By Matthew DeBord
HQ 115 | AUTUMN 2021
Welcome to part two of our “Wine and the Movies” series. Last quarter, we looked at my picks for the Top 10 documentaries about wine. This time around, we’re considering features, including two somewhat recent films and a true classic from the 1960s. I recommend either a bowl of buttery popcorn or a plate of sliced cheese to enjoy with either a rich white or robust red while viewing …
Sideways
This 2004 masterpiece from director Alexander Payne is widely recognized as the best movie ever made about both wine and the obsessives who fixate on it. Starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church as a pair of middling, borderline alcoholics who undertake a boys’ weekend before Church’s wedding, the film put the Santa Barbara wine region on the map, elevated Pinot Noir to a lofty status and more or less killed off Merlot. Who can forget Giamatti’s classic line — “I am NOT drinking any #$@%ing Merlot!” Nothing goes all that well for the fellas, but Giamatti finds a lover, sort of, with a luminous Virginia Madsen.
Bottle Shock
An unexpected piece of real brilliance from 2008, Bottle Shock stars the late Alan Rickman as Steven Spurrier, the real-life wine merchant who in the 1970s journeyed to what was then the backwater of the California wine industry and discovered wines that could, and did, challenge French legends in the now legendary “Judgment of Paris” tasting in 1976. Chris Pine, Bill Pullman and Eliza Dushku round out the impressive ensemble cast.
A Good Year
This offbeat gem from 2006 united Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott for one of those classic city-slicker-in-the-country comedies of errors. Crowe is a big-shot finance guy who ends up saddled with a vineyard in southern France that he has inherited from his late uncle. He originally wants to unload the vineyard quickly, but later comes to see the property as his ticket to a less morally corrupt life. The usual collisions of culture between the Anglo-Saxon and the rustic French folk frame both the romance and the humor, with the exquisite Marion Cotillard as Crowe’s love interest.
Uncorked
Minorities are very weakly represented in the wine business, a situation that this 2020 family drama tackles. Mamoudou Athie, an up-and-coming young actor, plays Elijah, whose loyalties are divided between his legacy barbecue restaurant and his ambitions to become a master sommelier. The conflict drives the story, but the narrative flows in a dignified, low-key manner, with a detour into romance.
Wine Country
The cast of Saturday Night Live heads to the Napa Valley in this entertaining 2019 chick flick, directed by Amy Poehler and starring Maya Rudolph. Wine lovers are advised to stick to Sideways and Bottle Shock: but for some light laughs and awkward hijinks amid beautiful scenery, this movie is worth a bowl of popcorn and a bottle of Chardonnay on a Saturday night.
A Heavenly Vintage
Not every wine movie has to be about California in the 21st century. This French film rolls the clock back to the 1800s, when wine was less a luxury product and more a natural aspect of rural cultural life. As such, wine and vineyards are more of a backdrop here, with center stage occupied by acting and typically French meditations on the meaning of life and love.
The Year of the Comet
Not to be confused with the cult-classic science fiction film The Night of the Comet, about teenagers surviving the end of the world, this 1992 movie has a highly prized bottle of wine as what Alfred Hitchcock termed the “McGuffin” — an object that sets the plot in motion. In this case, Penelope Ann Miller finds herself crisscrossing Europe to rescue a trophy from the 1811 “Year of the Comet” vintage.
You Will Be My Son
This 2011 film reminds us that the French take wine for granted, more than they see it as something worthy of centrality in storytelling. Here we have the predictable imperious, domineering father who in a twist actually doesn’t want his son to assume control of the family vineyard. The winemaking detail is utterly spot-on, and fans of the edgy school of French acting will enjoy a viewing even if they don’t care about grapes.Cement Suitcase
An off-the-grid movie in more ways than one, this 2014 effort is set in Washington state, which has its own well-established wine industry. Basically an indie film, the wine story is secondary to the trials and tribulations of the main character, a wine salesman with numerous personal troubles that make for some serious laughs.
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani star in this 1969 classic, which combines wine, Italians and Nazis in a potent, farcical brew with a noble, cheerful ending that reaffirms both love and life. The “secret” of Quinn’s town is naturally a stash of wine that the Germans want to lay their hands on as they flee the boot. The townsfolk hatch a scheme to conceal the good stuff, and a madcap race to make it work ensues.
