A Good Year

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I’m a big fan of movies. Of all sorts, really..I can’t really nail down an exact genre of films that appeals to me more than others. Every once in a while, a film comes a long that just grips me, holds my attentions and sparks my passion and intrigue. I can name a handful of films right now, off the top of my head: The Red Violin (Violon rouge, Le), Man on Fire, Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Lucky Number Slevin, The Constant Gardner, The English Patient – – and to throw a little fetish and change into the mix, Kinky Boots and Fight Club.. These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head right now – – there are masses of others that makes it very difficult for me to name just ONE favorite movie of all time, whenever I’m presented with those questionnaires that ask me to do so.

A Good Year; Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard
A Good Year; Russell Crowe and Marion Cotillard
Usually, with these films, I can watch them countless number of times and I’m still just as enamored with them as I was the very first time. The list of movies I like is incredibly long…. the list of movies I LOVE is a shorter list, and I usually have to watch a film a least a dozen times before that film makes it on the LOVE list – – because I have to discover that the feelings and emotions that I had the very first time I watched the film still linger after the twentieth (or more) time I watched it. It’s kind of like the guy you end up marrying – – you don’t really marry him unless his kiss can still make your toes tingle time after time, ya know?

I added a new film to my LOVE list lately – and I actually knew that this film was on my love list before this post, but I think it took my watching it again over the weekend for me to consciously decide that this was the case. With this film – it’s a few things about it.

The movie is called “A Good Year” and stars Russell Crowe, One of the very last great lines of the movie was when Marion Cotillard’s character, Fanny, is taking Russell Crowe’s character, Max’s order at the cafe – she asks him what he wants and he replies:

I want a bottle of wine that tastes like you . . . in a glass that is never empty

Ok – I know, it sounds trite, but you would have had to have watched the entire film. The line gets me every single time.

Without giving the entire film away – because I really think you should watch it…the film is about a man who is on the top of his game as a high level stockbroker in a very fast, stress filled lifestyle. His uncle dies and has left a quaint French chateau with a winery that Max is now faced with having to fix up and sell, so he travels to France to get it done. While there, he finds himself on a journey of self-discovery, love, family, childhood memories, food and wine. In the end, it dawns on him. . . what good is all the money from your hard work in the world if you are not able to stop and enjoy the fruits of your labor from time to time?

The movie makes me want to move to France (gasp!), buy a winery and spend long lazy days in the sun sitting on the patio drinking wine and eating food dipped in rich olive oil, in the company of interesting friends and people I love. Every single time I watch that movie, I look at my husband and say “Hey, lets move to France??” – him, being British, will, of course, have nothing to do with thoughts of moving to France – – it’s against his very nature. Although, he does pull out the “I want a bottle of wine that tastes like you…in a glass that is never empty” line out every once in awhile, just to keep me happy. Heh. 🙂

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15 thoughts on “A Good Year”

  1. You’ll have to let me know how you liked it 🙂 Obviously, its one of my favorites! Then again, my family always tells me that I have *odd* taste in films…so I don’t know if my movie reviews can be trusted by the general public haha 😀

  2. Chick Flick Alert! My Wife will love it, and I’ll be a hero. Yay! Thanks Lisa!

    Max: “This place just doesn’t suit my life.”
    Fannie: “Your life doesn’t suit this place.” Awesome. I might even like this movie.

  3. @Brian – it does have some ‘chick flick’ tendancies..so, for sure you’ll be a hero to your wife. I think you will like it, too — my husband likes it and he’s pretty quick to put up the ‘chick flick’ radar lol

  4. My wife and I have wanted to see this. It looks really good. Thanks for providing the video movie trailer on this too. Things like that really make a difference. I remember when it was about near impossible to watch video clips online, now these things load up like it’s nothing.

  5. Call me sentimental – I truly love this film 🙂 Let me know how you and Angie like it, Garry.

    BTW, I also like when people make posts about movies they like and include the trailer along with it, gives it that extra bit of information needed to seal the deal 😉

  6. A Good Year was awesome! It crept up on me on a lazy Sunday several months ago and I couldn’t believe I didn’t remember ever hearing about it. It seems like a Russell Crowe / Ridley Scott movie would have been on my radar.

    Additionally we have a very similar favorite movie list. I would add maybe “Requiem for a Dream” and “Mongol.”

  7. @K – a lazy Sunday is the absolute best time for this movie to sneak up on you – excellent 🙂 It was not a big box office hit… it flew under everyones radar, actually..which makes it even better 😉

    Will have to look up the other two films you’ve mentioned. thanks!

  8. I saw this film just before moving to France to live myself, perhaps why I really enjoyed it and I didn’t even have the wife with me when I watched it.

  9. It is a fact, this movie is like advertisement for France. I am sure it wasn’t intended to be that way but it really makes me want to visit one day.

  10. Wow, this thread continues! Another good chick flick you guys might be able to endure and get lucky with… “The Wedding Date” with Debra Messing (Will & Grace), and Dermot Mulroney. Not as funny as the trailers, but entertaining nevertheless. Wine, cheese, this movie, your in! 🙂

  11. what does fanny whisper into max’s ear at the edge of the pool when they were kids. max says this french quote to her at the end of the movie. its too fast for me to catch what he is saying in french, anyone know the meaning/translation. thank you.

    1. @Steve – Fanny whispered “Forgive my lips … they find joy in the most unusual places.” – – that is what Max said to her (in French) at the end of the movie. He was quoting what she said to him (at the beginning of the movie) when she kissed him at the edge of the pool. cheers 🙂

  12. Fantastic movie and an excellent recommendation Lisa. So many good lines and music here and one that I too have watched many times.

    Does anyone, by chance, know the song that Duflot is singing to the vines in the flashback and as he approaches Max to learn that he has sold La Shiroque?

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