André GregoryBesprekingen

L'eccezionale lavoro di due attori/registi teatrali che costruiscono un dialogo fra due amici che riesce a toccare, in una sorta di dialogo platonico contemporaneo, le corde più profonde del nostro essere vivi ed essere umani. Sceneggiatura eccezionale per l'altrettanto eccezionale film del 1981 per la regia di Louis Malle.
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A masterpiece of a screenplay, a contemporary platonic dialogue which explorers the deeper meaning of being alive and being human. From this screenplay, the eponymous Louis Malle's masterpiece (1981).

Light, descriptive, fun, but not deeply revealing

Going into this not knowing anything about Andre Gregory, I walk out of it with an insatiable need to experience more of him and his work.

Andre Gregory is an theater director and actor known for his strong personality and manic dialogues. His most famous role was in the film My Dinner with Andre starring his friend Wallace Shawn. This book describes his childhood in a Russian Jewish immigrant family, his father's successful real estate career in Los Angeles, and his struggling career as a theater director. He was fired often and once had a physical altercation with Gregory Peck. There many that Gregory is not, but an telling enthralling tales is his strong suit.

Later.

It would be easy to see this in a bad light, dominated as it is by the experiences of André. André is rich, privileged enough to be able to afford a mid-life crisis where he doesn’t have to work and can travel the world rejecting everything he has so far achieved as an artist. Wallace, whom he is trying to convince that this is the right path, is a poor struggling playwright.

As André tells him it is bad to feel warm in one’s apartment in winter – how can one tell one is alive? -, Wallace says happiness for him is when his coffee in the morning, cold from the night before, doesn’t have a cockroach in it. And he means this, he isn’t being a smart-ass. When you are poor you find your pleasures where you can.

A nice juxtaposition. I was reminded of a friend of mine some months ago telling me that life is not about material complacency. She has a penthouse in the city and a house in the south of France, but that doesn’t mean she is wrong, of course. I immediately tossed my warmest coat.

We find a complex balance between the views of the two men and although people tend to side with Wallace, I think it is not as simple as that.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/my-dinner-with-andre-by-w...

Later.

It would be easy to see this in a bad light, dominated as it is by the experiences of André. André is rich, privileged enough to be able to afford a mid-life crisis where he doesn’t have to work and can travel the world rejecting everything he has so far achieved as an artist. Wallace, whom he is trying to convince that this is the right path, is a poor struggling playwright.

As André tells him it is bad to feel warm in one’s apartment in winter – how can one tell one is alive? -, Wallace says happiness for him is when his coffee in the morning, cold from the night before, doesn’t have a cockroach in it. And he means this, he isn’t being a smart-ass. When you are poor you find your pleasures where you can.

A nice juxtaposition. I was reminded of a friend of mine some months ago telling me that life is not about material complacency. She has a penthouse in the city and a house in the south of France, but that doesn’t mean she is wrong, of course. I immediately tossed my warmest coat.

We find a complex balance between the views of the two men and although people tend to side with Wallace, I think it is not as simple as that.

Rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/my-dinner-with-andre-by-w...

The conversation about art and life you always wanted to have. André relates his experiences traveling the world searching for meaning during a three-year period after exiling himself from the theatre. Wally provides the grounded reality. Quirky, odd, riveting.