Our Dinner With Andre

After the Biograph’s second anniversary "Devil" prank in 1974, it became a ritual on each February 11th for the staff and friends to observe the occasion with a reunion get-together at the theater. Then came the 10th anniversary party, during which the lobby was bathed in red neon light. The huge hallway collage leading from the lobby to the larger auditorium received a makeover. 

Caviar was dished out, both red and black. Thirsts were quenched with wine or beer. To attend the party's screening it cost $25 a head. The proceeds went to VCU's Anderson Gallery; Ed Slipek played a key role in that aspect of the occasion. 

With the party underway on February 11, 1982, Channel 8 showed up to document the proceedings and interview me about an art film premiering in the same city in which most of the movie's footage was shot. The film runs 111 minutes.

Directed by Louis Malle (1932-95), the screenplay for “My Dinner With Andre” (1981) was written by its two stars: Andre Gregory and Wally Shawn.

 About "Dinner," in 1999 film critic Roger Ebert (1942-2013) wrote: 

Someone asked me the other day if I could name a movie that was entirely devoid of clichés. I thought for a moment, and then answered, ‘My Dinner With Andre’ … I am impressed once more by how wonderfully odd this movie is, how there is nothing else like it. It should be unwatchable, and yet those who love it return time and again, enchanted.

In “My Dinner With Andre” the two main characters have a long talk over dinner in a posh restaurant that's supposed to be in Manhattan. Their discussion asked and attempted to answer: Is it better to spend your life searching the world over, to find universal truths? Or, is it best to know one city, perhaps a particular neighborhood, inside and out?

But the scenes in the restaurant were actually staged inside Richmond's Jefferson Hotel. At the time, the old hotel itself was closed and undergoing a massive renovation. The movie set was built in the hotel’s ballroom.  

The food seen in the movie was prepared by Chris Gibbs, a prominent Richmond restaurant-owner and caterer. Each day of shooting Gibbs showed up with a fresh batch of Cornish hens, wild rice and whatnot to be used in that day's shoot. The continuity people on the set had to then pick apart Gibbs’ work to make the looks of the plates in front of the two actors match the point in the film in which the scene would appear. 

A couple of times I went along with my friend, Chris, when he delivered the hens, so I could catch a glimpse of the set and what was going on. That experience planted a seed for what became the Biograph’s 10th anniversary party, with “Dinner” at the center of it.

For the one-of-a-kind event, the house was packed. And to top it off, Chef Gibbs served the lucky attendees the same meal Andre and Wally had enjoyed in the movie. 

Note: To see "Dinner" online at YouTube click here. 

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