Back to Burgundy (2017)

Simply A Masterpiece

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A film that is 30% too long, rather prosaic and lacking in close-ups or actors who could hold them, combined with a very ordinary script and ploddingly literal screenplay. Phew! So you guessed I was underwhelmed. And there were times I wondered if I was watching a coroporate video on how to make wine ( sorry, French wine), its clearly better than that made elsewhere in the world, as they were keen to impress on us. Then compare this 'made for TV' effort to some of the wonderfully poetic movies that have come out of France..... and you wonder why they bothered. I can think of better ways to spend $10m.

The cinematography was nice. And the use of the old and the young family members mixed together worked...but someone needed to edit this down to 1.5 hours at the most. I have watched some wonderful french films in the past...this wasn't one of them. And all the women looked alike...odd casting...looking forward to the next Marion Cotillard film.

The two previous reviewers really liked this. I thought it was a pretty average made-for-TV type movie.It tells the story of two brothers and a sister who inherit a vineyard in the Burgundy region of France. They have to pay steep inheritance taxes on it, and the two brothers have complications on their lives. All this gets worked out by the end of the movie amid a lot of shots of very beautiful Burgundy vineyards - and one very desolate supposedly Australian but actually Spanish one for contrast. The three leads are attractive young folk, and there's even a little sex - basically one scene, just where you would expect it.It's pretty much a paint by the numbers movie, pleasant but unremarkable.

Best film I've seen (#5) of the Sydney film festival (so far, 7 to go). It's French, it's charming, but it is never a cliché. That's difficult because the world in general has so many preconceptions about France. It's about wine, and Thank You, I learnt a lot. The cinema was full, lots of French people and lots of French speakers, including those, comme moi, who vaguely imagine we speak French. The French wine board missed an opportunity, they could have had a testing in the foyer, and it would have been a sucès folle.It's a film about family, and how you cannot really know them, no matter how you think you do. It's also about tax and travel, and for all the French people out there, please note: There are NO inheritance taxes in Australia. And it is easy to work for yourself. No permission or paperwork required, just sweat.That is probably why Jean is growing wine in Australia. He is torn between his life here and his life in Burgundy, and a satisfactory answer is hard to find. It is a chord which every Australian understands (and why this film should get wide release here, please) we all go back to Burgundy or Thessiloniki or Liverpool to find what we left, and for many of us, it turns out to be just not what we remembered for good or bad. The way this is shown, so lightly and, very delicately, is one of several reasons this film is special. The ending is particularly good.