

Huh, I just noticed that both of the leads have two first names.

[HerrSchreck]

I hope everyone wears gloves when turning doorknobs.

..or more to the point, wears a dental dam over their lips teeth tongue and gums when turning doorknobs with their mouth.

[bearcuborg]

Hah, well, Baumbach is not an interviewer - he engages in a conversation with both guys, and sometimes stutters around convoluted phrasings to get to pretty simple ideas. Gregory is a talker, so he responds with stories, but Shawn comes off a bit self-absorbed or perhaps self-conscious, and Baumbach's attempt at probing creates some weird/awkward moments.

Huh, I just noticed that both of the leads have two first names.

Haha, good pick up on the names!

As for the interview, I don't think I can watch that kind of thing... Baumbach is such a goddamn hack.

[swo17]

BTW, I just got my copy and hope Baumbach does a better job with this interview than he did with the hack job on They All Laughed.

I believe you are confusing Baumbach with Wes Anderson.