Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons | The Dinner Game (1998)

François Pignon (or François Perrin) is a frequently changing character in a number of French films, and has been so on and off since the first cinematic one: Jacques Brel in L'Emmerdeur (1973).  The screenplay writer, Francis Veber, also directed Le Dîner de cons: coyly called The Diner Game in English to avoid the translation of con, which I'd translate as something similar to 'twat'. The film was initially a play, also starring the superb con Jacques Villeret as Pignon, and has been something of a cult film for many years: even Gauvin Sers mentions as one of his conditions for a future girlfriend that she isn't annoyed by him launching into quotations from the film. And there are certainly many quotable moments.

I'm not about to go into the plot, which is very convoluted, but I shall simply mention the basic idea and a few memorable moments. Pierre Brochant (Therry Lhermite) is a wealthy publisher and not an altogether pleasant individual to be honest:  how can he be when he's part of a Wednesday evening group of his friends who meet with a con who expounds on his passionate hobby, such as flying boomerangs or even (perhaps) collecting soup ladles? After this dîner de cons, the friends decide on who won by bringing the biggest con.

Pierre hasn't found a con for the week, although a chance encounter of a friend of his leads to the friend enthusing over a solid gold one: François Pignon builds models of famous buildings – such as the Tour Eiffel, San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, Le Pont de Tancarville and so on, with matchsticks, and he knows all about the exact angle they should be placed at.

One of the dialogues most treasured by devotees is where Pignon is encouraged to ring Juste Leblanc (Francis Huster) posing as a Belgian director wanting to set to the big screen the (very bad) novel he wrote with his ex-companion Christine (Alexandra Vandernoot), who ran off with Pierre and now appears to have run from Pierre (perhaps back to Juste), asking to speak to the co-author, meaning that he wants to speak to Christine. To repeat, Leblanc is 'Juste' Leblanc, by which the con understands 'just', meaning he hasn't a first name, but it takes a while for it to sink in: what do you expect from a con? Later, Pignon will have the same misunderstanding with Pierre's mistress, who is called Marlène Sasseur, although from 'Sasseur' Pignon understands 'sa soeur', Pierre's sister.

Eventually, after many more twists, Pignon manages to effect a probable reconciliation between Christine and Pierre, showing that's he's not quite the con we've been led to believe.... oh, or is he? A film that's very difficult not to love, even if it might not be the most politically correct ever made – but then was it part of the backlash?