ANDRÉ GREGORY: BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER

This portrait of groundbreaking director, actor, and artist André Gregory by Cindy Kleine (who is also his wife) is a delightful, ruminative appreciation of one man’s life and work. A brilliant and often hilariously funny raconteur, Gregory discusses the making of MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ (1981), written by and starring Gregory and Wallace Shawn and directed by Louis Malle. He speaks warmly of his lifelong friendship with Shawn (also collaborators on the movie VANYA ON 42nd STREET and a recent production of Ibsen’s The Master Builder), and his problematic relationship with his European parents, described as “Jews who forgot to tell their children they were Jews” and, “like the insane rulers of a little Balkan country.” Gregory throws in a dash of film noir as he investigates the possibility that his enigmatic father might have been an economic agent for the Nazis. André Gregory is a master storyteller, whose own life encompasses compelling passions, fears, and mysteries worthy of his theatrical mentors.                              

Gregory and Shawn team up again for two plays by Shawn, The Designated Mourner and Grasses of a Thousand Colors, which Gregory will direct at the Public Theater, opening in June and October respectively.

USA • 2012 • 108 MINS. • CINEMA GUILD