4a: Wine and the Movies
What is wine? On a basic level, it’s fermented fruit—Ug and Mug discover grapes, and then they discover wine. But it is that potential for making us feel like God that makes wine more than a beverage: it is a transformative experience.
At NVC, I teach a class on wine and culture, and it began with an ancient cuneiform text that roughly translated reads: wine is wonderful, but the rich get to drink all the good stuff. My how things have changed!
Wine is more than an expression of rocks and rainfall. The hand of man far outweighs the effects of soil and climate. Wine is just as much an expression of regional culture as the local cathedral, the folk music of the region, or the local cuisine. It is an expression of the style, beliefs, lives and loves of the people.
Wine is living culture. And it is the most intimate expression of that culture, because we do more than hear or see it. We put it inside ourselves, and it becomes part of us.
It also connects us, in a Jungian way, with that time of Ug and Mug. Wine can only be made at one time in the year, when all the crops are ripe, all the animals are fat, and we celebrate the richness of this Earth—when God loves us and wants to see us happy. It is the only beverage that conveys not only a sense of place, but a sense of time. That gives us even more pleasure.
Because wine is about pleasure. And when we remember the Puritans who founded America and their rejection of earthly pleasures, and we understand the on-going battle over alcohol today. Wine is both a pleasurable expression of regional culture, and it is a temptation of the devil to do the devil’s work. It has always been that, since before the two-faced god Dionysus.
Wine is a mirror. It tells us what we think of ourselves, and what we think of others. In Britain, the upper class drank wine, and the lower classes drank beer or liquor—and those distinctions not only run very deep—they are still with us today. People who drink wine are viewed as more sophisticated than those who do not, both by themselves and by others.
Which means that those who do NOT drink wine view wine drinkers as snobs and phonies.
These are just a few of the perspectives in the prism of wine and culture. And in the movies, directors use wine to tell a story, to establish a point of view, to serve as an allegory for something larger. To put us in touch with the natural world, or to speak to the image of Eden or hell.
And sometimes, it’s just to show people having a good time.
There are movies about wine:
Sideways: The life of wine:
Bottle Shock—I prefer my wines older
Sideways: Are you Chewing GUM?
Red Obsession
There are movies where wine plays a small role--but the scenes tell us something about the characters
Sherlock Holmes
Death Wish—Bronson
Arsenic and Old Lace
French Kiss trailer:
James Bond---the essence of sophistication:
Ratatouille: 61 latour
Tampopo: who’s in charge?
The jerk:
Borat Wine Tasting
Indiana Jones Holy Grail
Vincent Price Peter Lorry Wine tasting
A walk in the clouds Grape Stomp
Fava Beans and Chianti—Silence of the Lambs
And just for fun:
Laurel and Hardy—drunks laughing
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