MONDOVINO
*** (out of ****)
A documentary directed & written by Jonathan Nossitter
2004
135 min  NR

Globalization and the commodification of everything is the vanilla-ization of everything.  If we put everything on a worldwide market, it does not increase variety, but reduces everything to its blandest, lowest common denominator.  So says “Mondovino,” a DV documentary that uses the world of wine production to make its point.  And “world” is a good word:  we go to France, Italy, the UK, California, New England, New York, and South America.  We see massive steel wineries with every futuristic accouterment you can imagine, as well as the clean modern mansion of its owners.  We see the wide tan vineyards of Napa Valley, overlooked by hacienda-style villas.  We see classic French vineyards and visit the centuries-old wood-colored houses where the same family has lived for generations while caring for the grapes.  We begin and end the movie with wine’s latest frontier:  the dirt-poor South American Indian, with only a couple of acres to his name, who thinks little of large corporations and whose lineage had little interest in wine.

On one side we have the traditional methods of the European masters, including long aging, a variety of barrels, grapes, soil, all cared for with a religious connection to soil and season.  On the other side we have the giant American conglomerates from Napa Valley, who take wine from all over the world and use identical methods to make it all taste the same.  They have at their disposal magazines like “Wine Spectator,” which are basically just ads for Napa Valley, and the famous wine critic Robert Parker, whose goal was to Americanize wine and bring down wine snobs.  We live in such a hurried world, says one of the French masters, that no one has the patience to develop a real relationship with wine, to appreciate something that takes two or three glasses to enjoy.  Instead, we enjoy wine like channel surfing:  if this doesn’t do anything for me immediately, I’m not interested.  So we get glorified Kool-Aid.

Filmmaker/wine steward Jonathan Nossitter doesn’t really have to do anything to vilify the Mondavis, the powerful family that works out of Napa Valley and now owns many formerly-traditional European vineyards and companies.  They put their heads in the noose for him.  Regardless of what they’re saying, about how the world is just waiting for us to make money out of it, we instantly fear them because of their self-satisfaction, their constant eye contact with the camera, and their “we deserve all the good things we have” attitude.  You do not want one of them to be your girlfriend’s dad.  The idea of growing vines on Mars should be beautiful and exciting, but the Mondavis make it sound like something to say before throwing 007 in the shark tank.

Still, at about 135 minutes, Nossitter’s canvas is large enough that a case can be for the Europeans just having sour grapes after so long at the top.  Nossitter also gives himself enough breathing room for comic relief:  there are dogs everywhere he goes, from mangy scavengers, to great healthy beasts, to Robert Parker’s flatulent, medicated, and decrepit bulldog.

The New York Post calls “Mondovino” “a ‘
Fahrenheit 9/11’ for the oenophile set,” yet the differences between the two documentaries are worth noting.  “Fahrenheit 9/11” is an American-style call to arms, guided by heavy narration, and starring the strong personality of Michael Moore.  That movie has the feel of a man who went looking for ways to illustrate what he already felt.  “Mondovino,” while certainly having just as much of an agendum, is philosophically European:  tragic as globalization and homogenization are, they come across more like forces of nature.  We can’t stop it or turn back the clock, and the best we can do is support those pockets of resistance.

Unlike Moore, Nossitter provides no narration besides a few title cards telling us where we are.  More viewers are likely to believe him than Moore because he has collected “objective” images to make his point and doesn’t make any connections for us; he creates the impression that he went out with his camera, not knowing what to find, and a story formed all on its own.  Also unlike Moore, he comes across as a pleasant non-personality, rarely heard or seen on camera.  His fluency in English, French, Spanish, and Italian even make us forget that it’s always the same man behind the camera.  Speaking of the camera, Nossitter is a little bit overactive with his zoom, but that’s okay.

The personalities from “Mondovino” that are more likely to stick with you belong to the men Nossitter interviews.  The eerily confident Mondavis.  Their boisterous and likeable wine consultant, who looks like a cheerful Stanley Kubrick.  And, of course, the romantically bitter French master, whose image graces the movie’s poster.  Fat and bald like Hitchcock, he wanders his vineyards with our camera in tow, wistfully bitter about the way of all flesh and wine.  How European.


Finished Saturday, August 27th, 2005

Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night

                                                                                            
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