\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Andr\u00e9 Ricciardi turned 50, his best friend Lee made an unusual proposition: how about they go and get a colonoscopy together? The pair had reached the qualifying age for men in the US to access the health check, and Lee had visions of them farting merrily on adjacent toilets while the medication flushed out their bowels, then chatting on hospital beds as tiny cameras travelled through their anal passages. Andr\u00e9 was always up for ridiculous stuff, but on this occasion he surprised Lee: he said no.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 100% shocked,\u201d says Lee today. \u201cI actually got jealous because I assumed he must have organised to go with somebody else!\u201d But Andr\u00e9 had not made other colonoscopy plans. He just thought it was a crazy idea and for once, he was being sensible. That turned out to be the stupidest thing he\u2019d ever done. Eighteen months later, perturbed by blood in his stools, Andr\u00e9 did go for a colonoscopy. It turned out he had stage 4 cancer.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 bought a pair of Kim Kardashian\u2019s old leather trousers at an auction in the hope of cloning her DNA<\/p>\n \u201cI hadn\u2019t spoken to Andr\u00e9 in probably five years,\u201d says Tony Benna, director of a moving \u2013 and hilarious \u2013 new documentary called Andr\u00e9 Is an Idiot. \u201cThen I get this email from him and Lee saying, \u2018We\u2019ve got a great idea for a film. Can we meet on Zoom?\u2019\u201d Benna was excited. He had worked with Andr\u00e9, a maverick advertising creative from San Francisco, on numerous projects. \u201cWe\u2019d go shoot with Ozzy Osbourne, or meet Eminem, or hang out with the guitar technician for the Rolling Stones. And somehow you\u2019d tie that back to, like, Dove soap or something.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, on screen, Andr\u00e9 told him: \u201cI have cancer and I\u2019ll probably be dead in three years. Want to make a film about it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>His hair grew back even wilder … Ricciardi in Andr\u00e9 Is an Idiot.<\/span> Photograph: A24<\/p>\n It was a lot to process, says Benna. He didn\u2019t particularly want to make a maudlin film about cancer, but he had<\/em> always wanted to make one about Andr\u00e9. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the most insane people I\u2019ve ever met. He had so many wild stories. I wanted to get to the bottom of them.\u201d<\/p>\n And so, Benna soon discovered, Andr\u00e9 really did once buy a pair of Kim Kardashian\u2019s old leather trousers at auction in the hope of cloning her DNA. He really did have to pull splinters out of his penis after a masturbation experiment gone wrong in his grandparents\u2019 bathroom. He really did read Helter Skelter, a book about the Manson murders, to his daughter while she was recovering from surgery in hospital.<\/p>\n Then there was the wedding story. In the 1990s \u2013 during what friends call Andr\u00e9\u2019s \u201cbathrobe era\u201d since he spent an entire year wearing one \u2013 he was out drinking when he overheard the server asking a friend to marry her so she could get a green card. The friend declined, so Andr\u00e9 piped up: \u201cI\u2019ll do it!\u201d<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 had a girlfriend at the time (\u201cShe didn\u2019t take it very well\u201d) and Janice the bartender was seeing someone too, so the marriage was to be strictly platonic. Yet somehow, this fake couple ended up wangling their way on to Newlyweds, the US gameshow in which couples compete to show how well they know their new partner. Andr\u00e9 devised an ingenious plan: when asked multiple choice questions separately, they would each select the answer that, going by its first letter, came latest in the alphabet.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how legal it was,\u201d laughs Janice today. Probably not very \u2013 but it worked. The pair won a holiday to the Caribbean where, somewhat inconveniently, they fell in love.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018He had so much more to do\u2019 \u2026 Andr\u00e9 Is an Idiot.<\/span> Photograph: A24<\/p>\n Although Andr\u00e9, with his wild hair and explosion of ideas, is the star of the film, Janice is the understated hero, always there crossing her fingers for positive test results, keeping the house running and nursing Andr\u00e9 as he gets sicker. Her presence adds emotional depth to what might otherwise be a series of wacky adventures, of which there are many. At one point, Andr\u00e9 considers making a hard copy of his genome so he can return as a clone. He visits a teacher of \u201cdeath yells\u201d \u2013 basically, a rehearsal for the last sound you will ever make on Earth. And he pitches a TV show called Who Wants to Kill Me? in which contestants compete for the chance to finish Andr\u00e9 off in imaginative ways (fed to lions? Cooked by a chef with a thing for human flesh?).<\/p>\n \u201cHe was so serious about that idea, we actually went to Hollywood to pitch it,\u201d says Benna. \u201cWe got turned down, so then he went out on Hollywood Boulevard, asking people if they would watch this show, so we could go back and say, \u2018Look, all these people want to see it!\u2019\u201d He wouldn\u2019t really have let someone turn him into soup, though, would he? Benna laughs. \u201cYou never knew. It was a little scary at times \u2013 because you weren\u2019t sure if he was actually going to get a head transplant.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of Benna\u2019s job was to just roll with Andr\u00e9. \u201cIf he wanted to go to a Radon mine and breathe radioactive air, we went. If he wanted to do a crystal healing session, we did it. If he wanted to do nine grams of mushrooms, we were OK with that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s riotous fun. Benna uses stop-motion animation to recreate some scenes. In one, clumps of Andr\u00e9\u2019s fallen chemo hair are brought to life. When Andr\u00e9\u2019s dad, an intensely private man, refuses to appear on camera, they hire a lookalike. This turns out to be the legendary weed smoker Tommy Chong.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018One of the most insane people I\u2019ve ever met\u2019 … a moment of defiance in the film.<\/span> Photograph: A24<\/p>\n The pace is frenetic, but there\u2019s a point to it. \u201cWe\u2019re all going to go through this at some point,\u201d says Benna. \u201cAnd there are different ways to approach it. You don\u2019t have to be scared. You don\u2019t have to be angry. You can approach it with humour, with friends, with art. I think that message has resonated.\u201d<\/p>\n At the start, Andr\u00e9 declares: \u201cYou only have time in life to get good at one or two things \u2013 and I chose advertising<\/em>. What the fuck is wrong with me? What a waste of a life!\u201d But he gets a chance to find meaning in his work, creating a campaign encouraging men to get their colon checked (it revolves around everyday items that look like sphincters).<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 is forced to confront difficult parts of his past. The love he has for his two girls is undeniable, but he is not always affectionate. He never hugs them. \u201cHe won\u2019t talk about pain and fear,\u201d one of them says, \u201cwhich is hard for my mum.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s Andre\u2019s conversations with his therapist, Peter, that take the film to another level. Peter loves Andr\u00e9\u2019s jokes but realises they\u2019re often a defence mechanism to avoid confronting difficult emotions. \u201cYou are more than just your irreverent humour,\u201d he tells Andr\u00e9.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout Peter, I\u2019m not sure the film would have had much direction,\u201d says Benna. \u201cPeter helped Andr\u00e9 grieve his own situation, but also let his family grieve. Andr\u00e9 learned to be vulnerable and humble. That allowed him to appreciate the life he lived and the love that was all around him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised at how willing he was to talk,\u201d says Janice. \u201cThe film was a wonderful way for him to think about his path and what was valuable in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 copes with chemo incredibly well. \u201cI prepared myself by getting the worst hangovers for 30 years,\u201d he says in the doc. But eventually it stops working. His belly swells, his hair grows back crazier than ever and he develops long eyelashes. He starts to resemble a wild mystic sat atop a mountain. And the changes are not just physical: spiritually, his transformation is even greater, providing the film with a powerful climax and sense of closure.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had so much more to do,\u201d says Janice, who lost her soulmate in December 2023. \u201cSo many more stories, so much creativity. And he would have made a great cranky old man.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018We\u2019re all going to go through this. You don\u2019t have to be scared\u2019 \u2026 another stop-motion image from Andr\u00e9 Is an Idiot.<\/span> Photograph: A24<\/p>\n When Janice heard the film had won the audience award at last year\u2019s Sundance festival, she pulled her car over and cried. Nobody had expected the film to even get a showing there. Benna hadn\u2019t even RSVPd. \u201cThere was a standing ovation and it felt surreal, like I was floating,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople came up to me and said they wished they\u2019d seen it when they\u2019d been diagnosed, because they would have felt less afraid, less angry, less isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there are all those who got colonoscopies because of the film. \u201cI\u2019ve had at least three dozen people say the film saved their life, because they got checked and caught something early.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee asked Andre, shortly before he died, how he\u2019d sum up the previous three years. \u201cAndr\u00e9 said, \u2018The best years of my life.\u2019\u201d Janice, who was in the room at the time making a sandwich, shouted out: \u201cMine too!\u201d Lee realised it was the same for him.<\/p>\n Despite the heartbreaking outcome, they\u2019d spent three precious years making countless memories with their crazy friend. \u201cIt brought us all together in a really intense, emotional way,\u201d says Lee. \u201cI honestly think this was part of Andr\u00e9\u2019s master plan all along.\u201d<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Is an Idiot is in UK cinemas from 6 February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Andr\u00e9 Ricciardi turned 50, his best friend Lee made an unusual proposition: how about they go and get a colonoscopy together? The pair had reached the qualifying age for men in the US to access the health check, and Lee had visions of them farting merrily on adjacent toilets while the medication flushed out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[376,1171,1624,14964,5517,1394,22461,17808,1862],"class_list":{"0":"post-42727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-death","9":"tag-film","10":"tag-heartbreaking","11":"tag-hilarious","12":"tag-mans","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-riotous","15":"tag-scary","16":"tag-times"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}