Rating: 4/5
Criterion Challenge 2023 | 13/52 | Danny Peary’s “Guide for the Film Fanatic”
A semi-fictionalized conversation between real-life friends, Wallace Shawn and André Gregory.
Conceived initially as a biography, they took advantage of the opportunity to bring their notions of theater to the screen.
Within the movie, Shawn and Gregory met through the theater. Gregory then disappeared for several years.
This dinner engagement is him resurfacing.
The film finds its footing as Andre questions his life choices, and how he spent his life as an “intellectual creep.” That is the point where Wallace and Andre lament their phony culture. The conversation transitions to a discussion on how to live earnestly.
Andre says he feels like a Jew in a concentration camp living in New York, but he doesn’t know where to go. To “wake up,” he believes you have to have extreme experiences.
Wallace views the world as his enemy, longing for a quiet existence. Can’t a theater or a novel awaken the sleeping world? Is it impossible for them to enjoy life’s small pleasures?
I actually had a purpose as I was writing this: I wanted to destroy that guy that I played, to the extent that there was any of me there. I wanted to kill that side of myself by making the film because that guy is totally motivated by fear. — Wallace Shawn
Both Wallace and Andre recognize the need for conscious action. For Andre, it depends on what makes that person uncomfortable.
Stray Thoughts
- I can now attest that Danny Putti did a remarkable job imitating Andre in Community’s “Cultural Film Studies” episode.
- Louis Malle cut the script down from the original three-hour runtime. While disappointing Wallace Shawn, the movie would have had less cultural impact.
- Ending with Erik Satie is unfair — Gymnopédie 1 is an all-timer for me. Chills every time.
- This is technically a Troma film!