Day 49/51 - A Heavenly Vintage (The Vintner's Luck, 2009)

One side of my family came from Lorraine, France, so I have often found myself drawn to French themed works. In 1998, I read New Zealander Elizabeth Knox’s book, The Vintner’s Luck, a book in diary form about a French vintner named Sobran Jodeau, who in 1808 Burgandy gets drunk and encounters an angel Xas (Yes, a real angel), and begins a life-time relationship with him. They meet each year, as the vintner learns to make outstanding wine and develop a love-hate relationship. The book centers on  the two and also Sobran’s relationships with two women, his wife Céleste and his business  partner, Aurora de Valday, the Baroness.  

I was enchanted with the book’s discussions on philosophy and theology. [Xas, we learn part of the way through, doesn’t live in Heaven but in Hell and the why of that was a significant discovery of the book.] In 2009 New Zealand director/writer Niki Caro adapted Knox’s book into what was later called, A Heavenly Vintage.

The film is visually beautiful, having been filmed in New Zealand, France, and Belgium. The costumes by Mark Bennett and Elaine Grainger, while set in the early 19^th century, have a 17^th and 18^th century feel to them, appropriate for Burgandy, France.

Jérémie Reier makes an attractive Sobran. Keisha Castle-Hughes, superb as the child-lead in Whale Rider and as Mary in The Nativity Story, is a stunningly beautiful Céleste. It was an interesting directoral decision to keep her looking the same age as Sobran ages. Vera Farmiga plays Aurora and also is fascinating to watch. Gaspard Ulliel is not called Xas in the film, but listed as The Vintner’s Luck. Of the main characters, he may the weakest, but the writers have chosen not to give him much of the interesting philosophy from the book. 

Nonetheless, I was definitely drawn into the story. At one point the Baroness has suffered a 19^th century mastectomy and Xas suffers a similar loss, each character in their own way dealing with the loss of part of themselves.

The film is on Netflix streaming and was worth the viewing. The film is R rated for nudity and sexual situations. 

A Heavenly Vintage (2009) ****