By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jonathan Nossiter
Country: argentina, france, italy, united_states
Year: 2005
Running time: 135
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411674/combined
Peg says: “If SIDEWAYS was wine’s MANHATTAN, MONDOVINO is its ROGER AND ME. An ambitious, sprawling (2 and a quarter hours and maybe a bit too long) documentary which mainly takes place in France, Italy and California (with brief segments in New York, Chile, Argentina and Sardinia),
filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter has deftly explored the intriguing world of family connections, cultural heritage, cutthroat competition and tawdry consumerism that defines the world wine indutry today. Nossiter introduces a number of wine luminaries, some whose families have been making wine
for hundreds of years (like Aime Guibert in Burgundy), some 20th century upstarts who are now billionaire wine giants (like Robert Mondavi in Napa).
These figures function more like characters in a narrative than subjects in a documentary, and audience members who find talk of wine and money and tradition and the environment and the meaning of life fascinating (I do) may find themselves on the edge of their seats (I did) as the Old World collides with New Money.
“One could weep when Aime Guibert speaks of what makes a fine wine: humility, passion, beauty, and, above all, terroir (the quality of the soil where the grapes are grown). ‘Wine is dead,’ he says, and we are inclined to believe him. One’s eyebrows raise in disbelief when wine critic Robert Parker speaks of himself in the third person about his heroic contribution to the world of wine appreciation (with his rating system based on a 1-100 scoring). One’s jaw drops at seeing the verdant rolling hills of Tuscany or Languedoc, where wine makers who farm on fewer than ten hectares still do things in the old way. One’s hands clench when the vintner in Argentina explains he cannot afford to sell his land even though he does not earn enough to feed his family. One laughs warily at the self-deprecating humor of Michel Rolland, a powerful ‘wine consultant’ who jets around the world helping small wineries ‘improve’ their wines with high-tech practices like micro-oxygenation, so their product can compete in the global marketplace, which more and more demands bland, homogeneous taste characterized by ‘new oak’ and soft flavors. One desires to wring the neck of James Suckling, a snobbish nouveau-riche American wine critic now living in Tuscany, who explains that Italian wines are now popular because ‘our parents, they wore Hermes, but now we all wear Ferragmo and Prada’–how nice for you, James, you pretentious Yuppie worm. One wishes to alternately hug and slap Hubert de Montille, a doddering but wise man whose son and daughter are trying to continue the family wine business but are disgusted by the pretension, duplicity and fraud that now permeate the industry.
“Fraud? Duplicity? It’s WINE. Yes, and when one Italian wine won a very high rating from Parker and was named the number one wine in the world by Wine Spectator magazine, its price spiked from 35 euros per bottle to 110 euros. (This revealed by a wine shop owner in Tuscany, who, like several other characters, asked incredulously why people don’t see the link between the success of certain winemakers and their ratings by Parker and subsequent publicity in Wine Spectator magazine.)
“Inventive cinematography (much of it digital video), an engaging sound design, and an odd but ultimately revealing fixation with the dogs owned by the many personalities interviewed, all combine to make this exhaustive but fascinating expose on the wine industry one of the finest documentaries of its kind–informative and revealing about a large topic, as opposed to idiosyncratic and intimate small subjects like so many docus now. With a humorous approach and a thoughtful eye, Nossiter allows us to discover that wine is entwined with human history and humanity’s future, and is as subject to the vagaries of fashion and the manipulation of commerce as other great pleasures of human invention–clothing, perfume, art, music. If a documentary causes us to contemplate our habits and change our lifestyles, it may be said to have achieved something. I, for one, will favor Argentine wine from now on. 4 cats”
Bruce says: “Globalization is a difficult concept for most of us to grasp because it indirectly affects our lives. The relationships among the global business communities are elusive, often unknown to the general public. MONDOVINO is Globalization for Dummies. The film examines the mechanisms of the wine industry and in simplistic terms explains what goes on behind the scenes. We learn how the world’s leading winemaker gobbles up properties in dozens of countries, how the leading wine consultant brokers the selling of family owned businesses as he tell the vintners how to get a modern taste from their grapes, how the leading wine tasting expert influences world wide sales, and how the leading wine publication promotes the efforts of the others. All these industry leaders are ‘friends’ although ‘in bed with each other’ is a more suitable phrase.
“Filmed in at least six countries, MONDOVINO consists of interviews with the movers and shakers in the wine world as well as some interview with
traditional vintners who have small acreage (measured in hectares) that has been in their family for many generations. The businessmen talk of opportunity and exposure, the small-scale owners speak of quality, individuality and winemaking heritage.
“Neil Rosenthal, an American wine importer, has concerns about globalization imposing American culture and American tastes on other countries. Mondavi is the wine conglomerate that is buying up choice vineyards all over the world. When they tried to strong arm their way into heart of the
Bordeaux, the French voted them out, much like communities in the United States do to Wal-Mart. Many of the businessmen talk as though France has buried its head in the sand. The French prefer to think in terms of preserving their culture. Hubert de Montille, an owner of a small winery in Burgundy, insists that the ‘monolithic thinking.’ inherent in globalization is leading to wines losing their individuality. Every winemaker used to create a unique product. Hubert is proud that his wines ‘have quite an edge.’ Michel Rolland, a wine consultant in 12 countries helps vintners achieve a taste that Robert Parker, the pre-eminent wine critic, will rate highly. Rolland will also recommend sale of the vineyards to Mondavi should the desired taste be achieved.
“Two threads not specifically related to wine are woven throughout the film. The first is dogs; everyone in the wine industry owns a dog. At every interview, a dog appears and the camera lingers to record its behavior. For a dog lover such as I, this is an extraordinary bonus feature.
“The second thread, politics, is not so frivolous. Robert Parker has a large picture of Ronald Reagan in his Monkton, Maryland, home inscribed ‘to Robert Parker with best wishes, Ronald Reagan.’ Ronald Reagan also shows up in France on the walls of a Boisset executive. In Italy we hear
of the tale of the Frescobaldis and the Antinoras, two old families long on pedigree and likely short of cash. The grandfather of the Antinora brothers was a supporter of fascism because, ‘Italy needed a stronger hand and Mussolini did great things in Italy.’ Likewise from the Frescobaldi camp we hear the under fascism ‘there was a guarantee of order, a guarantee of the status quo and the trains ran on time.’ Mondavi had quite a struggle decided on which family to partnership. In the end the Frescobaldis won.
“Charles Suckling, publisher of the Wine Spectator, now lives in Italy free of the ‘ridiculous socialist government’ in France. Robert P. Koch of The Wine Institute (located in San Francisco) who is married to George W. Bush’s sister, Dorothy, contributed money to his brother-in-law’s Presidential campaign but gave twice as much to Diane Feinstein when she ran for the Senate. Alix, daughter of Hubert de Montille, has a different point of view; she says that in the modern world there is a new form of fascism, the monopolization of wine distribution.
“I found the film’s soundtrack annoying, often thinking that the various songs did not fit well with the mood of a particular scene. At times the music seemed as though it was added by someone not familiar with the film. MONDOVINO is too long, it deserves a trim. For those of you who wish there were more when the film ends, rumor has it that Nossiter shot over 500 hours of film and MONDOVINO will evolve into a 10 part television series. 4 cats