Mondovino (2005)
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Critic Reviews for Mondovino
All Critics (75) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (21) | DVD (1)
The movie runs an exhausting 131 minutes and reveals nothing that couldn't better be expressed with a 10-page story in Vanity Fair.
For wine-loving filmgoers willing to lavish it, and to forgive the film its excesses, it offers refreshment and reward.
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.
For wine enthusiasts curious about this quiet battle being waged internationally, Mondovino is an eye-opening, thirst-inducing experience.
It quickly becomes clear Mondovino is about more than the wine business. The points Nossiter makes ... can be applied to other endeavors.
It would work beautifully as a the non-fiction backstory to Sideways.
Audience Reviews for Mondovino
Very entertaining documentary on the wine industry. Here we see alcohol's royalty. I have always been fascinated to learn of the Mondavi family in particular. Good work.
Super Reviewer
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.
Super Reviewer
[font=Century Gothic]"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.)[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"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.)[/font]
Super Reviewer
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