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From: jjm@hou5e.UUCP (J McParland)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: REVIEW: My Dinner With Andre
Message-ID: <696@hou5e.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Aug-83 10:55:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou5e.696
Posted: Mon Aug  8 10:55:29 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Aug-83 04:44:48 EDT
Organization: American Bell ED&D, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 39


	I saw My Dinner With Andre last night.  I rented this
	film from my local video store mainly because of the
	rave reviews it received from Siskel + Ebert when they
	were the hosts of Sneak Previews.

	This film is a true gem of modern filmmaking.  Two men
	who have not seen each other for several years sit down
	in a restaurant and discuss what has happenned in the 
	intervening years.  There are no flashback sequences, no
	locations used other than the restaurant itself.  There
	is no attempt to show visually anything other than the
	restaurant itself.  Yet the dialog in this movie is so
	colorful, so descriptive that you find yourself imagining
	all the strange vistas described - an acting class in 
	Poland, the mountains of Tibet, etc.

	Fans of Douglas Hofstader will appreciate the self-referential
	aspects of the film - a film which discusses how modern plays
	cannot really reach out to audiences, two men talking about
	how people do not really relate to each other while talking,
	etc.

	A friend of mine suggests that the two men represent the Id and
	the Superego.  I'm not sure that the terms are correct, but they
	do represent two different (and at times conflicting) viewpoints
	of life that I think we all must deal with.  One values living
	life to celebrate "being", living for the sake of living.  The other
	proposes that life without goals and direction is meaningless.

	A truly refreshing film.  It's so nice to see a film that asks
	you to think.  It's nice to see characters that are not "good"
	and "bad".  I really recommend this film.  Ask for it at your
	local videotape rental store!

	Jim McParland
	ABI - HO
	hou5e!jjm