Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Mondovino

 
Movies:

Mondovino

 
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Movies
  • Director: Jonathan Nossiter
  • AMG Rating: starstarstarstar
  • Genre: Business
  • Movie Type: Sales & Marketing, Social Issues
  • Release Year: 2004
  • Country: FR/US
  • Run Time: 131 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: PG13

Plot

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

Review

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

Cast

Hubert De Montille; Aime Guibert

Credit

Ricardo Preve - Associate Producer, Laurent Gorse - Associate Producer, Juan Pittaluga - Associate Producer, Tommaso Vergallo - Associate Producer, Laurent Gorse - First Assistant Director, Stephanie Pommez - First Assistant Director, Jonathan Nossiter - Director, Jonathan Nossiter - Editor, Catherine Hannoun - Line Producer, Jonathan Nossiter - Cinematographer, Stephanie Pommez - Cinematographer, Jonathan Nossiter - Producer, Emmanuel Giraud - Producer, Nostradine Benguezzou - Sound/Sound Designer, Juan Pittaluga - Sound/Sound Designer

Similar Movies

Super Size Me; No Logo: Brands, Globalization & Resistance; Knock Off: Revenge on the Logo; Startup.com
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a word or phrase...
All Community Q&A Reference topics

 
Wikipedia: Mondovino
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
 This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (February 2008)
Mondovino
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter
Produced by Jonathan Nossiter
Emmanuel Giraud
Written by Jonathan Nossiter
Starring Robert Parker,
Michel Rolland
Distributed by ThinkFilm
Release date(s) 14 May 2004
Running time 135 min
Language English, French

Mondovino (Italian: World of Wine) is a 2004 documentary film on the impact of globalization on the world's different wine regions written and directed by American film maker Jonathan Nossiter. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and a César Award.

The film explores the impact of globalization on the various wine-producing regions, and the influence of critics like Robert Parker and consultants like Michel Rolland in defining an international style. It pits the ambitions of large, multinational wine producers, in particular Robert Mondavi, against the small, single estate wineries who have traditionally boasted wines with individual character driven by their terroir.

Mondovino was originally intended to be a two month affair as a break between feature projects upon the completion of Nossiter's film Signs & Wonders (2000). The film gave Nossiter a chance to utilize his knowledge as a trained sommelier from his time working at Balthazar in New York as well as an opportunity to visit some of great wine regions of the world.

Contents

Production

Mondovino was filmed with a hand held Sony PD-150 digital camcorder over the course of 4 years by Jonathan Nossiter with the assistance of Uruguayan filmmaker Juan Pittaluga and Caribbean photographer Stephanie Pommez for a budget around $400,000. Over 500 hours of original film was shot at locations in seven countries on three continents in five languages (French, Italian, Spanish, English and Portuguese). The footage from the handheld DV was blown up and transferred to 35 mm by Tommaso Vergallo.

The film was shot entirely in single camera, about 60% of the time operated by Nossiter with the camera on his hip while he is conversing with the subject. The film features no narration. The cinematography does frequently employ "intense" zooms, sometimes right up to the subject's eyeballs, which Nossiter explains as a necessary means to keep the handheld camera in focus.[1]

Mondovino opened in France November 3, 2004 and received mostly positive reviews among film critics and lots of buzz (both positive and negative) among the French wine industry. It was later released in the United Kingdom on December 10 of that year and in U.S. release March 23, 2005. On July 12, 2005, the DVD version was released, including Director Commentary as well as a Bonus featurette Quo Vademus?, an episode of a ten-hour television series that is scheduled for an eventual DVD release of its own.

Film festivals

Mondovino earned a rare competition slot in the Official Selection of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, one of only four documentaries ever nominated for the Palme D'Or in the history of the festival. This is the third major competition selection for Jonathan Nossiter, with Signs & Wonders in Berlin in 2000 and Sunday, winner of the Sundance Film festival in 1997. Mondovino was promoted to its competition slot from a non competitive category just hours before the deadline by Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux. In May 2004, it was featured at Cannes with a run time of 2 hours 49 minutes. The film was edited down to 2 hrs 15 minutes after the screening.

Other notable Film Festivals that featured Mondovino and subsequent nominations, honors & awards

Critical Review

In the US, Mondovino received mostly positive reviews with 70% positive rating given by film critics featured on the website Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Some notable reviews:

  • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "Although Nossiter set out merely to find the characters behind the wine industry, he ended up with a poignant look at some important issues, including deforestation, the corporation versus the independent company and even communism. The result is an inside examination of a world very few people see."[3]
  • Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "But what is it that Nossiter wants us to know about this world and its inhabitants? We visit lots of places but what do we see? The indictments, recriminations, and musings just sit there, and the movie feels incomplete and uncentered. It's like a grand magazine profile that's all reportage and absolutely no prose."[4]
  • Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: "It's shot simply and cheaply, a model of how to use the new, lightweight equipment and shooting methods. But it's such a knowledgeable work and so pleasantly obsessed with its subject that it will interest even audiences whose attraction to wine is only casual. And it may, like "Sideways," make you a little thirstier when it's over."[5]
  • Peter DeBruge, Miami Herald: "Mondovino is an earnest but unfocused attempt to rescue winemaking from the hands of profit-mongering capitalists. Too passive-aggressive to qualify as a proper exposé, the movie suggests the world has lost the art of appreciating fine wines, thanks to the proliferation of a popular American style in which the flavor imparted by new wood barrels overpowers the individual terroir, or region-specific quality, that gives each wine its personality."[6]
  • Mike Steinberger, Slate: "Even viewers completely unfamiliar with the wine business will likely come away feeling that the film is absurdly one-sided—and they'll be right."[7]

Vineyard locations in Mondovino

(In order of appearance in film)

References

  1. ^ filmmakermagazine.com, Film Maker Magazine, "The Terroirist"
  2. ^ rottentomatoes.com Mondovino Reviews
  3. ^ rollingstone.com Rolling Stone, "Review: Mondovino" March 24, 2005
  4. ^ boston.com Boston Globe, "Film on winemaking is juicy but cloudy" April 15, 2005
  5. ^ chicagotribune.com Chicago Tribune, "Movie review: 'Mondovino'" May 12, 2005
  6. ^ miami.com Miami Herald, "Not the grapes of wrath, but earnest" July 28, 2005
  7. ^ Steinberger, Mike, Slate (March 9, 2005). "A Fahrenheit 9/11 for Oenophiles". http://www.slate.com/id/2114563/. 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Learn More
Art Is (1971 Film)
Vino
James Suckling

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Movies. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mondovino".  Read more