A long time ago, a boyfriend of mine found a video of a movie from the early 1980s called
My Dinner With Andre. He was
so excited about it that he actually organized a party -- well, an
evening -- so all our friends could get together and watch it.
I had to miss it. I forget where I was... it must have been some kind of trip, because I remember that I walked in the kitchen door, put down my bag, and dropped into a chair. Mom set some leftover dinner in front of me, and I was tiredly munching when my sister Kari bopped in, full of energy, absolutely beaming with joy. She's closest to me in age. Back then we had pretty much all the same friends, so she had gone to this
Andre evening. Kari declared that it was simply GREAT and it was
so bad that I'd missed it. She wouldn't tell me anything about it. Refused to answer any questions, but she'd borrowed the tape and wanted me to sit down then and there and watch this amazing movie.
I tried to beg off. I wanted to take a shower and go to bed, but Kari insisted.
Have you ever seen this movie? I guess you probably know by now that I'm pretty cynical, and can be quite an unfeeling asshole at times. If you have any impression of what I'm like, you probably won't be surprised to hear that I hated it.
Kari floated through at intervals, checking on me. She was waiting for the bliss to kick in, but instead I was getting more and more irritated. Each time she'd go by, I'd say, "Kari, I'm going to turn it off, I can't stand it any more!" A couple times I went to find her and told her I was going to bed. She'd say, "No, no! Go back and watch the rest! You HAVE to see the end! You'll like it, you'll see!"
If you don't know the film, it consists of a conversation between two men, Andre and Wally. "Wally" is Wallace Shawn, who is a likeable short bald guy who has played bit parts in many films. You know his face. "Andre" is a serious, obsessive figure who has spent the last year or so accumulating weird, random, unconnected experiences. Honestly, he hasn't learned anything from what's happened to him, and none of his experiences have changed him in any way.
He tells Wally ALL about it. In great, unending detail. If you watch the film, you get to hear all about it, too. However, you have the advantage of being able to shut the thing off without being rude -- unless your favorite sister keeps checking on you and brightly urges you to go on.
The end was, in fact, the best part of the movie. What happens? Wally gives a little spiel about ordinary life (about coffee without a cockroach in it -- it's a New York thing) and then goes home.
It turned out that
everybody else LOVED the movie. EVERYONE. I was the only one who didn't like it.
Except for my boyfriend's parents. A little while after, I forget where we were, but I ended up alone with them... I remember we were all dressed up; I was feeling quite adult. And somehow they brought up the movie and told me in a confidential way that they thought it was a waste of time, too.
movies
