Word: mondovinoã
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Director Jonathan Nossiter aptly likens his film to the novels of Balzac and Dickens, with its large, colorful cast of characters manipulating society. Like Pip of Great Expectations, Mondovino??s subjects confront issues of class, tradition, and upheaval on the great stage of the “Human Comedy...
...spite of Mondovino??s esoteric and reputedly snobbish subject matter, even an audience who can’t tell Chianti from Kool-Aid can follow this portrait of an ancient, often bizarre international subculture. Like its distant cousin in fiction, Oscar contender Sideways, the film holds up for its entire 135 minutes by tempering a little wine geekery with far more interesting (and frequently unflattering) character studies...
Nossiter and fellow camera operators Juan Pittaluga and Stephanie Pommez keep the grandeur of Mondovino??s vision in check by giving the camera a refreshingly childlike life of its own. The camera shots wobble, dwell curiously on small children and dogs, and occasionally pan across landscapes at dizzying speed, seemingly giddy over the wondrous, peculiar world Nossiter has discovered...
...Mondovino??s subjects are driven alternately by money, fame, winelust, and terroir, the film’s untranslatable but ubiquitous term meaning something between “soil” and “heartland.” The film itself is driven by its energetic camerawork, tantalizing leads, and a madcap soundtrack ranging from vintage French cabaret to the Kinks. Adventurous moviegoers should be driven by curiosity and the desire to stray from the well-beaten Hollywood track, and they will not be disappointed...
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