Russell Crowe heeft zijn eigen wijngaard in Frankrijk. En nu heeft hij de hoofdrol in een film ‘A Good Year’ die zich afspeelt in en om die wijngaard.
De film is gebaseerd op een boek van Peter Mayle.
In de film is Russell Crowe een mislukte engelse bankier die een wijngaard erft.
Hij wil de wijngaard snel verkopen, maar hij vindt zijn ziel in de wijnerij…
A good year, indeed
The success of "Sideways" must have finally gotten the Hollywood types thinking… maybe the inherent romance of wine can fill seats on the big screen. The time to strike is certainly now.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the upcoming film, "A Good Year," for which filming has just wrapped in London, is based on a popular book by popular author Peter Mayle and stars one of my own personal favorites, bad boy (and Academy Award winner, let us not forget) Russell Crowe.
The film is directed by Ridley Scott, himself no slouch, and according to news accounts, the proud owner of his very own vineyard in the Luberon region of France, where the book/film takes place. It essentially tells the story of a failed London banker who inherits a vineyard in France where he had spent many boyhood summers. He intends to make quick work of selling the land, but of course those childhood memories start to seep in, and the banker soon finds his soul. Or so I suspect.
Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhart also appear in the film. A "beautiful California woman" shows up at some point to lay claim to the property, as well. Hmmm. Is this a "Mondovino" type plot development to show the overtaking of provincial French property by greedy Americans? I wonder.
Scott and Crowe’s last team effort was "Gladiator," so this project holds great promise based on that alone, but I also suspect Scott’s intimate knowledge of vineyard temperament, not to mention leading man Crowe’s, must have given him particular insight into the highs and lows of how, as the film’s tagline says, "Everything matures… eventually."
But still. I think wine might have finally earned its place as a bona fide storyline on which a movie can ride – something martinis (think Nick and Nora) and beer ("Animal House") have mastered for years.
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