bottle shock affects some wines when transferred from cask to bottle
it is also the name of this film based in the napa valley in california
it had reasonable write-ups and seemed ideal for a casual film
especially as tonight the mood is for enjoyment not challenge
apart from a wine story the main appeal is based-on-fact
apparently in 1976 american wines cleaned up in a paris competition
opening the doors for a flood of american wines onto the world market
then in turn other wines from other parts of the world became exportable
the intention of this film is to explain how it all happened
the film opens in the napa valley - some great wide-screen shots
showing the vastness, openness and clean air of the vineyards there
some appropriate 70's music blasting to remind us of the times
the main characters are introduced - a struggling father and son
dad is the hard-worker, son is the lazy long-haired layabout
tension between the 2 resolved by slugging it out in the boxing ring
these are hardened blokes after all so it beats having a chat
bo (son) looking a lot like brad pitt in thelma and louise
then along comes sam - a cute blonde intern so we can see the future
we are then off to paris (supposedly) to meet the other star
he's an ex-pat brit living in paris named steven spurrier
he runs an unsuccessful wine shop and is struggling socially
not being taken too seriously as a british wine snob in paris
the actor is alan rickman who mostly i find a little creepy
nothing changes here as his trademark sneer works well in this role
a newspaper article sees him decide to make some changes
and it's off to california to gather some wines for local judging
a chance encounter then sees all the characters inter-t-wine-d
and away we go as we live amongst them for a while
various relationships are exposed and toyed with on screen
father-son, son-friend, son-girl, son-mother, father-mother, etc
but a combination of unconvincing acting and direction gets in the way
possibly because there's a deliberate intention to retain focus
the film after all is about wine and trouncing the french
which really became obvious when the action is back in france
the climax of the film is the wine-tasting - the 'judgement of paris'
where finally the wine from father-son wins the top prize
but these scenes outside paris are spoilt by a very lazy approach
they are clearly filmed in california - the scenery is the same
an attempt to convince us otherwise by dropping in a few french cars
but just too many citreon ds23 and 2cv's held in focus for too long
at which point i decided this film was too skewed for my liking
the french judges not overtly mocked but done so all the same
and a final sneer from alan rickman as the credits roll
this is in fact the most interesting part of the film
with text to explain more of the event and people
some after-film research on wiki quite interesting
with the real steve spurrier quite dismissive -
there is hardly a word that is true in the script
and many, many pure inventions as far as I am concerned
oh well - nice try - maybe it's for americans...
it is also the name of this film based in the napa valley in california
it had reasonable write-ups and seemed ideal for a casual film
especially as tonight the mood is for enjoyment not challenge
apart from a wine story the main appeal is based-on-fact
apparently in 1976 american wines cleaned up in a paris competition
opening the doors for a flood of american wines onto the world market
then in turn other wines from other parts of the world became exportable
the intention of this film is to explain how it all happened
the film opens in the napa valley - some great wide-screen shots
showing the vastness, openness and clean air of the vineyards there
some appropriate 70's music blasting to remind us of the times
the main characters are introduced - a struggling father and son
dad is the hard-worker, son is the lazy long-haired layabout
tension between the 2 resolved by slugging it out in the boxing ring
these are hardened blokes after all so it beats having a chat
bo (son) looking a lot like brad pitt in thelma and louise
then along comes sam - a cute blonde intern so we can see the future
we are then off to paris (supposedly) to meet the other star
he's an ex-pat brit living in paris named steven spurrier
he runs an unsuccessful wine shop and is struggling socially
not being taken too seriously as a british wine snob in paris
the actor is alan rickman who mostly i find a little creepy
nothing changes here as his trademark sneer works well in this role
a newspaper article sees him decide to make some changes
and it's off to california to gather some wines for local judging
a chance encounter then sees all the characters inter-t-wine-d
and away we go as we live amongst them for a while
various relationships are exposed and toyed with on screen
father-son, son-friend, son-girl, son-mother, father-mother, etc
but a combination of unconvincing acting and direction gets in the way
possibly because there's a deliberate intention to retain focus
the film after all is about wine and trouncing the french
which really became obvious when the action is back in france
the climax of the film is the wine-tasting - the 'judgement of paris'
where finally the wine from father-son wins the top prize
but these scenes outside paris are spoilt by a very lazy approach
they are clearly filmed in california - the scenery is the same
an attempt to convince us otherwise by dropping in a few french cars
but just too many citreon ds23 and 2cv's held in focus for too long
at which point i decided this film was too skewed for my liking
the french judges not overtly mocked but done so all the same
and a final sneer from alan rickman as the credits roll
this is in fact the most interesting part of the film
with text to explain more of the event and people
some after-film research on wiki quite interesting
with the real steve spurrier quite dismissive -
there is hardly a word that is true in the script
and many, many pure inventions as far as I am concerned
oh well - nice try - maybe it's for americans...
