Le dîner de cons/The Dinner Game

The Idiots' Dinner

Browsing through the NY Times Movies section, I came across this article. 

Though it debates a lot about if one word was right in a movie title - my favourite past time - it is also a bit about Le dîner de cons, the French film that inspired the next Steve Carell and Paul Rudd film (I like you, Paul Rudd, you are pretty!).

I seem to remember that when it came out in 1998, Le dîner de cons was a must see film. I think it still is as it is indeed a very funny comedy. (Trailer here)
It's the story of Pierre Brochant who has that game with his friends: every week, they have a mission to invite to their dinner table the dumbest guys they can find and make fun of them. Hence the idiots in the title - though con, in French, is a bit stronger than idiot (and yes idiot is also a French word). Pierre thinks his idiot of the week, Francois Pignon (oh, that hilarious answerphone message I can't find on youtube and that always reminds me of George's "Believe it or not George isn't at home" in Seinfeld) will win easy.

Anyway, the night turns into a bit of a nightmare, and it's the idiot in the end who proves to be the better man. With the morale being somewhere along those lines of "you probably are someone else's idiot" or maybe I'm making that up.

The NY Times article says that "The title of a forthcoming Steve Carell comedy, “Dinner for Schmucks,” is sending people to their Yiddish dictionaries and causing a bit of kvetching."

Well, the international English title for Le dîner de cons is unsurprisingly bothering me.

The French title was probably intentionally provocative - why indeed choose "cons" over "idiots" but "The Dinner Game"? Seriously? It's as tame as a kitten. 

Most countries translated the title with the idiot idea in it "La cena de los idiotas" in Spain, "La cena dei cretini" in Italy (I like that one) even Argentina with "Hay un tonto en mi casa" (there's a silly person in my house) renders the idea. But The Dinner Game?? Sounds like a drinking game for Mormons or something.

Obvious idiots (left) and not so obvious ones (right)

The only explanation I can think of for the choice of words is that Lars Von Trier's The Idiots came out the same year, and well, I guess they didn't want to have 2 films with the same word in the title... Just in case people got confused.