Mondovino (2004)

72% of critics liked it
(75 reviews)
76% of users liked it
(933 ratings)

Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter is a serious wine connoisseur as well as a practicing sommelier when he isn't busy behind the camera, and he's combined his two passions in this documentary on the international wine business. Mondovino offers a witty but well-informed look at how business… More Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter is a serious wine connoisseur as well as a practicing sommelier when he isn't busy behind the camera, and he's combined his two passions in this documentary on the international wine business. Mondovino offers a witty but well-informed look at how business concerns and the homogenization of tastes around the world are changing the way wine is being made. Nossiter's primary focus is on American vintners and their new degree of worldwide acceptance (in part due to the efforts of wildly influential U.S. wine critic Robert Parker), as well as French wine makers who are struggling to maintain a more traditional approach in the wake of a rapidly shifting business climate, such as Hubert de Montille and Yvonne Hegoburu. Nossiter deals with the personalities of his subjects as much as their status in the wine business, and he frequently introduces us to the pets of his interview subjects. Mondovino was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Directed By: Jonathan Nossiter
Written By: Jonathan Nossiter
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Mar 23, 2005 Limited
Studio: ThinkFilm Inc.

Critic Reviews

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald
The movie runs an exhausting 131 minutes and reveals nothing that couldn't better be expressed with a 10-page story in Vanity Fair.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
For wine-loving filmgoers willing to lavish it, and to forgive the film its excesses, it offers refreshment and reward.
Michael Booth, Denver Post
Nossiter's unimposing style likely landed him many interviews with skittish wine scions, but in the editing room, the gentleness translates into lack of clarity.
Manuel Mendoza, Dallas Morning News
For wine enthusiasts curious about this quiet battle being waged internationally, Mondovino is an eye-opening, thirst-inducing experience.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It quickly becomes clear Mondovino is about more than the wine business. The points Nossiter makes ... can be applied to other endeavors.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
It would work beautifully as a the non-fiction backstory to Sideways.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Usando o vinho como uma metáfora para a perda da individualidade no mundo moderno, Nossiter cria um filme fascinante que traz uma galeria de personagens interessantes em um relevante confronto em torno de suas visões de mundo diametralmente opostas.
Rex Roberts, Film Journal International
Overly long and literally unfocused documentary about the wine industry.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Brilliant critique of "Napa-ization" of the wine industry.
Kurt Loder, MTV
[I]nteresting, and sometimes funny, but terribly edited and way too long.
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com
At over two hours, this gets tedious... and no amount of 'micro-oxygenating' is going to make it better. I like my wine and my documentaries with a little less pretension.
Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile
Engaging doco that touches on fraudulent practices, politics, personalities and poisonous relations in a well paced affair that covers much ground
Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
This look at globalization through rosé-tinted glasses is a poignant, whimsical magnum opus. . . . a vital, sobering nightcap to Gleaners and I and Sideways.
Joshua Tanzer, Offoffoff
Mondovino is not a movie that swirls some wine around in a glass and admires the color and praises the bouquet and speaks of the wine's 'complexity' and uses the whole experience as some kind of rarefied metaphor for middle-aged angst.
Jules Brenner, Filmcritic.com
the repetitious, belaboring 165 minutes make you want to scream, "Put a cork in it!"

Read all 15 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Emily A

I didn't find this film as engaging as it could have been. The thing I find most memorable about this film was the utterly atrocious camerawork and the puzzling editing: why leave in the footage of a servant interrupting the interview? The subject matter at the core is… More
I didn't find this film as engaging as it could have been. The thing I find most memorable about this film was the utterly atrocious camerawork and the puzzling editing: why leave in the footage of a servant interrupting the interview? The subject matter at the core is interesting, though: How, with the advent of globalization, big foreign wineries are buying [muscling] out family-owned ventures and the power that a handful of wine critics weild worldwide in wine consumption and production. I think that the filmmaking manages to cut through the fog of pretention that surrounds wine, but the characters themselves get mired and bogged down in it. I also think this movie's too long.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Mondovino" is a documentary about the global wine industry, specifically about the Mondavi vineyards' attempts to expand into Europe. The first attempt failed in France with help from the locals and the Commmunist mayor(further proof why more… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Mondovino" is a documentary about the global wine industry, specifically about the Mondavi vineyards' attempts to expand into Europe. The first attempt failed in France with help from the locals and the Commmunist mayor(further proof why more Communists should be elected to office) but later succeeded in Tuscany. What is at issue here is the danger of wines everywhere becoming uniform and losing their individuality because of consultants and critics forcing their tastes on everybody else. In the movie, this is referred to as globalization but I prefer the term corporatization.(In the film, one person compares this to a supermarket putting smaller stores out of business.)[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Mondovino" is an informative film which does touch on some important issues but also could have been helped by a narrator to assist those of us uninitiated across three continents. It does not help that the movie is filmed by someone who was apparently more interested in filming dogs than human beings.(Bonus points for including a Basset Hound, though.)[/font]
John B

Very entertaining documentary on the wine industry. Here we see alcohol's royalty. I have always been fascinated to learn of the Mondavi family in particular. Good work.

Currently unavailable on Flixster

Also available on

Other Retailers

Not Available

Subscription Services

Not Available

Cast

See more (11)

Mondovino (2004)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Emily A

Walter M

John B

Also available on

Other Retailers

Subscription Services

Cast

Trailers & Clips

Watch offline from your computer

Flixster Desktop

Watch on your TV

Google TV

Microsoft XBOX 360

Sony Playstation 3

Watch on your tablet

iPad

Kindle Fire, Kindle Nook

Android tablets

Watch on your phone

iPhone, iPod Touch

Android phones

Are you sure?

Google TV Get the Flixster app , then sign in	Microsoft XBOX 360 Get the Vudu app, connect to UltraViolet. Rentals currently not available. Flixster app coming soon!
Sony Playstation 3 Get the Vudu app, connect to UltraViolet. Rentals currently not available. Flixster app coming soon!

iPad Get the Flixster app , then sign in	Kindle Fire, Kindle Nook Get the Flixster app , then sign in
Android tablets Get the Flixster app , then sign in