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, Rovi
Nossiter's unimposing style likely landed him many interviews with skittish wine scions, but in the editing room, the gentleness translates into lack of clarity.
Usando o vinho como uma metáfora para a perda da individualidade no mundo moderno, Nossiter cria um filme fascinante que traz uma galeria de personagens interessantes em um relevante confronto em torno de suas visões de mundo diametralmente opostas.
At over two hours, this gets tedious... and no amount of 'micro-oxygenating' is going to make it better. I like my wine and my documentaries with a little less pretension.
This look at globalization through rosé-tinted glasses is a poignant, whimsical magnum opus. . . . a vital, sobering nightcap to Gleaners and I and Sideways.
Mondovino is not a movie that swirls some wine around in a glass and admires the color and praises the bouquet and speaks of the wine's 'complexity' and uses the whole experience as some kind of rarefied metaphor for middle-aged angst.
I didn't find this film as engaging as it could have been. The thing I find most memorable about this film was the utterly atrocious camerawork and the puzzling editing: why leave in the footage of a servant interrupting the interview? The subject matter at the core is interesting, though: How, with the advent of
globalization, big foreign wineries are buying [muscling] out family-owned ventures and the power that a handful of wine critics weild worldwide in wine consumption and production. I think that the filmmaking manages to cut through the fog of pretention that surrounds wine, but the characters themselves get mired and bogged down in it. I also think this movie's too long.
"Mondovino" is a documentary about the global wine industry, specifically about the Mondavi vineyards' attempts to expand into Europe. The first attempt failed in France with help from the locals and the Commmunist mayor(further proof why more Communists should be elected to office) but later succeeded in Tuscany.
What is at issue here is the danger of wines everywhere becoming uniform and losing their individuality because of consultants and critics forcing their tastes on everybody else. In the movie, this is referred to as globalization but I prefer the term corporatization.(In the film, one person compares this to a supermarket putting smaller stores out of business.) "Mondovino" is an informative film which does touch on some important issues but also could have been helped by a narrator to assist those of us uninitiated across three continents. It does not help that the movie is filmed by someone who was apparently more interested in filming dogs than human beings.(Bonus points for including a Basset Hound, though.)
No quotes approved yet for Mondovino. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Mondovino'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
