My Dinner with Andre

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My Dinner with Andre
My Dinner with Andre DVD cover
Directed by	Louis Malle
Produced by	George W. George, Beverly Karp
Written by	Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
Starring	Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
Distributed by	New Yorker Films
Release date(s)	October 11, 1981
Running time	110 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 movie starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, written by Gregory and Shawn, and directed by Louis Malle.

The film consists almost entirely of a long conversation between two acquaintances in a chic restaurant in New York City. It is based largely on actual conversations between Gregory and Shawn, and covers such subjects as experimental theatre, the nature of theatre, and the nature of reality. The movie was filmed in an abandoned hotel in Virginia. The dialogue contrasted Shawn's modest down-to-earth humanism against Gregory's extravagant spiritual experiences and fantasies. Although the film was based on actual events in the actors' lives, Shawn and Gregory denied (in an interview by film critic Roger Ebert) that they were playing themselves, and stated that if they remade the film they would swap the two characters to prove their point.

The Boston Society of Film Critics Awards awarded the film the title "Best American Film" in 1982 and awarded Gregory and Shawn its prize for best screenplay. Roger Ebert, along with his TV partner Gene Siskel, had also praised the film and helped bring public attention to it. Ebert, in 1999, added My Dinner with Andre as one of his "Great Movies" essay series. In the autobiographical comic book series American Splendor, Harvey Pekar (the writer) meets Wallace Shawn and sees the film.

[edit] Parodies

My Dinner with Andre was parodied by Andy Kaufman and wrestler Fred Blassie in My Breakfast with Blassie (1983).
My Coffee with Niles, the final episode of Season One of Frasier, is clearly inspired by My Dinner With Andre.
In the episode of The Simpsons, Boy-Scoutz N the Hood, Martin Prince is seen playing an arcade game based on the film.
Pixar's first animated short—The Adventures of André and Wally B.—was a tribute to the movie.
In Waiting for Guffman, Corky St. Clair, played by Christopher Guest, shows off his My Dinner with Andre action figures during the tour of his shop.