And Wine Connoisseurs… “You know what? If someone describes themselves as a wine connoisseur, they’re probably not open to learn anything. Those people make me really nervous. (Laughing) I’m being flippant. Someone who knows about the world of wine, who cares about wine, I hope that - well, first of all, they’re going to get an intimate, inside glimpse of a lot of the famous and powerful as well as the unknowns of the wine world. This is definitely up close and personal. I hope that I will provoke them to think about a lot of the great rip-offs that are happening in the world of wine today, that are mirrors of the great rip-offs happening in the world of movies and the world of politics. So we’re getting systematically misled by a lot of people.”
On Cooperation from the Wineries: “…The wine world is very generous and gregarious.”
Were Some Interview Subjects Nervous?: “No, because I wasn’t trying to make them nervous and I didn’t ask questions… I also didn’t interview people, because I do fiction films normally. I tried to shoot with them, to live with them, whether it was for an hour or a day or a week, so I tried to exist with them and let the camera exist between us to interpret what was happening. I was interested in discovering people and letting people reveal themselves. I didn’t have a specific agenda and I didn’t try and provoke people. So, by and large, all the encounters were friendly. It’s just that if you’re not out to specifically flatter, if you just try and reveal what was revealed to you, then things will come out as they did that won’t be entirely flattering. I think that’s freaked out a lot of people.”
Editing and Transcribing in Multiple Languages: “With 500 hours of footage, there was no way to do any transcripts. And I couldn’t find an editor that spoke six languages, so I had to do it on my own.”
Did “Sideways” Help Increase “Mondovino’s” Profile? “No. We’ll see what happens when it’s released. But it was accepted in Cannes long before “Sideways” was finished or came out. Cannes launched it and it was sold to 30, 40 countries. That was in May of last year.”
On His Opinion of “Sideways:” “I thought it was charming. I thought the wine stuff was accurate. I thought they did a good job of researching that.”
On Wine-Speak: “That sort of wine speak drives me personally crazy. It tends to make me very nervous. Too much talk about wine is like too much talk about sex.”
Where His Interests as a Filmmaker Lie: “I’m interested in people, the world. To me, all films are the same. I make largely fiction films, but I’ve made some documentaries in the past and I get as much pleasure out of both. What I’m interested in is the intensity of human dramas.”
His Film Career: “I’ve been pretty lucky so far with my film career and I’ve been able to make the films I wanted to make. I’ve established a modest but solid reputation as a fiction filmmaker. I made a film called “Sunday,” which won Sundance in ’97 and won some other festivals, and had a nice distribution everywhere. I did a film called “Signs & Wonders” with Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard, which also was distributed in 30 or 40 countries, so I would say I’ve been pretty lucky so far.”
