The Dinner Game

This witty comedy won a trio of Césars (the French version of the Oscars), including Best Screenplay and Best Actor for Jacques Villeret. He plays François, a fool who’s plucked from obscurity to accompany Pierre to a dinner party to which each of the guests must bring an ‘idiot’, who will then be humiliated in front of everyone. But François has his own ideas…, Laughter is on the menu of this hilarious French farce about a group of snobs who compete to see who can bring the biggest idiot to a party. Just when Pierre (Thierry Lhermitte) thinks he’s found the winner, the “victim” turns the tables and everyone gets their just desserts. Jacques Villeret. Written and directed by Francis Veber (“La Cage Aux Folles”)., Francis Verber’s satire centres around a group of friends who compete to see who can find the stupidest guest for their weekly dinners. Pierre (Thierry Lhermitte) thinks he’s won with accountant Francois (Jacques Villert), who builds models of monuments from matches, but a bizarre twist of fate turns the tables, as the innocent dupe suddenly becomes the architect of Pierre’s humiliation. In French with subtitles., Madcap farce about a group of friends who hold a weekly competition to see who can find the most stupid person to bring along to dinner. One of the group thinks he is on to a winner when he finds someone of truly precious imbecility. Unfortunately, he wrenches his back playing golf. The nincompoop turns up at his flat, but he is in such pain that he is unable to go out and is instead trapped with his idiot companion., Francis Verber’s satire centres around a group of friends who compete to see who can find the stupidest guest for their weekly dinners. Pierre (Thierry Lhermitte) thinks he’s won with accountant Francois (Jacques Villert), who builds models of monuments from matches, but a bizarre twist of fate turns the tables, as the innocent dupe suddenly becomes the architect of Pierre’s humiliation., Francis Veber wrote and directed this film adaptation (with animated opening credits) of his own play, Le diner de cons, about a competition among a group of friends to see who can find the stupidest person to bring to dinner (as indicated by the original French title, since “con” means someone who’s a total dumbbell). The dinners are held each Wednesday night, and French publisher Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) has found a world class nincompoop — Finance Ministry accountant Francois Pignon (Jacques Villeret) who uses matchsticks to build small-scale replicas of monuments. Things quickly go awry after Pierre wrenches his back at golf. He nevertheless makes an effort to attend the dinner with his prize dunce. Francois arrives at Pierre’s luxury apartment, but Pierre is in such pain they never exit the apartment for the dinner. Instead, Pierre is trapped in a situation where Francois’ stupidity turns his life into a comic hell. In 1993, Villeret created the role of the dimwit onstage during 600 performances of a 27-month run, and the play also had a 1994 London production. In addition to Veber’s Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation of Jean Poiret’s La Cage aux Folles (1978), reworked into The Birdcage (1996), other American comedies originated in French screenplays by Veber — The Toy (1982), The Man with One Red Shoe- (1985), Three Fugitives (1989), and Fathers’ Day (1997). Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.