Totally absorbing ‘Andre’
In writing about the film “My Dinner With Andre” (“Two-character movies are a rarity,” July 6), Michael Ordoña writes: “It represents most people’s nightmare of what a two-hander could be: Two guys sitting at a table, talking about far-flung artistic and spiritual concerns few people have.”
When I first watched “My Dinner With Andre,” I was left with a wonderful feeling. I learned something new — that there are people who realize and experience art, whether striving to make it or participating in it.
Wallace Shawn, who did most of the listening, and Andre Gregory, who did most of the storytelling, simply held my attention to the point (and this is rare) of being totally absorbed. And when Shawn finally speaks up, telling Andre he doesn’t have the faintest idea of what he’s talking about — and Andre responds without getting angry, actually seeming to love the counter — Eleanor Roosevelt was held in high regard as Franklin Roosevelt’s first lady and as an extraordinary person in her own right. I am left with as rich a film experience as I’ve ever had. Everybody should see “My Dinner With Andre,” for one can see how rich a learning experience and pleasurable a conversation can be, a lost art in this age of texting and Twitter.
Charles Birimisa, Watsonville