Le Dîner de Cons (film)

The Dinner Game
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Francis Veber
Produced by	Alain Poiré
Written by	Francis Veber
Starring	Jacques Villeret Thierry Lhermitte Francis Huster Daniel Prévost Alexandra Vandernoot Catherine Frot
Music by	Vladimir Cosma
Cinematography	Luciano Tovoli
Edited by	Georges Klotz
Distributed by	Gaumont
Release date	15 April 1998 (1998-04-15)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Budget	$12.5 million
Box office	$65.4 million

The Dinner Game (original title: Le Dîner de Cons - English: "Dinner of Fools") is a 1998 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber. It is a film adaptation by Veber of his play Le Dîner de Cons.

Pierre Brochant, a Parisian publisher, attends a weekly "idiots' dinner", where guests, who are modish, prominent Parisian businessmen, must bring along an "idiot" who the other guests can ridicule. At the end of the dinner, the evening's "champion idiot" is selected.

With the help of an "idiot scout", Brochant manages to find a "gem", François Pignon, a sprightly employee of the Finance Ministry (which Brochant, a tax cheat, loathes) that has a passion for building replicas of landmarks with matchsticks. Shortly after inviting Pignon to his home, Brochant is suddenly stricken with dorsalgia while playing golf at his exclusive country club. His wife, Christine, leaves him shortly before Pignon arrives at his apartment, as she realizes that he still wants to go to the "idiots' dinner." Brochant initially wants Pignon to leave, but instead becomes reliant on him, because of his back problem and his need to resolve his relationship problems.

He solicits Pignon's assistance in making a series of telephone calls to locate his wife, but Pignon gaffes each time, including revealing the existence of Brochant's mistress, Marlene Sasseur (thinking that she is Brochant's sister, since her name sounds like "sa soeur"), to his wife Christine and inviting Lucien Cheval, a tax inspector, to Brochant's house where, in an attempt to disguise his tax evasion, Brochant is forced to quickly hide most of his valuables.

In the meantime, Brochant is able to make amends with an old friend, Juste Leblanc, from whom he stole Christine, and through the evening's events is forced to reassess his mistakes.

At the 1999 César Awards, the film was honored with six nominations of which it won three. The categories where it won were Best Actor for Jacques Villeret, Best Supporting Actor for Daniel Prévost and Best Screenplay for Francis Veber. It was nominated but did not win for Best Film, Veber as Best Director and Catherine Frot as Best Supporting Actress.