Was going through the comments here for 'Dîner de cons'—I just saw this wonderful little comédie—and thought I'd explain this one one should someone, at some point in time, find it useful.
"Des", of course, represents "de les", or "of the" (plural); however, in this case, you're not referring to specific cons. In much the same way you wouldn't say, "Dinner of the Idiots" (unless you were referring to specific 'idiots'), you wouldn't say Le dîner des cons. So as phoenix714 mentioned, it doesn't have to do with formality; it's a question of specificity.
If you were to say, "A list of actors", you wouldn't translate that as "Une liste des acteurs"; it would be "une liste d'acteurs". However, if you were to say, "A list of the countries of the world", that would be "Une liste des pays du monde".
Excellent film, btw :)
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