The Dinner Game

Starring:Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster, Daniel PrÃ©vost, Alexandra Vandernoot, Catherine Frot, BenoÃ®t Bellal, Jacques Bleu, Philippe Brigaud, Michel Caccia, Laurent Gendron, MykhaÃ«l Georges-Schar, Edgar Givry, Pierre-Arnaud Juin, Daniel Martin (IV), Elvire Melliere, PÃ©tronille Moss, Christian Pereira, RÃ©my Roubakha, Candide Sanchez
Director: Francis Veber
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Laughter is on the menu when the creator of La Cage Aux Folles serves up a tasty comic feast with this hilarious farce.

When Pierre decided to play a game to see who could bring the biggest idiot to a dinner party, he never imagined he'd be the one playing the fool. But when Pierre's selfish ways come to light before the main course, he gets his just dessert.

System Requirements:

Running Time 72 min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Average customer rating:

Transcendently funny
Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner
The Dinner Game (Le Diner de Cons)
"OUI" enjoyed this delightful French fare!
The innovative, bitter and irreverent French humor!

The Dinner Game
Starring: Thierry Lhermitte , Jacques Villeret , Francis Huster , Daniel Prévost , and Alexandra Vandernoot
Director: Francis Veber
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000A1HQP
Release Date: 2003-08-19

Customer Reviews:

Transcendently funny.......2007-05-10

The review by displacedhuman accurately describes the plot. No description, however, can adequately convey how hilarious this movie is. All of the action takes place in the swank apartment of the protagantist, who is ultimately reduced to admiting that the idiot he has invited to dinner has human qualities that cannot be vouchsafed. On the way to this realization, though, our poor hero is betrayed again and again by the stupidity of his idiot. The pinnacle comes when the idiot's workmate (who else?) discovers who's wife is sleeping with whom. Worth twice the price Amazon is charging.

Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner.......2007-04-16

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.

4.5/5

The Dinner Game (Le Diner de Cons).......2007-03-20

This is by far the funniest French movie ever released (at least in my humble opinion). This comedic masterpiece is the result of an extremely well written script where the comedy arises from the different situations and the sequence of events rather than from slapstick or clowning comedy that produces an instantaneous laughter gratification that is forgotten afterwards.

The movie was meant to be watched and understood in its original language to truly be enjoyed. Although the movie has English subtitles, you will not like it as much if you do not understand French well.

"OUI" enjoyed this delightful French fare!.......2007-03-09

My husband and I recently ordered this French farce from the AMAZON menu and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although the DVD's length is barely 90 minutes, the film's plot is fully-developed and well-paced. If you want a good laugh, you will discover "The Dinner Game" to be a tasty treat! If you still hunger for another helping of French comedy cuisine after sampling "The Dinner Game", try "The Closet". "The Closet" is another amusing entree featuring many of the same actors as "The Dinner Game".

The innovative, bitter and irreverent French humor!.......2007-03-02

The innovative freshness and powerful creativity of Francis Weber at the moment to choose original scripts is something that nobody can discuss. He was born with that clinical eye to pay special attention around the multiple connections between ingenuity, trickery, cheats seen under new perspectives.

In a globalized world, as you and me figure out, Weber has found and developed his personal contribution enriching, enhancing and expanding the universe of the humor in its countless possibilities of expression.

Dinner game is in this sense, not only a daredevil proposal around those minor sins and hence he has achieved to show those evident smart and effective monkey business in the great tradition of the great literary tradition of classic and irreverent writers, of caustic nature such as Beaumarchais, Moliere or Voltaire.

Don' t miss this provocative, imaginative and funny film. One of the best of the nineties, if not the best.

Le Diner de Cons (Original French Version with English Subtitles

Average customer rating:

AS INTRICATE AND AMUSING AS ANY PLAY BY MOLIERE
Stupidity Vs Arrogance
Pretty good
Not my favourite ever, but definitely not the worst, either
A great comedy!

Le Diner de Cons (Original French Version with English Subtitles
Director: Francis Veber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Product Description

Every wednesday night a few guys have a meal together. There is a game coupled with the meal: each one of them has to bring an "idiot". The game consists in making the idiots talk about there ideas and passions so that the hosts can have a good laugh. At the end they will choose the "idiot of the evening". One of the hosts has invited his idiot home so they could go to the dinner together, but unfortunately he gets a severe pain in his back due to an accident that day and can't go to the "meal of idiots". Even worse is the fact that the idiot tries to help him all the time, and naturally does everything wrong and aggravates every situation.

Le Mercredi, pour Pierre Brochant et ses amis, c'est le jour du dîner de cons. Le principe est simple:chacun amène un con. Celui qui a dégoté le plus spectaculaire est déclaré vainqueur. Ce soir, Brochant exulte. Il a trouvé la perle. Le con idéal. "Un conde classe mondiale!" François Pignon, comptable au Ministère des Finances, passionné de modèles réduits en allumettes. Mais ce qu'il ne sait pas, c'est que Pignon est un fieffé porteur de guigne passé maître dans l'art de déclencher les catastrophes...

Customer Reviews:

AS INTRICATE AND AMUSING AS ANY PLAY BY MOLIERE.......2007-01-04

This film requires repeated viewing and never fails to amuse. If anything it ends too soon, almost surprisingly with the delightful thrill that it leaves you wanting more, as any true bit of showmanship must do. THe tale is so intricate and unravelling and involving, that you really grow to care for the fate of each of the characters and want so much to see that things turn out all right for each of them.

Of course it is the height of arrogance for that group to establish itself as an intellectual aristocracy far beyond any mere mortal foibles and foolishness and capable of choosing for its own entertainment each week an idiot to share at their dinner together. And of course members of that very elite group are exposed as being the most helpless and foolish idiots around. But, wait, there is more, much more.

This movie has much to say to the society we now have in the USA, and must be observed. FOllow it carefully. You may feel it too condensed and quick if raised on deadly slow American sitcoms. Just watch it once again, and it grows on you.

I first caught the very end late at night while visiting Montreal years ago, and was so frustrated it ended so quickly without indication of title. Imagine my joy to find the little French film I ignorantly chose form a discount bin in a Mexican supermarket turns out to be the same endearing movie. This is one to keep on that pile of movies, along with Seven Samurai or Grand Illusion or Tre Fratelli or A Particular Day or Ghost Dog or The Man from the Train, The Gospel According to Saint MAtthew, etc. etc., of things you know you will love to see again when you don't know what you want to see and are too tired to read your James Joyce commentary. I wish I had money to get all of the things on that list of films to see again, la Belle et la Bete, Black Orfee, etc

This is a really great film and one which rewards repeated viewing. I do hope that couple gets back together again thanks to and despite that idiot of the week's interjection. Oh, why does it end so soon! This one really does have the discipline to begin right inside the frantic action without much exposition, and to end before the action is complete.

What a great movie! Try it; you'll like it! Again, I have a version with only Spanish subtitles, and cannot speak for this version's compression and translation.

Stupidity Vs Arrogance.......2006-02-13

Before it became a movie the dinning game was a very successful play in France for many years. Jacques Villeret one of the greatest French comedians (he died in January 2005) was playing the same character. When it came out in French theaters in 1998 it was even more successful than the Titanic! No wonder since it is a great comedy. Almost the entire movie takes place in an appartment in Paris and the sequence of funny events is unstoppable.
As the movie unfolds it makes you hate arrogance way more than stupidity, although who is smart and who is stupid is an open subject at the end of the movie.
It seems that stupidity comes out victoriously when faced with arrogance.
I highly recommend this movie.

Pretty good.......2005-09-10

This was a pretty good movie, i believe the dumb guy "Pignon" is a little too dumb. But very good acting, good script, good comedy all in all.
The DVD has English subtitles and translates pretty well.

Not my favourite ever, but definitely not the worst, either.......2004-12-09

I first became acquainted with this movie a year or two ago by randomly picking the first movie I saw in the store, renting it, and running out. Judging by the title ("The Dinner Game in the English edition, but "Diner de cons" in French, meaning something along the lines of "Dinner of the Asses") it sounded like something that would turn out to be mildly funny and realatively plotless. I'm still not sure if I was right or not, either way. The general idea is that a group of friends gets together weekly to make fun of an idiot they invite. The main character throws out his back and his wife runs away, all immediately before his chosen idiot shows up. Pignon, the idiot, makes sometimes funny mistakes, but still doesn't manage to find out that he is the idiot. I won't tell you the end, though it's not some huge thing.. But one must watch at least the scene when they add vinegar to the wine.

A great comedy!.......2004-09-08

I am a French professor and this is the only French movie that I consistently show to my (mostly American) students because it's hilarious and even the most reticent students end up laughing out loud and loving it!

Average customer rating:

An unusually funny French comedy
One of the Best Comedies of the 1990's
My favorite comedy
A very funny movie
Ou Est L'Humanité?

The Dinner Game
Starring: Thierry Lhermitte , Jacques Villeret , Francis Huster , Daniel Prévost , and Alexandra Vandernoot
Director: Francis Veber
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Satire | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Farce | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Urban | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

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ASIN: 0783239955
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Customer Reviews:

An unusually funny French comedy.......2006-08-19

When this movie started, both my wife and I sighed - another movie with subtitles to read. But it quickly got us engrossed with the brilliantly funny concept - invite idiots to dinner. I'm almost inclined to start our own version in Hanover - but that is besides the point.

The movie is laugh out loud funny, and while I don't speak a word of French, the expressions and the tone of voice of the protagonists conveys a lot of the feel of the situation.

It is crisp, short and well worth reading subtitles. A must see.

One of the Best Comedies of the 1990's.......2006-05-09

One of the funniest films of the 1990's was a French comedy called "The Dinner Game." I saw the 1998 film out of boredom, and it was a wonderful surprise, instantly becoming one of my favorite movies.

The simple plot concerns a man, Pierre, who attends a mean-spirited "idiot dinner" every week where each regular attendee must bring the stupidest person they can find. Pierre strikes gold when he meets Fran?ois, who reconstructs famous architecture out of matchsticks. However, before they can get to the dinner, Pierre throws his back out, and every effort Fran?ois (who doesn't know the real reason he was invited to dinner) makes to help Pierre backfires drastically and hilariously.

What could be a hard-to-watch film about people's cruelty to each other instead becomes a delicious comedy of errors as, in the course of one evening, the endearing Fran?ois keeps bungling various aspects of Pierre's life such as his marriage, finances, friendships, and involvement with a nymphomaniac.

Even if you don't like foreign films, give "The Dinner Game" a chance.

My favorite comedy.......2005-03-12

While most of my DVDs end up collecting dust, "The Dinner Game" keeps being taken out the shelf. Why? Whenever I have a friend visiting, this is the one I am showing them! I had to buy it 5 times already: some of my friends liked it so much I had to give it to them. Do not be deterred by the fact it is in French with English subtitles. Many people who loved it do not usually watch foreign movies

I just cannot get tired of the jokes (and gags keep coming every 10 seconds!) The more I see it, the more reasons I find to laugh. All the actors are excellent (and very believable) and the situations are hilarious (but yet could happen in real life) . If you are looking for 70 minutes of non-stop laughter (yes, it is a short movie), "The Dinner Game" has all the ingredients you need!

A very funny movie.......2004-04-14

I laughed so hard while watching this movie. A man invites a stranger to dinner, who he believes to be an idiot, so he can entertain himself and laugh at the idiot. Little by little, the idiot ruins the intelliegent/rich mans life, and one is not sure who the real idiot is. This is the kind of movie that could be real bad, but the actors have perfect timing and all the jokes work.

One other comment- for those learning French. I have been buying movies made in France to improve my speaking and listening skills. This movie is excellent for learning French, the words are the ones I studied using the first 26 lessons of "French in Action". Many of the common words begenners learn are repeated in this movie and are easy to understand.

The DVD is excellent. The colors are bright and rich and everything is crystal clear. I wish more DVD's had the same quality as this one.

Ou Est L'Humanité?.......2004-01-03

I agree: there are some good laughs in this film, especially as it warms up after the first half hour. That said, it left me with a quibble and with a slight off taste.

First, the quibble -- unlikely to have bothered most people. The premise is that the snobs invite an idiot to dinner each week, but the film has a bit of an odd notion of where to look for idiots. Why does Pignon get picked? Because he has an obsession -- just like the boomerang man in one of the opening scenes. In Pignon's case, the obsession is making meticulous scale models of bridges, buildings, the Eiffel Tower... out of matchsticks. But weird hobbies and peculiar obsessions aren't the same as stupidity.

As it turns out, Pignon doesn't disappoint. Not only is he obsessed; he's also clueless. But that's where the off taste comes in. We don't have any sympathy for Pierre, the snob who invites Pignon to his house, but nonetheless, the movie puts the audience in the place of the would-have-been dinner guests: we get our laughs as much at Pignon's expense as from looking down on his host. There's one brief moment of humanity at the very end, but the screenplay immediately takes it back.

The reply, I suppose, is that it's a comedy, for heaven's sake! True enough; we aren't watching it to be edified. But the film would be cleverer if the audience got its own come-uppance.

Les Grands Classiques - Le Diner De Cons / Le Placard (Original French ONLY Version) NO Subtitles
Average customer rating:

Classiques de la comédie

Les Grands Classiques - Le Diner De Cons / Le Placard (Original French ONLY Version) NO Subtitles

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000BY9G6O

Product Description

Original French ONLY Version NO English OPTIONS

Customer Reviews:

Classiques de la comédie.......2007-03-16

Ces deux films sont des classiques de la comédie française. Le Dîner de Cons et le Placard sont les meilleurs films de Véber depuis Pierre Richard et Gérard Depardieu. Jacques Villeret est excellent en François Pignon et Auteil lui succède bien.

Average customer rating:

Hugely Entertaining Film

The Dinner Game [Region 2]
Starring: Thierry Lhermitte , Jacques Villeret , Francis Huster , Daniel Prévost , and Alexandra Vandernoot
Director: Francis Veber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004VY07

Customer Reviews:

Hugely Entertaining Film.......2007-04-28

The plot of the story is simple, a group of upper class men play a game of inviting "idiots" to dinner and the person who brought the biggest idiot wins. Nice huh? Now you might not think this movie is a comedy but it is and a pretty funny one too. I didn't think I would like it but it make me chuckle. The main character finds an "idiot" taxman and invites him over for a drink before the "dinner game" but he hurts his back in a golf game earlier in the day and gets stuck with the idiot in his home. As we watch the karma payback unfold, the results are hugely entertaining. A classic comedy that stands up to repeated viewings. The actors comedic timing are perfect and the script witty. You can't help but like this lighthearted film.

Average customer rating:

The Dinner Game
Starring: Thierry Lhermitte , Jacques Villeret , Francis Huster , Daniel Prévost , and Alexandra Vandernoot
Director: Francis Veber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000065SGE

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