La cena dei cretini

I'll keep it short and sweet. This movie was hilarious - even if you've never watched a French movie in your life, this is one of the quirkiest movies you'll ever see. I was laughing the entire time. The acting was good and the directing average. But the writing and screenplay were absolutely fantastic. You don't need to know French to watch it as long as you can get your hands on a copy with subtitles. Many foreign movies require you pay attention to the imagery, etc., thus making it hard for those needing subtitles. In this one the script carries the movie. I watched Le Diner de cons about 5 or 6 years ago, and it definitely sparked my interest in foreign movies 10/10

This is a very intelligent, hilarious, and slightly poignant movie. The 'dinner' of the title is a regular gathering at which some smug young Parisian gentlemen compete to invite the most amusingly ridiculous character as their guest. Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) believes he has a sure winner in François Pignon (played brilliantly by Jacques Villeret) whose passion is the construction of intricate models from matchsticks. Ironically, it is Brochant who ends up looking the fool, morally if not intellectually. And it is the slightly sad but hilarious antihero Pignon who emerges as far the wiser of the two. Despite the premise, which seems to offends some delicate souls, this is a very humane, as well as witty, movie.

A group of well-to-do snobbish and obnoxious professionals have dinner parties every Wednesday to which each of them is required to bring an "idiot" as a guest. The victims have no idea that they are invited merely to be humiliated and their boorish "sponsors" compare their notes later to determine whose "idiot" was the best. Pierre Brochant( Thierry Lhermitte), the smug publisher thinks that he's got a winner in the tax accountant François Pignon (Jacques Villeret, sadly passed away in January 2005 - great French Comedian whose performance in "Robert and Robert" I enjoyed very much) who reproduces the famous landmarks with the matchsticks and would talk about them with never ending enthusiasm. Unfortunately for Pierre (but fortunately for us, the viewers) he throws his back just before the dinner and has to rely to Pignon's sincere generosity. The tables are turned and look who is an idiot after all...

With the modest running time of 80 minutes, the "Dinner Game" is a delightful and very funny comedy. I would not expect anything else from Francis Veber, the director of Le Jouet, (1976) aka The Toy , La Chèvre, (1981) aka Knock On Wood, Les Compères, (1983) ... aka ComDads, and Les Fugitifs, (1986) and the writer for Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire, (1972) ... aka The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe.

«Le dîner de cons» is one of the best film by Francis Veber. Funny, witty and intelligent, the movie tells the story of a group of men who are playing a strange game. The winner is the one who can find the perfect «con», the king of idiots! From beginning to end, this movie makes you laugh. Excellent performances by Thierry Lhermitte (one of the top French actor today) and Jacques Villeret. Watch it again, you'll laugh more than the first time!

7 out of 10.

Go see it now in Francais now before the Americans get a hold of it and screw up another perfectly good Veber movie, as usual. (I can't wait to see what bodily fluid gets fashionably added to the Lafitte Rothchild '78 in the US version. Ugh.)