Francis Veber’s Dinner for Fools is inspired by a true story…
The concept of the “dinner of idiots” was invented by the surrealist André Breton in the 1920s. The guest who managed to bring the biggest idiot with him received congratulations from his friends.
This concept was then taken up in the 1980s by Jean Castel, owner of the eponymous private club in Saint-Germain des-Près.
Jean Castel
Only a small circle of showbiz insiders knew about it.
One of the regulars at these dinners was the host Jacques Martin.
It was through the latter that Francis Veber learned of the existence of this nasty entertainment.
The screenplay for Le Dîner de cons is largely inspired by true anecdotes provided to Francis Veber by Jacques Martin.
For example, the day before a dinner for fools, the pigeon that the Antenne 2 host was supposed to bring had let him down, and he had to find another one in a hurry.
Jean Castel then advised him to invite a famous French director, whose name has remained secret to this day…
The actor Claude Brasseur was also invited to a dinner for idiots at Castel. But on the idiots’ side.
At the time he was doing the Paris-Dakar and he was obsessed with the race. You just had to plug him in and he could talk about it for hours.
A clearly stupid and redneck subject for the audience at dinners at Castel.