Mondovino
Janette & Matt are in town and we're having oodles of fun with them. Janette, being the uber talented, amazing television journalist she is, has even landed a story at the local CityTV station - sort of an advanced audition. I have no doubt she'll land one of the positions available at CityTV. She's fantastic and they would be silly to pass her up. She's a gem.The first night we went out (Thursday), we took in a drink and a movie at Camera, Atom Egoyan's bar/cinema on Queen Street (at Ossington). It's a brilliant concept. The front of house is a warm, but swank little lounge that serves modest, but yummy light food and amazing martinis (I tried a scotch-based gin...I think it was called Hennessey...for the first time...it was sublime). The staff is incredibly nice and very 'artsy'. They can talk, at length, about amazing indie and foreign films that are a must-see and have a great appreciation for the arts in general. Seeing that Camera is smack-dab in the centre of the quickly developing neighbourhood of Queen West West and sandwiched between many art galleries, it wasn't surprising to see the entire clientele decked out inner-city bohemian, chatting about this new artist and that new art film.
The movie we saw was amazing and had a huge impact on me: Mondovino. It's a documentary by Jonathon Nossiter, winner for his previous film "Sunday" at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. I wasn't familiar with Nossiter, but I became excited reading up on Mondovino. After watching, Sideways, I realized how great the marriage of wine and film could be and this documentary took it even a step further. Spanning 7 continents and interviewing dozens of small-vineyard winemakers on their love of wine, their passion for the history of wine and their discontentment with the direction of the big business of wine was fascinating to watch. Even more fascinating were his discussions with the wine moguls, consultant to the wine moguls and wine mogul arse-kissers. One particularly fabulous comment came from the Staglins, who, upon being asked about the treatment of their grape harvesters says:
"We treat them like family. We know them by first name, and we give them hats and t-shirts." (As they sit in their gigantic house overlooking their enormous estate)
The movie could have been edited down quite a bit (like, by an hour!), but every moment was pretty succulent and, unlike other documentaries, let the interviews tell the story for you. Although the message is heavy-handed (Mondavi-type Wine Moguls = bad, Traditional Wine Makers = good), it never really came across that way. I also adored how, when Nossiter was interviewing subjects, he became distracted by dogs, workers and any other shot. The haphazard and distracted camerawork was a nice juxtaposition to the oft-snobishness of the wine world.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mondovino/about.php
And, as a note on the overall impact of the movie for me: When I went to the wine store the next day to pick up a bottle for dinner, I bypassed the new world wines entirely (US, Australia, etc.) and bought a lovely bottle of French. I am also planning on taking a wine knowledge course on old world wines through the LCBO so that I know what I'm buying from now on.
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