Rating: PG13
Genres:
Business
Culture & Society
Theatrical Release: 03/23/2005(USA
Release Date: 07/12/2005
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 135 min
Flags: Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Velocity Home Entertainment
Filmmaker
Jonathan Nossiter is a serious wine connoisseur as well as a practicing sommelier when he isn't busy behind the camera, and he's combined his two passions in this
documentary on the international wine business.
Mondovino offers a witty but well-informed look at how business concerns and the homogenization of tastes around the world are changing the way wine is being made.
Nossiter's primary focus is on American vintners and their new degree of worldwide acceptance (in part due to the efforts of wildly influential U.S. wine critic
Robert Parker), as well as French wine makers who are struggling to maintain a more traditional approach in the wake of a rapidly shifting business climate, such as
Hubert de Montille and
Yvonne Hegoburu.
Nossiter deals with the personalities of his subjects as much as their status in the wine business, and he frequently introduces us to the pets of his interview subjects.
Mondovino was screened in competition at the
2004 Cannes Film Festival.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Mondovino,
Jonathan Nossiter's globe-trotting documentary on the business of wine, has a lot in common with a traditional wine tasting. As
Nossiter interviews literally dozens of vintners, the viewer can sample a little of this and a little of that. However, by always hurrying on to the next interview,
Nossiter also forces his viewers to spit out what they've consumed -- leaving them not only without a buzz, but without much understanding how these people relate to the larger picture.
Nossiter starts with what seems like a clear focus. He chooses Napa giant Mondavi as his entry point into the topic, and zeroes in on the company's failed attempt to purchase "terroir" in the south of France. The director gets good testimony from both the local purists and the naked opportunists who oppose them, making the father-son Mondavi team seem all the more grotesque through the tight, claustrophobic framing he uses while interviewing them. If only all of
Mondovino could branch off this central spine, and wrap up in a tidy 80- to 90-minute package. But as the film tops the 120-minute mark, only just making its first forays into South America and other areas that deserve more than the viewer's dwindling attention, it's clear
Nossiter would have benefited from deciding what we should walk away with, and what we should leave in the spittoon. In that last category falls his nearly pathological interest in "meeting" the pets of the people he interviews -- a quirk that eats up five to ten minutes alone.
Nossiter gets points for the thoroughness of his research, but loses more points for failing to transform that work into a clear perspective on a complicated industry. What's more tragic is that unlike a film like
Sideways,
Mondovino doesn't send you away craving a good chardonnay, either.
~ All Movie Guide
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