The Dinner Game


The Dinner Game is a 1998 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber. It is a film adaptation by Veber of his play Le Dîner de Cons. It was the top grossing French film at the French box office for 1998 and second place overall behind Titanic.

Plot

Pierre Brochant, a Parisian publisher, attends a weekly "idiots' dinner", where guests, who are modish, prominent Parisian businessmen, must bring along an "idiot" whom the other guests can ridicule. At the end of the dinner, the evening's "champion idiot" is selected.
With the help of an "idiot scout", Brochant manages to find a "gem", François Pignon, a sprightly employee of the Finance Ministry. Pignon has a passion for building matchstick replicas of famous landmarks. Shortly after inviting Pignon to his home, Brochant is suddenly stricken with back pain while playing golf at his exclusive country club. His wife, Christine, leaves him shortly before Pignon arrives at his apartment, as she realizes that he still wants to go to the "idiots' dinner." Brochant initially wants Pignon to leave, but instead becomes reliant on him, because of his back problem and his need to resolve his relationship problems.
He solicits Pignon's assistance in making a series of telephone calls to locate his wife, but Pignon blunders each time, including revealing the existence of Brochant's mistress, Marlene Sasseur, to his wife Christine and inviting tax inspector Lucien Cheval to Brochant's house where Brochant is forced quickly to hide most of his valuables in an attempt to disguise his tax evasion.
In the meantime, Brochant is able to make amends with an old friend, Just Leblanc, from whom he stole Christine, and through the evening's events is forced to reassess his mistakes.

Cast

At the 1999 César Awards, the film was honored with six nominations of which it won three. The categories it won were Best Actor for Jacques Villeret, Best Supporting Actor for Daniel Prévost and Best Screenplay for Francis Veber. It was nominated but did not win for Best Film, Veber as Best Director and Catherine Frot as Best Supporting Actress.
Award / Film FestivalCategoryRecipients and nomineesResult
César AwardsBest Film
César AwardsBest DirectorFrancis Veber
César AwardsBest ActorJacques Villeret
César AwardsBest Supporting ActorDaniel Prévost
César AwardsBest Supporting ActressCatherine Frot
César AwardsBest WritingFrancis Veber
Goya AwardsBest European Film
Lumières AwardsBest ActorJacques Villeret
Lumières AwardsBest ScreenplayFrancis Veber

Soundtrack

Other adaptations