Dir: Louis Malle
Cast: Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory
You must excuse my ignorance, but I had never, up until this evening,
seen this fascinating, engaging, thought-provoking, and ultimately
life-affirming film. I feel like I'm a late-comer to the party,
especially since this movie has been out on DVD for quite some time
(although out of print until recently, and fetching exorbitant and
altogether ridiculous sums on Amazon and Ebay).
While
watching this wonderful film, I was thinking of the horror of trying to
recommend this to the average customer. Yes, indeed, a one hour and 40
minute film almost solely comprised of two men at a dinner table talking
about life seems like a tough sell. At the same time, I thought of
several people in my life, quite close to me - though in different ways -
to whom I felt I needed
to recommend this, if they hadn't seen it already. Try to watch it -
you'll either be bored out of your skull after the first 10 minutes or
completely hypnotized. And if you're one of the latter, I'd like to
think I can count you as a friend. The incredibly sly, but unobtrusive
way director Louis Malle frames the entire film is a marvel.
The recent Criterion re-issue
is superb with a second disc of lengthy interviews with principles
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory nearly 30 years on. Really, I cannot
stress how much of a revelation this film was to me, and when Wallace
Shawn's lips offer forth the word "inconceivable" at the 3/4 mark, a disbelieving
smile came to my face, and my mind was truly blown. This will remain on
my Film Buff East staff picks shelf for quite some time.
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