Le Diner De Cons

Introduction

This is the story of a group of friends who entertain themselves once a week by throwing a dinner party, but each person has to invite someone they consider such an idiot that their very presence will cause great amusement. Pierre Brochant, a publishing executive, has not yet found his idiot, but a friend bumps into a certain François Pignon on the train. François is a taxman who has a passion for making models of famous landmarks out of matchsticks. Pierre is told about this specimen and so François receives a invitation on the pretence that his matchstick creations are worthy of publication.

Before the day of the dinner however, Pierre damages his back playing golf, and so when François turns up to be taken to the meal, he is told that it has to be postponed until the following week. François, though, proves himself to be so `special` that Pierre cannot wait a week to show him off, but circumstances prevent any idea of going to the dinner. François doesn`t leave, and causes major disruption to the lives of not only Pierre, but Pierre`s wife, Pierre`s girfriend, Pierre`s wife`s ex-lover and even François` own boss.

Video

Video quality for this DVD is fine, and the film is presented in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1. The lighting and colour give the film the impression of being made in the 60s or 70s, but being a far more recent production there are no obvious imperfections.

Audio

Sound-wise, everything is nice and clear, and being a dialogue-led plot, the DD Stereo soundtrack (being the only choice available) is satisfactory. The music in the film (by Vladimir Cosma) also harks bark to the style of older French films, but is very effective and annoyingly catchy.

Features

`Extras` exist in the form of scene selections (all 16 of them - we are honoured), and burnt in English subtitles. It would have been nice to have some form of translation of the song at the opening,and a spell-check would have been useful for those we have for the film, but perhaps I`m being too picky.

Conclusion

The film is a conversion of a successful stage production, directed by the play`s author. Quite often, the stage origin of this type of film adaptation is obvious to the point of being claustrophobic, but luckily not in this case, as Francis Veber takes the opportunity to take us outside Pierre`s flat every at every opportunity.

Unfortunately, the characters in the story are rather too one-dimensional, although Thierry Lhermitte (Pierre) conveys a wonderful sense of arrogance and superiority - and not much else, until the rather too sudden and contrived conversion to realising that it`s not nice to treat everyone who has a peculiar hobby or character trait as an idiot (there`s a moral to this story you know).

Jacques Villeret (François) played the same charater in the original production, and it`s fairly obvious he`s in his element here, acting the role of the innocent but ultimately loveable fool perfectly.

This is not a `laugh out loud` film, but I found myself smirking at some of the plot twists, despite it being obvious what was going to happen most of the time. There is also an undeniable charm to François` actions as he slowly ruins the life of the man who seems to exist only to make fun of the lives of others, but we feel little or no sympathy towards Pierre until right at the end, when his character changes completely (well, the film`s about to end), but by then it`s too late.

The translation of `Le Diner de Cons` to `The Dinner Game` isn`t a good one, but `The Idiots` Dinner` (or variations thereof, and we learn in the film that there could be many) could, I suppose, be offensive to someone.

Rumour has it that we are going to be having a US remake, and so before all illusions are shattered, I recommend you get your hands on this first as it`s an enjoyable little film nonetheless, and worth seeing for the performance of Jacques Villeret, who sadly died at the beginning of 2005.