Mondovino – 6 out of 10

I apologies for the formatting, I’m in line again and posting from my Blackberry. We just finished watching Mondovino and hightailed it down to the Paramount to see Saving Face.

Mondovino was…about as good as a documentary about wine could be. Technical things: it was about 30 minutes too long, the sound was spotty at time and I often had difficulty reading the white subtitles. But I was surprised at how gripping a topic the global wine industry is, at least as it was presented here. I could see why it would appeal to film insiders; both they and winemakers consider themselves culture influencers, and the issues were largely universal: large corporations taking on small producers, globalization of jobs, and so on.

There was several poignant moments, as there always are in good documentaries. Granted, it’s my least favourite so far, and it had some technical problems, but I learned something new while watching it: the word “terroir”. So it couldn’t have been a complete waste. 6 it is.