OLD SOULS

When asked if he could name a movie that was “entirely devoid of clichés,” Roger Ebert said it would have to be the “wonderfully odd” My Dinner With André. A carefully crafted conversation between real-life friends and collaborators André Gregory and Wallace Shawn, the 1981 film was directed by Louis Malle and contains countless terrific bits of wisdom. (Says Shawn, “Suppose you’re going through some kind of hell in your own life. Well, you would love to know if friends have experienced similar things. But we just don’t dare to ask each other.” To which Gregory replies, “No, it would be like asking your friend to drop his role.”) See it today as part of the Public Theater’s The Wallace Shawn–André Gregory Project, which includes the stage revival of The Designated Mourner as well as a screening on Saturday, August 3, of Gregory’s films André Gregory: Before and After Dinner and Vanya on 42nd Street.

Sun., Aug. 4, 4 p.m., 2013