A Good Year (2006) on Netflix
PG-1320061h 57mComedyDramaRomance
Max Skinner, a London investment broker, inherits his uncle Henry's château and vineyard in Provence and means to sell it fast. Christie Roberts arrives, claiming the estate is hers.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.9/10108,117 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes27%
Trailer
Plot summary
Max Skinner trades for a living in London and chases one deal after another. His uncle Henry's death leaves him the sole beneficiary of a château and vineyard in Provence, where he spent summers as a child learning about wine. He travels there meaning to fix the place up and sell it fast. Francis Duflot, who has made the estate's wine for twenty years, fears what a sale would mean for his vines. Max's recent trades have landed his London firm in trouble, and while fumbling with his phone at the wheel he sends Fanny Chenal, a café owner, off her bicycle. Then Christie Roberts, an American backpacking through Europe, arrives and says the estate is hers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Good Year (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Scott kept a 1996 Times clipping about a French vineyard selling garage wine for over £30,000 a case. He bounced the idea off Peter Mayle, who said it would make a good novel, and Scott answered: you write the book, then I will get the film rights.
- Ridley Scott had owned a house in Provence for fifteen years and wanted to film there. Scott Free president Lisa Ellzey recommended the books of Peter Mayle, a neighbor Scott had worked with in advertising in the 1970s; Mayle did not want to write a screenplay, so he wrote a new book instead.
- Southern France has no clay tennis courts because the weather makes them hard to maintain, but Scott wanted one for its dirty, beaten-up look, so the court was built from scratch, with posts brought straight from the Wimbledon courts.
- The pool at Château La Canorgue in Bonnieux did not match what Scott had envisioned, so only the scenes outside it were filmed there. The pool Max falls into was dug and concreted nearby, and the original one had its bottom replaced digitally to match.
- Abbie Cornish did a videotaped audition for Ridley Scott only weeks before filming started, while Eva Green and Vahina Giocante auditioned for the role of Fanny Chenal, which later went to Marion Cotillard.
- Albert Finney was hired to play Uncle Henry after Klein described the character as sounding like Albert Finney; Scott had already worked with Finney on The Duellists.
- The film was a box office bomb, grossing $42.3 million against its $35 million budget and leaving Fox with a $20 million loss.
