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
- 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."
- Complication (2-3 min.)
- Wally, the playwright, is having dinner with Andre, a man he's
been avoiding for years.
- Call to Action (8 min.)
- Wally prods Andre to tell him what he's been up to (asking questions
relaxes him).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.).
- 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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