Documentary about wine wars

Today's New York Times has an interesting article on a long documentary about wine making and global marketing. Here is the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/movies/02hohe.html
You have to register with the Times to read it, but registration is free

Sounds sort of like Michael Moore meets the global wine establishment. I cannot comment on the movie, of course, not having seen it, but I find Moore's style of "documentary," based heavily on making people you disagree with look ridiculous, more and more objectionable. Degrading to his subjects, and insulting to his audience.

Globalized, standardized, product is easier to market and sell. It has been proved over and over. One loses the heroic, idiosyncratic, and different, but the offset is a massive increase in the market and money to be made. That has clearly happened to the wine industry, just as it has happened to much of the food business.

But it does not mean that the interesting, idiosyncratic and heroic products disappear as we all know, though they are often hidden under a flood of standardized products. And in some ways, it is a good thing for the best of the more unique products, as they can use the market attention created by the behemoths to their benefit (it is not a bad thing to be identified as the anti-McDonalds, for instance).

I will be watching for this film. And I like global wines, as well as more individualistic wines. It is a fine time to drink wine, even if it has not been a good time at all for the middle and lower echelons of the French wine industry (probably deservedly, BTW).

[quote="dicksond"]Sounds sort of like Michael Moore meets the global wine establishment. I cannot comment on the movie,

It is never a good idea to comment on a movie one hasn't seen! Mondovino is an excellent documentary, and is till playing at the Music Box this week. I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It is nothing like a Michael Moore film (whether or not one loves or hates Moore is beside the point). Nossiter, the director, never speaks throughout the film, much less editorializes. The entire film consists of interviews of people involved on both sides of the issue, big wine producers (the Mondavis, the Rothschilds among others), wine critics, and small producers. Both sides get to present their point of view fairly and eloquently; the film is not edited in a way that caricatures any of the individuals being filmed. It is pretty obvious where Nossiter's sympathies lie, but the film never shies away from the complexities of the issues and indeed of the personalities of the protagonists. This is a documentary ideally designed to make people think and debate issues, rather than to reinforce their own prior convictions by making the other side appear evil, stupid, or incompetent.

I've got to say, I disagree... I had been excited about seeing this movie for months and finally went to see it the opening weekend at the Music Box. I was extremely disappointed. It looks as though it were shot by a high school student who wanted to play with the camera. Not only it shot with apparently handheld cameras, which makes it shaky enough, but it gratuitously and inexplicably often veers up for a shot of the clouds. Or when someone opens the door it shakily focuses in on their fingers and you dont' see the person's face. Or, again apparently just for fun, it will zoom in on someone's eyes, going in and out as they are interviewed. All of this is seriously distracting and detracts from the film's message. Which is so poorly edited that it is hard to figure out anyway. The movie rambles and shakes, with plenty of shots of dogs and clouds, lingering, unfocused interviews and no "guiding hand" to give you a sense of where it is going. It seems to go on interminably, at over 2 hours it makes for quite a long documentary.

It gave me a headache.