The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: My Dinner With Andre

written by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory


Those who fight the 3-act paradigm as a formula that takes the soul out of film storytelling often point to movies like My Dinner With Andre as an example of a movie that breaks the rules. Indeed, this film does take many liberties with how movies are usually made in the U.S. This, after all, is a movie almost totally shot while two men have dinner together. However, one rule that is not broken here is the rule of beginning-middle-end storytelling! By its use of the 3-act paradigm, My Dinner With Andre demonstates the power and flexibility of the paradigm, not its bankruptcy.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1 min.)
    • Comic character hook about the busy life of a playwright, going to the stationery store, the xerox machine, doing the "errands of your trade."
  2. Complication (2-3 min.)
    • Wally, the playwright, is having dinner with Andre, a man he's been avoiding for years.
  3. Call to Action (8 min.)
    • Wally prods Andre to tell him what he's been up to (asking questions relaxes him).
  4. Act One Plot Point (21, 35 min.)
    • Wally gets more and more hooked by, interested in, Andre's story of working with Grotowski in Poland.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (53 min.)
    • Wally becomes an active participant in the conversation, sharing a bad theater experience. He takes issue with some of Andre's remarks (64 min.) (he likes his electric blanket).
  6. Act Two Plot Point (76-7 min.)
    • Wally is strongly on the defensive - is it still legitimate for writers even to write? Andre has a conspiracy theory about the present being a new Dark Ages, in which consumers build their own prison (79 min.).
  7. Climax and Resolution ( min.)
    • Wally and Andre represent two different world views, the former the rational man, the latter the mystic. There is no final consensus.

Notes

My Dinner With Andre is driven by the inherent interest in Andre's unusual and mystical experiences, punctuated increasingly by Wally's comic common sense. The art of conversation is far from dead here. More importantly, the talk twists and turns within the time-proven structure of beginning-middle-end storytelling.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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