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. :)