Entertainment

‘Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner’ review

In this documentary, Andre Gregory, the legendary theater director, tells a story about filming his part as a villain in “Demolition Man.” Criticized brutally on set by the film’s director, Gregory snapped back that he’d made “My Dinner With Andre.” Which movie, he demanded sarcastically, would be remembered years later?

It’s an odd anecdote for two reasons, neither of which Cindy Kleine, the director of “Before and After Dinner” and Gregory’s wife, probably intended. First, “Demolition Man” has probably aged better than “My Dinner With Andre.” Second, she touches only briefly on the supposed masterpiece cited in her title, to the point that there’s hardly a mention of that film’s director, Louis Malle.

Kleine, it turns out, isn’t interested in either of those movies, nor in Malle’s genuinely brilliant “Vanya on 42nd Street,” which recorded Gregory’s staging of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Her interests are, in order, her own background and marriage with Gregory (which gets a big chunk of the lengthy running time); her husband’s troubled relationship with his parents; and his stage work, including rehearsals for Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder.”

The last topic is the hook for audience members not related to Gregory or Kleine, but just as insight appears, back we go to Kleine’s tediously self-referential narration.

Gregory is a great theater director and raconteur, but both talents are ill-served here .especially considering that “My Dinner With Andre,” not to mention “Vanya” and “Demolition Man,” are on DVD.