André Gregory: Before and After Dinner

Boasting truly intimate access, filmmaker Cindy Kleine profiles her own husband: the patrician-like but passionate actor-playwright-artist André Gregory, a luminary in avant-garde American theater since the 1960s. Comparisons with Louis Malle's hit My Dinner With André are inevitable, especially with the appearance here of longtime pal/collaborator Wallace Shawn, who is being directed by Gregory in a new staging of Ibsen's The Master Builder—a production that has been some 15 years in preparation (about as long as the Kleine-Gregory marriage itself). Shawn gently apologizes that he wants to keep his personal life private; Gregory, meanwhile, speaks of his emotionally cold, aristocratic European family, who hid their Jewish origins—perhaps due to charges that they collaborated in Hitler's economic schemes (this possibility obsesses Gregory and drives him to tears). Kleine similarly chose the arts as an act of rebellion against her middle-class Long Island Jewish upbringing; she wonders if mutual family angst cemented the relationship with her much-older groom (they met after André's longtime first wife had died). Priceless tales of stage, screen, and family are presented here, although in a late development, Kleine fact-checks and catches Gregory in a bald lie (or, perhaps he's simply living life as performance and re-inventing through storytelling). Sure to be appreciated by fans of Malle's beloved film, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)