Why?
I’ve known too many women who stayed in abusive relationships “because he needs me”.
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Gotcha. My former drummer disliked a favorite tune of mine for that very reason.
We took it out of our repertory.
Woman in the Dunes (1964) - dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Take the myth of Sysiphus, a 60’s-era Twilight Zone episode, and an experimental existential Becket play like Happy Days or Waiting for Godot, and you have a rough idea of the experience of Woman in the Dunes, a bizarre tale about an entomologist who becomes trapped by villagers at the bottom of a sand pit with a woman. Unable to climb out, they are forced to constantly dig away at the ever encroaching sand in exchange for rations. The basic plot bears a resemblance to Lars Von Trier’s Dogville from 2003, which had a different look but was similarly ‘stage-y’ feeling. Of course, this predates Von Trier by decades.
Such an odd and frankly ridiculous set-up becomes less so as the film goes on, and it does go on. And on. And on. For almost two and a half hours. But the length, and the general slow pace of the piece really put you into the headspace of the characters, trapped in a cruel, purposeless existence with apparently no hope of escape.
I realize I’m not exactly selling it here. It’s a dark, moody psychodrama, difficult to watch in spots, not owing to any “extreme” content, but merely because it’s so effective at making the viewer share the characters’ frustrations and anxieties. The last film I can think of that did something similar so well was the Safdie Bros. Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler (whom I normally can’t stand, but he should have been nominated for this performance).
This is a fascinating film, and goes well the director’s sci-fi tinged fable The Face of Another from 1966. Fans of literary strangeness would do well to look into them.
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Woo Hoo! Homicide:Life on the Street has finally made it to streaming after years of working out the music royalties and other issues. It is now streaming on Peacock. This is one of the all time best detective shows. What a fantastic cast. I am so happy to rewatch it after 31 years, with Mrs. P, who is watching it for the first time.
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Watched the OG Time Bandits movie last night, of which I only had a vague recollection (no duh! I can barely remember movies I watched… well, last night 
).
Far more weirdness, and perhaps just a little bit darker than the current tv series, but that’s Terry Gilliam for ya.
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This scene from “Something Wicked This Way Comes” always freaked me out.
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Stay away from Carousel.
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Enjoyed the first three episodes of Bad Monkey available to date on Apple TV+. We’re fans of Carl Haaisen’s books, so we were wondering if the show would do justice to the wackiness of his stories. Pretty good so far.
Vince Vaughn brings his trademark schtick to the role of Yancy. Fun to watch if you enjoy Vaughn’s comedic style.
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Piece about wine movies in yesterday’s WaPo. Since the gift link thing still (?) makes you register, I’m adding the link as well as the text for your viewing pleasure.
by Dave McIntyre
What’s your favorite wine movie? I’m thinking of films made for theater or TV that feature wine as a theme, plotline or backdrop. To make my list, a film needs to get the wine part right, and not rely entirely on stereotypes about wine or wine lovers. For this discussion at least, I’m excluding documentaries aimed at the oenoscenti or movies meant to teach us about wine. These are films that tell a story with wine involved.
We start with a new entry, so pour yourself a glass of bubbly and travel with me back two centuries to meet a woman who helped build champagne into France’s celebrated luxury tipple. Then we’ll take a road trip through southern California wine country, enjoy a romantic fling in Provence, and see how wine-fueled greed and ambition lead to murder. Finally, we’ll drop in on Napa Valley’s pioneer days of the 1970s.
Do you have a favorite wine movie not on this list? Perhaps wine doesn’t star, but makes a cameo appearance. James Bond’s knowledge of wine helped him trip up his adversaries in “Diamonds are Forever” and “From Russia with Love.” Dennis Quaid played a creditable winemaker in Disney’s “Parent Trap.” Let us know your favorites in the comments.
“Widow Clicquot” (2024)
This film (now in theaters) tells the story of Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, the legendary head of the champagne house we know today as Veuve Clicquot. It chronicles how in 1805 when her husband died suddenly, Ponsardin, at age 27, inherited the struggling winery and built it into a powerhouse — and along the way, developing innovations that help define today’s champagne.
“Widow Clicquot” isn’t really about wine. It’s the story of a woman entrepreneur succeeding in a man’s world, combating restrictive laws and rampant misogyny. Her business happens to be wine, and she happens to be really good at it. The movie understands wine and its history — we see how early champagne producers struggled with exploding bottles and how a lost vintage could threaten a struggling business.
We see Barbe Nicole, portrayed with stoic resolve by Haley Bennett, creating the first known vintage-dated champagne and the first known blended rosé champagne. She also is said to have developed the technique of riddling — slowly manipulating and tilting a bottle to move the yeasty sediment to the bottle’s neck, where it can be disgorged. Ponsardin was innovative in marketing, decorating her bottles with a yellow ribbon, a touch that later became the iconic yellow label of Veuve Clicquot champagne. (Veuve means widow in French.) She also cultivated an export market in Russia following the lifting of the blockade on importing French goods into the country – no easy feat, considering Napoleon’s war with the country. These accomplishments earned her the sobriquet, “La Grande Dame de la Champagne.”
Throughout the movie, Barbe Nicole’s antagonist is her neighbor, Monsieur Jean-Remy Moët, another familiar name in the history of champagne. A curmudgeon convinced, like most men in the film, that a woman could not and should not be in charge of a winery, he connives to force her to sell him her prime vineyards. Today, of course, Veuve Clicquot is part of the LVMH luxury empire, so the house did eventually come under the Moët umbrella.
“Sideways” (2004)
Alexander Payne’s film, starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh in a buddy road trip gone awry, introduced us to Santa Barbara wine country and ignited a national love affair with pinot noir. Gorgeous vineyard scenery, including places we can visit, combined with memorable dialogue to leave a lasting impression. An entire generation can’t say “merlot” without attaching an expletive thanks to this movie, and oenogeeks still swoon to Madsen’s soliloquy on the romantic ephemera of wine.
“A Good Year” (2006)
This romcom features Russell Crowe escaping the London rat race to discover himself and wine at a family estate in Provence. (Director Ridley Scott has his own winery, Mas des Infermières, in southern France.) Crowe tries to discover the secret of his estate’s best wine, a lesson in terroir, and along the way falls in love with Marion Cotillard. It’s a very aspirational film.
“Any Old Port in a Storm” (1973)
There’s plenty of debate over whether “Columbo” was a TV series with episodes, or a series of TV movies, or both. Definitions aside, it certainly views like a movie, and this “Columbo” film, part of NBC’s Mystery Movie franchise in the 1970s, was the favorite of the star, Peter Falk, according to IMDB. It features a familiar, if somewhat stereotypical, storyline: Donald Pleasence plays Adrian Carsini, a stuffy, pompous winemaker dedicated to producing world-class wine without regard to cost or profit, who kills his playboy half brother for threatening to sell the winery to the “Marino brothers,” — as in, Ernest and Julio Gallo. Columbo learns about wine to ingratiate himself to Carsini and trick him into incriminating himself. There are a couple of howlers for wine lovers: Carsini is seen leaving his quality-minded boutique winery with a row of enormous fermentation tanks in the background, no doubt filled with the popular cheap wine he despises. And in the final scene, Carsini congratulates Columbo on his choice of “zinFANdle,” mispronouncing the grape. These are small nits to pick in an otherwise supremely enjoyable 90 minutes of TV. And it’s almost certainly the only Columbo film with a reference to Titian.
“Bottle Shock” (2008)
This film purports to tell the story of the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting in which California wine triumphed over some of France’s best. Don’t rely on it as a historical account: “Bottle Shock” follows only the winning white wine, Chateau Montelena’s chardonnay, ignoring the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars cabernet sauvignon that triumphed among the reds. Alan Rickman portrays Steven Spurrier, the cheerful wine merchant who organized the tasting, as a skeptical, sneering British snob. Spurrier, who went on to become one of the world’s leading wine writers until he died in 2021, often described the film as “More b—- s—- than Bottle Shock.” But the film does capture the frontier spirit of Napa Valley in the mid-1970s, when winemakers were still finding their way, cabernet was not yet king, and the valley was yet to transform into a Disneyesque theme park of wine. The movie’s makers have recently released Bottle Shock: The Wine Game. It combines blind tasting with role-playing and even subterfuge, and could be a fun diversion after watching a movie.
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I am enjoying Bad Monkey as well. It’s wacky and entertaining.
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It was a really great show!
We finished Time Bandits last night, the ending of which seems to imply another season.
We started watching Boy Swallows Universe, which is pretty fantastic — the kid playing the lead role in particular. Wow!
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What a coincidence - I watched Sideways the day before yesterday.
For the 4th time I think over the years. I got completely bored watching Fly me to the Moon, so I needed something good. And I was completely captivated again from the moment I started watching. When it ended, it felt like a breath of fresh air compared to many modern movies. Everything just clicks: story, characters, pacing.
From the list I also watched The Good Year, which is a nice summer movie. Nothing spectacular, but still fun.
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I’ve watched Sideways a couple of times too. Also A Good Year and Bottle Shock. I’m pretty sure I must have watched the Columbo episode although I don’t remember it.
There is another Columbo episode in which a wine bottle opener is prepped with poison. I’d mentioned it here.
We really enjoyed that show.
It’s great. Tough to watch at times, but really great.
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If you haven’t seen it Drops Of God is a very worthwhile wine focused movie.
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It’s fascinating to me how so many of the actors are in so many of the shows. I’m looking at you Nicola Walker.
I broke up with “Crime”. Or maybe we’re just separated. Main character has too many personal demons.
Speaking of personal demons, I’m watching “Luther” now. I thought I had seen it before, but not season 1.
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I haven’t thought of listening to podcast, where did u listen the podcast?
I’m a big fan of GOT also!!!
