Talk About Movies: Part 4
02-17-2020
, 01:28 AM
Quote:
Just watched back to back Louis Malle's Vanya on 42nd Street and My Dinner With Andre, two beautiful films starring Wally Shawn and Andre Gregory.
I've seen both a few times since I first saw them in theaters in 1981 and 1994, and they remain among my favorites of all time, especially My Dinner With Andre. I thought of a dinner with a friend a few weeks ago, and like in the movie, we noticed after hours of conversation that everyone else had left, and only the bar remained open. While my friend certainly isn't Andre, I am definitely Wally, grounded in the everyday, one who believes in science and disdains signs and omens, any talk of the supernatural, and, instead, insists upon mere coincidence to explain what some take as signs. I felt this way when I first saw it 40 years ago with a friend who is very much like Andre.
But what is so appealing about the film is despite the differences between Wally and Andre, their conversation transforms the day for Wally who rides home in a taxi, noting his memories of places in NYC. It seems even the city itself had been transformed by their dinner, their conversation, as if NYC has taken on a luster. And as the film ends, we realize that conversation will continue when Wally says he will tell his girlfriend Debbie all about his dinner with Andre.
I've seen both a few times since I first saw them in theaters in 1981 and 1994, and they remain among my favorites of all time, especially My Dinner With Andre. I thought of a dinner with a friend a few weeks ago, and like in the movie, we noticed after hours of conversation that everyone else had left, and only the bar remained open. While my friend certainly isn't Andre, I am definitely Wally, grounded in the everyday, one who believes in science and disdains signs and omens, any talk of the supernatural, and, instead, insists upon mere coincidence to explain what some take as signs. I felt this way when I first saw it 40 years ago with a friend who is very much like Andre.
But what is so appealing about the film is despite the differences between Wally and Andre, their conversation transforms the day for Wally who rides home in a taxi, noting his memories of places in NYC. It seems even the city itself had been transformed by their dinner, their conversation, as if NYC has taken on a luster. And as the film ends, we realize that conversation will continue when Wally says he will tell his girlfriend Debbie all about his dinner with Andre.
02-17-2020
, 02:59 PM
02-21-2020
, 10:22 AM
