two men sit down and have a conversation over dinner . be that the synopsis for my dinner with andre . that would be it on a super simplistic level . yes and they have a conversation and and ( more or less ) they have dinner . but what do they talk about . why be they meet . we learn from the narration from wallace shawn that he be avoid his friend andre gregory for quite some time and and that andre be away in foreign country for year . the impression be that and at first and this will be an awkward dinner . a it turn out and it anything but . a douglas adam would say and my dinner with andre be about life and the universe and and everything ( at least it would seem ) . oh and it a bit odd to just have two talk head a an entire movie . louis malle doesn not even go into the kind of visual technique that richard linklater would use on before sunrise and sunset to at least keep the camera move . and yet i find myself and somehow and even more engage by the dialog between shawn and gregory than i do in linklater film ( which be a close call a those be fantastic anyway ) . what make it so captivate be that you feel like youre right there with shawn and gregory at first be more like shawn and just listening and somewhat curious about what have be go on with this other guy . and gregory tell story and elaborate one it might seem and epic in it scope around the world ( tibet and poland and scotland and long island ) about his theatrical ritual and participation in new age type ceremony and improvisation and what have you . the interesting thing be this represent i start to see in my mind what gregory talk about . in that sense and my dinner with andre leave the audience imagine a they would read this in a novel . but then something else even more important happens and which be that gregory and and then by proxy shawn and go into depth that be unexpected . the entry point for this be andre represent he finally have enough of all of his soul search artist work ( the final straw be be bury alive for half an hour and a scene that malle finally do a perfect zoom in close up for ) and and how he feel like his career a an artist might be dead . why . because the world of theater be decay and he say . what be there when people and intellectual theater type and wouldn not go near certain play year ago that now they go to and say oh and that be pretty good . this lead into the philosophical meat of the movie and which be represent what do it mean to really be in a society that numbs people and make them feel mechanical in nature . what do to you about be alive or feel in love with someone and or actually do something with yourself . gregory tactic to get at this might seem far off at first his description of his time in tibet and poland and for example and seem silly and but it do lead somewhere for the audience and and it open up shawn into the dialog . the table turn and so to speak and on who talk and who be listen and a wally and who can not seem to wrap his head around these ritual ( a segway represent there be a play i saw and do you see it and where people get strangle on a submarine . ) and and then it become about both men and a men and have to come to grip with where they stand in their life . on the one hand gregory know that even if there isn not much hope in the transcendental stuff and meditating and so on and one have to try to at least see if one can live while on the other hand shawn and a a near ( or would be ) bourgeois and be content to just stay at home and read his charleton heston autobiography and sometimes go out with his wife and so on . the reality of living and a artist and a existentialist would put it and be what really on the table here and and it utterly fascinate to watch this and a story and a inquiry . sure and some people would not get into it . some probably would do best to not go anywhere near it ( and you probably know if you be if you groan at two hour of talk by some guy i never heard of and that inconceivable . guy from princess bride . ) . but for those who want something a little different and something that be not at all conventional and this be the movie and possibly and of a lifetime . it certainly rich enough to warrant repeat viewing and and at the least and on director malle end and he never make it feel static and give u angle and shot that do keep the conversation move and add dynamic interest ( if nothing else the cutaway to the waiter play by jean lenauer and be hilarious ) . it a masterpiece of gab and thought and and about how men in an upper middle class set think and feel and need to connect ( or do not need ) to something .