Dîner de cons, Le (1998)

reviewed by
Greg King


THE DINNER GAME (LE DINER DE CONS) (M). (Gaumont/Sharmill Films) Director: Francis Veber Stars: Jacques Villeret, Thierry Lhermitte, Francis Huster, Daniel Prevost, Alexandra Vendernoot, Catherine Frot Running time: 80 minutes (French, with English subtitles).

Writer/director Francis Veber is a dab hand at fast paced comedies centring on odd couple relationships, and The Dinner Game (Le Diner De Cons) finds him at his peak. This is a fast, frantic and hilarious farce, and one of the funniest films of the year!

The premise of this delightful and thoroughly enjoyable comedy centres around a group of friends who regularly gather to hold an unusual dinner party. The object is for each of the participants to bring along as a guest the "biggest idiot" they can find so that they can maliciously make fun of them during the evening. Usually the targets of this bizarre entertainment are dull people with unusual hobbies about which they can discourse at long and boring length, full of trivial detail. Publisher Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) thinks he has found a pearler when he stumbles across Monsieur Pignon (Jacques Villeret), a scruffy, dishevelled taxation clerk who builds elaborate structures out of match sticks. He invites him to the next dinner party, assured that he has a winner. But things start to go wrong, as Brochant hurts his back in a golf game and is initially reluctant to go to the dinner. To add further insult to injury his wife leaves him. The evening quickly turns into a litany of disasters, as Pignon's well meaning attempts to solve Brochant's problems lead to one hilarious misfortune after another. But there is also a humanity and a strong moral to this tale that hits home.

The Dinner Game is based on Veber's own stage play. Although its origins are sometimes evident in the setting, this is nonetheless an entertaining film that overcomes the limitations brilliantly. Veber's crisp direction and writing wastes precious few moments throughout the film's tight and sometimes unpredictable 90 minutes. Villeret is superb as Pignon, and he brings a wonderful physical presence and energy to the role. His facial expressions and contortions provide plenty of humorous moments.

Many of Veber's previous comedies have been turned into bland American comedies (The Birdcage, Three Fugitives, etc), and one can almost see The Dinner Game also being turned into a typically pale Hollywood-style imitation, with Danny De Vito in the role of Pignon.

****1/2
greg king
http://www.netau.com.au/gregking

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