{"id":24822,"date":"2024-01-08T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=24822"},"modified":"2023-12-19T10:03:02","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T18:03:02","slug":"lydias-film-critique-my-dinner-with-andre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/01\/08\/lydias-film-critique-my-dinner-with-andre\/","title":{"rendered":"Lydia\u2019s Film Critique<\/em>: My Dinner With Andre<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had watched My Dinner With Andre<\/i> the spring after turning 16. The nervous young woman with only partially grown-out bangs feels less familiar now. She was forever changed. I vowed after my viewing that I\u2019d never watch it again until, I figured, when I was about 30 and I\u2019d come to understand life. Maybe I had missed the point altogether.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In My Dinner With Andre<\/i>, we meet struggling playwright Wallace Shawn as he travels through New York side streets and subway tunnels on his way to a dreaded dinner with an old friend and valued colleague, Andre Gregory\u2014both of whom are playing themselves. An internal monologue explains the anxiety: rumour has it he had suddenly abandoned the theatre years ago to travel Asia and found enlightenment. A shared friend of theirs even confessed Gregory was found crying, curled up against a building, emotional after viewing Autumn Sonata<\/i> at the cinema some blocks down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lydia’s Film Critique<\/em> is a column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (image by Lydia Zuleta Johnson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arriving at the restaurant, skeptical, Shawn dresses himself in a tie before entering and waits with a Perrier\u2014no club soda available\u2014for his dinner mate.<\/p>\n

Gregory arrives polished and well-mannered. A quick greeting and small chatter inaugurates their reunion and a conversation begins, first with a saga of stories stacked upon themselves, burning dazzling, vivid images into the mind of the audience.<\/p>\n

Recounts of the marvels Gregory had found in the Sahara desert, on bountiful English commune farms, with Tibetan monks, with floral-eyed creatures fill the space between them. Wows and ohs wedge into his sermon and grow only more tense.<\/p>\n

The premise of My Dinner with Andre<\/i> may be a simple one; for the most part the entire film takes place within the restaurant. But the movie (written by Gregory and Shawn, and directed by Louis Malle) poses\u2014or forces, rather\u2014the self-reflection we so desperately hide from. Questions we carefully choose to leave unanswered stare viewers in the face. What is a connection? What is pleasure? How do experiences define us?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bubble-ups of conflicting philosophies spill onto the white tablecloth as Shawn admits his pleasure is a coffee left untouched by insects. A careful dance of dialogue fills this corner of the restaurant, although neither is wrong. It\u2019s a conflict that begs for connection, yet features that very subject. My Dinner With Andre<\/i> intimately confronts what makes us human in many ways: the same crumbling egos uncertain of both coffee and Tibet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And so we end the same way we began, passing cars on New York cement, now with Erik Satie\u2019s first Gymnop\u00e9die<\/i> and the remnants of our dinner with Andre still ringing in our ears.<\/p>\n

4.5\/5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had watched My Dinner With Andre the spring after turning 16. The nervous young woman with only partially grown-out bangs feels less familiar now. She was forever changed. I vowed after my viewing that I\u2019d never watch it again until, I figured, when I was about 30 and I\u2019d come to understand life. Maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-january-8-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t