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Before "La Cage aux Folles," Veber wrote "The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe" and "L'emmerdeur"; they were remade in America as "The Man With One Red Shoe" and "Buddy, Buddy" (one of the great Billy Wilder's worst movies). In the years since "La Cage aux Folles," Veber directed as well as wrote a succession of French hits ("Le Jouet," "La Chèvre," "Les Compères" and "Les Fugitifs") that became American bombs ("The Toy," "Pure Luck," "Father's Day" and "Three Fugitives"). To add self-inflicted injury to insult, he directed the remake of "Three Fugitives" himself.

No matter how the remake of "The Dinner Game" turns out (Dreamworks has it in development, and Veber may direct), the original, now in theaters, should win back the goodwill of comedy-watchers everywhere. It's a sour, sweet, then sour again spree. The two leads are a smug, good-looking publisher and an accountant as squat and badly-used as a neighborhood dog's favorite hydrant.

The publisher invites the accountant to a group dinner that's actually a game -- the fellow who brings the sorriest bore wins. The accountant qualifies because he's obsessed with making matchstick recreations of engineering feats like the Eiffel Tower or the Concorde. But the pair never get to the dinner game. And in a satisfying case of existential turnaround, the accountant -- with the best intentions, and without leaving the publisher's home -- ruins his host's life.

At the end of a publicity jaunt from Los Angeles to San Francisco (he has homes in West Hollywood and Paris), Veber couldn't have been more gracious. Making sure that I had not just a Perrier from his hotel room mini-bar but also a proper water glass, he confessed that he identified with both of his characters -- well, maybe a little more with the accountant.

Does doing one of these tours make you feel the host or the idiot?

I feel like the two of them all the time.

So you sometimes think that the press is setting you up to be a jerk?

There is this question that keeps coming back, all the time, about Jerry Lewis. It's like a guilt that we French are supposed to have forever. I mean, Jerry Lewis hasn't been part of our landscape for 20 years. But that question keeps coming: "Do you like Jerry Lewis?"

I only went to Cannes once, 14 years ago, and at an official dinner I was seated next to the wife of a French publisher. I asked her if she liked Jerry Lewis. And she answered, "You know, the first time I see his movies, I don't think they're very funny. But the second time I see his movies, I laugh and laugh!"

That's like the guy who goes to get a tattoo. The first time you think he's an idiot, the second time you think he's a very suspicious character.

Next page | Sragow pops the Lewis question