Wine and Food at the Movies

I think we can all agree that, as a nation, we’ve gone a bit overboard with taking pictures of what we eat and drink.  I mean, I love that people are so moved by their plates as to record what’s in front of them for posterity, but when I’m stuck at home eating leftovers, do I really have to open up my Facebook and be subjected to taunting Instagrams to remind of what I’m not eating right now?  And watching diners pull out their iPhones at a nice restaurant to document every bite tends to, well, leave a bad taste in my mouth…

But I also think there’s a good reason for our obsession with putting food and drink behind the lens.  The best wine and food imagery, particulary when set to the right story in film, can be downright inspiring.  So, while I’m quite sure fuzzy, poorly lit pictures of peoples’ epicurean feasts will not cease to appear on social media anytime soon, perhaps we can at least learn a little something from the pros…

As someone in the business of enjoying wine, I often get asked if Sideways is my favorite wine film.  The 2004 picture, based on a book by Rex Pickett, created quite a shockwave, not only among the ‘wine elite’ but in the purchasing habits of the entire nation – to answer the obvious question, yes I still drink Merlot!  It’s a fantastic film, and does a remarkable job of balancing wine-geek humor with a compelling story that has great appeal for any viewer.

But honors for my favorite film related to wine and food have to go to 1987’s Babette’s Feast.  This Danish film not only won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but, like Sideways, affected the wine and foodscapes of the nation and indeed the world.  Almost immediately after its release, and throughout its life as something of a cult classic, chefs and home cooks, inspired by Babbette’s banquet, began trying to replicate one of the greatest meals ever created on film.  Be on the lookout: more than 25 years after its release, theaters and restaurants still offer Babette’s Feast dinner-and-a-movie events from time to time – it’s well worth the experience!

There are plenty of great food and wine movies to go around.  To narrow things down a bit, let’s focus on wine, which seems to take a starring role less often than food, but to no less inspiring effect.  So get your wine and popcorn properly paired, and get ready for some of my all-time favorites:

Fiction:

Bottle Shock

The Earth Is Mine

Casblanca

French Kiss

Dr. No

Documentaries:

Mondovino

Corked (a mockumentary, but full of truth none the less!)

From Ground to Glass

Somm (this fantastic doc about four men working to pass the exam to earn the title of Master Sommelier is still playing at festivals and should show up on movie screens later this year)