The Dinner Game

Pierre Brochant, a successful publisher, and his friends hold a weekly dinner with a cruel rule: each guest must bring along someone he considers a fool, and the most impressive specimen wins. Convinced he has found a champion, Brochant invites François Pignon, a finance ministry accountant who builds models out of matches. What Brochant does not count on is that Pignon has a talent for setting off disasters wherever he goes, and the evening he has planned goes far differently from his expectations.

Francis Veber wrote and directed the film, the sixth in the directing career that had begun with La Chèvre in 1981 and continued through The ComDads, The Fugitives, Three Fugitives and Out on a Limb; he went on to make The Closet, Ruby & Quentin, The Valet and A Pain in the Ass. Jacques Villeret plays Pignon and Thierry Lhermitte plays Brochant, with Francis Huster, Daniel Prévost, Alexandra Vandernoot and Catherine Frot among the twenty credited cast members. Alain Poiré produced.

Made for about 13 million dollars, the comedy took roughly 79 million worldwide, a strong return for a French production of its size. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.8/10 from 2,109 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 6.8/10 from 46 reviews, so audiences have rated it noticeably higher than reviewers did. It runs 80 minutes.