Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

My Dinner with André Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 15, 2015

Louis Malle's "My Dinner with Andre" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include archival interviews with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory conducted by filmmaker Noah Baumbach; and "My Dinner with Louis", an archival episode of the BBC program Arena featuring Wallace Shawn and Louis Malle. The release also arrives with a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring Amy Taubin's essay "Long, Strange Trips", Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn's "On the Origins of My Dinner with Andre", and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Wally

They are good friends who have not seen each other in a long time -- a very, very long time. Now they have arranged to have dinner in a posh restaurant somewhere on New York’s Upper East Side.

Wally (Wallace Shawn, Vanya on 42nd Street), a struggling actor-playwright, is the first one to arrive in the restaurant. He looks nervous and completely out of sync amongst the elegantly dressed couples. At the bar he orders a club soda, but is promptly informed that the place serves only Source de Pavilion.

Andre’s (Andre Gregory, Author! Author!) arrival is different. He is a regular and everyone seems to know him. Before he orders a spritzer, the bartender casually mentions that it is great to see him again. It is hard to believe him, but no one questions his sincerity.

The men are then quickly seated and invited to order. Andre chooses the Cailles aux Raisin and the Terrine de Poissons. Wally seems confused by the menu, but decides that Cailles aux Raisin sounds exactly like the dish he has always wanted to try. Then, just to be safe he adds Bramborova Polevka, "a delicious potato soup".

While they are waiting for their food to be prepared, Wally and Andre begin talking. Actually, it is Andre that does the majority of the talking. Wally only occasionally asks questions and Andre quickly clarifies important details so that his friend can better digest his information.

Depending on who you ask, Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre is either a brilliantly executed film or a boring and quite pretentious chamber piece loaded with a massive amount of meaningless words. As it often happens with such polarizing films, however, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The bulk of the film is really quite fascinating to behold. While one may not “get” all of its important points about the meaning of life, sacrifice, and art, it is difficult not to agree that there is an incredible chemistry between Shawn and Gregory. There is obvious mutual respect on display that also prevents their conversation from evolving into an elitist debate.

But is this enough to keep one interested in their conversation?

It probably is, assuming that one is also part of the same reality the two friends belong to and is intrigued by the same subjects their minds find fascinating -- the evolving standards of acting workshops, Martin Buber’s theories about human nature, or the obvious and not so obvious benefits of electric blankets. The logic behind their thoughts and observations is flat-out mesmerizing.

But the film can also be quite frustrating because it does test one’s IQ without giving second chances to those who miss the sea of references and witty jokes. (Are you familiar with Konstantin Stanislavsky’s work? What do you know about Albert Speer?) In other words, viewing the film could be like attending a masterclass presented by a brilliant nuclear medicine physician who has a lot of meaningful things to say, but while describing his findings constantly draws parallels that don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.

The film’s visual style is simple but very effective. The camera moves around the table and carefully observes the faces of the two actors from a variety of different angles. Occasionally, it also captures the funny glances of their surprisingly hostile waiter (Jean Lenauer).

My Dinner with André Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.64:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 16mm A/B negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using DaVinci's Revival, MTI's DRS, and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's DVNR was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16mm magnetic tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4.

Transfer supervisors: Christian Hermann, Nikolaus Summerer/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich.
Colorist: Bianca Stumpf/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich.
Additional technical coordination: Arne Hastedt, Maike Jahn/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich."

The film looks vibrant and very healthy. Depth and clarity are excellent and as it is always the case with 16mm material grain is prominent. Because of the high-quality scanning, the grain is also evenly distributed and resolved. Contrast levels are stable and shadow definition very convincing. Unsurprisingly, the footage from the restaurant looks terrifically balanced. Colors are rich, stable, and natural (perhaps only during the outdoor footage there is a slight push towards a more prominent range of blues). There are absolutely no traces of degraining or sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is outstanding. Finally, the film is immaculately clean -- there are absolutely no debris, damage marks, cuts, splices, scratches, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).

My Dinner with André Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The film does not have a prominent music score. Predictably, the range of nuanced dynamics is very limited. However, clarity, depth, and separation are outstanding. Indeed, during the entire dinner the exchanges between Wally and Andre are very crisp, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. The random sounds and noises around them are also very easy to identify. There are no pops, cracks, background hiss, or digital distortions to report in our review.

My Dinner with André Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn - in this long program, filmmaker Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha) talks to Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn about the production history of My Dinner with Andre. The program was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2009.
  
  1. Andre Gregory - the actor/writer/producer recalls his initial encounter and conversations with Wallace Shawn and how he rehearsed his stories while attending different parties, an interesting encounter with French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, how Louis Malle contacted him and expressed desire to direct My Dinner with Andre, how the final version of the script for the film emerged, etc. In English, not subtitled. (32 min, 1080p).
  
  2. Wallace Shawn - the actor/writer/producer discusses his early plays, his initial contact with Andre Gregory (at the time he was living and working in Cedar Rapids, IA), the original idea for My Dinner with Andre, the different themes in the film, the type of qualities Louis Malle was able to capture with his camera which Wallace Shawn wasn't aware were part of his identity, the structure of the film, etc. In English, not subtitled. (30 min, 1080p).

• "My Dinner with Louis" - presented here is an archival episode of the BBC series Arena in which Wallace Shawn and Louis Malle meet in Atlantic City and talk about cinema, the controversy a few of the French director's films created during the years, some of the more prominent themes and conflicts in his films, his journey to India, his work in America, etc. The episode was broadcast in 1982. In English, not subtitled. (53 min, 1080i).
  
  1. Human decay and growth
  2. Quests, scandals, and wars
  3. A monster prodigy
  4. Incomprehensible India
  5. Traveling with Cousteau
  6. Two films about right and wrong
  7. Our confused capitalist country
  8. Fiction and documentary

• Booklet - 28-page illustrated booklet featuring: Amy Taubin's essay "Long, Strange Trips", Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn's "On the Origins of My Dinner with Andre", and technical credits.

My Dinner with André Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am not as enthusiastic about Louis Malle's film My Dinner with Andre as many people appear to be. It is different and bold, but a bit too abstract for my taste. Frankly, I much prefer My Dinner with Louis, a wonderful and truly illuminating archival episode of the BBC series Arena, which Criterion have included on this upcoming Blu-ray release. My Dinner with Andre has been recently restored and looks wonderful in high-definition. RECOMMENDED.