Le Dîner de cons
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| Le dîner de cons | |
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| Directed by | Francis Veber |
| Produced by | Francis Veber |
| Written by | Francis Veber |
| Starring | Thierry Lhermitte Jacques Villeret |
| Distributed by | Gaumont |
| Release date(s) | April 15, 1998 in France |
| Running time | 87 min |
| Language | French |
| IMDb profile | |
Le dîner de cons (French: lit. The Idiots' Dinner ; international English title: The Dinner Game) is a French film directed by Francis Veber that was released in 1998.
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[edit] Plot
The Dinner Game is a film for introspection under the guise of a comedy. The movie asks the question: "Is being nice idiotic?"
Pierre Brochant (Lhermitte), a famous Parisian publisher, attends a weekly "idiots' dinner", where each guest, who are prominent Parisian businessmen (and therefore, it is implied, intelligent), must bring along an "idiot" whom the other invitees can tease. At the end of the dinner the evening's champion idiot is selected. Brouchant manages, with the help of a "idiot scout" to find an exceptional idiot: François Pignon (Villeret), a Finance Ministry employee who is crazy about building replicas with matchsticks. But things start to go haywire when Pierre's wife leaves him in the middle of things.
Left alone in his apartment, the suave, cultured Pierre injures his back, and instead of going to the dinner with François Pignon, has to ask François to help him. Soon Pierre's life disintegrates as the overly-helpful François accidentally destroys his marriage by inviting over Pierre's ex-mistress, jeopardises Brochant's finances by thoughtlessly bringing in a scrupulous fellow tax collector responsible for assessing Pierre for the stringent French wealth tax, and pushes to the limit Pierre's sanity with a series of bungles.
Incidentally the name François Pignon is used by scriptwriter/director Francis Veber in a number of different of films for example - The Closet, The Valet - in each case the character is completely different.
[edit] Full cast
- Jacques Villeret: François Pignon
- Thierry Lhermitte: Pierre Brochant
- Francis Huster: Juste Leblanc
- Alexandra Vandernoot : Christine Brochant
- Daniel Prévost: Lucien Cheval
- Catherine Frot: Marlène Sasseur
- Edgar Givry: Jean Cordier
- Christian Pereira: Le docteur Sorbier
- Pétronille Moss: Mademoiselle Blond
[edit] Awards
- César Award 1999 : Best Actor for Jacques Villeret
- César Award 1999 : Best supporting actor for Daniel Prévost
- César Award 1999 : Best producer for Francis Veber
