Jonathan Nossiter, whose 2000 drama SIGNS & WONDERS was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and whose 1997 fiction film SUNDAY won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, returns to the documentary format with MONDOVINO. Nossiter, who previously explored cinema verite in '90s RESIDENT ALIEN, about the iconoclastic Quentin Crisp, this time focuses his camera on the international wine trade, traveling to France, California, Italy, and New York, speaking with winemakers both great and small. While old-timer Aime Guibert, of tiny Mas de Daumas-Gassac, pronounces that wine must be made by a poet, high-powered consultant Michel Rolland circles the globe ensuring that wineries make lots of money. Nossiter meets the Mondavi family, one of the wine world's largest conglomerates; the de Montille family of Burgundy, in which a daughter has chosen not to work with her father and brother but instead with a competitor; the Staglins, who financed their own high-priced vineyard in the Napa Valley; and critics James Suckling and Robert Parker, whose words can make or break a vintage. Nossiter also visits with New York wine importer Neal Rosenthal, Christie's wine director Michael Broadbent, and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild CEOs Patrick Leon and Xavier de Eizaguirre to get even further perspectives. Although Nossiter set out merely to find the characters behind the wine industry, he ended up with a poignant look at some important issues, including deforestation, the corporation versus the independent company, and even communism. His bouncy handheld camera captured more than he had ever imagined. The result is an entertaining inside examination of a world very few people see, a fascinating exploration of wine and the families who produce it.
