An Apology to Jonathan Nossitor I finally got to see Mondovino last night after condemning the movie for months. I want to apologize to Jonathan Nossitor. I have been skeptical about the film without seeing it, in the grand tradition of American know-nothingness, but finally got out to see it here in Portland, Oregon. This is a very wine conscious city and the film was playing at a drive-in theatre in Beaverton, a swank suburb housing countless Nike and Adidas executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I regret that Hubert de Montille was cast as Jesus Christ and that his daughter Alix was featured as Mary Magdalene. Off hand, I can think of 50 other vignerons who better fit the role. Of course, de Montille turns out to be a great cinema presence and has a future as the French James Earl Jones. Great voice and great presence. The choice of de Montille as the personification of peasant integrity, the same de Montille who is a successful Dijon lawyer and who recently told Pierre Rovani that September 11th was the greatest day of his life, is plain silly, even if it made cinematic sense. Hubert de Montille is the personification of Hubert de Montille and little else. Unfortunately, his central role in the film opens Nossitor to attack as being too broad a propagandist. And this is too bad, because the points made by the film are compelling and largely true even if the choice of narrative vehicle is unfortunate. The film is fun and revealing, especially if you are an afficionado of hand-held cameras. All the scenes with Michel Rolland are hysterical and the viewer is astonished that Rolland is so taken in by his own Rollandmania that he cannot imagine that Nossitor is setting him up. Every so often, you almost feel pity for the poor Rolland, who delights in looking arrogant, foolish and imperial. There are beautiful scenes with a peasant in Sardinia who speaks lyrically of his wine and life. The Mondavi family is made out to be too sinister, but again, Nossitor is only dealing in broad strokes here and not the subtleties. But the contrast between the Sardinian family and the Rollands, Mondavis, Parkers, Antinoris and Frescobaldis says it all. It is amazing to see the lavish estates of the wine aristocracy, enormous winery/plantations that they imagine look like heaven but which are more reminiscent of military fortresses. I can't imagine how someone who is not a seasoned wine geek would understand what is going on in the film. Nossitor imagines that by painting everything in broad strokes he is making the moral issues simpler, but frankly, I think the film would have been more compelling if Nossitor had better showed the complexities of the wine world rather than the shadow world of monopolists. Even with this limitation, the film is a lot of fun and a valuable contribution. |
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