5 Movie Scenes That Offer a Master Class in Conversation

Level up your daily interactions with strategies from My Dinner With Andre” to ‘Adaptation’

Jason Schwartzman
Forge
Published in
6 min readMay 4, 2021

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“My Dinner With Andre,” Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory, 1981. Photo: Everett Collection

Considering how inherent it is to everyday life, conversation is an under discussed art. But being more thoughtful about how we talk to each other can yield powerful connections.

I thought a lot about conversation when writing my memoir, No One You Know, which revolves around my organic interactions with strangers. Sometimes, those interactions were stimulating, sometimes a drag, and occasionally, they were revelatory. When I think about what makes a fruitful conversation, besides drawing on experience, it’s been useful to consult a resource hiding in plain sight: movies. I’ve plumbed some of my favorites for enlightening clips and lessons and that are worth adding to the conversational tool belt. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Offer perspective without shutting the other person down

My Dinner With Andre” (1981)

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Jason Schwartzman
Forge
Writer for

Debut book NO ONE YOU KNOW out now from Outpost19 | Founding Editor, True.Ink | Twitter: @jdschwartzman | outpost19.com/NoOneYouKnow/