Film Facts:

Cast: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander, Freddie Highmore
Director:  Ridley Scott
Produced by: Branko Lustig
Written by:  Marc Klein, Peter Mayle
Score by:  

Cinematography by:  Philippe LeSourd

Production Company:  Scott Free Productions
Distributor:  Fox 2000

Shooting Schedule: Aug 29 - Nov 5, 2005

Location: Provence, France and London, England

Awards: None

Plot Summary: Adapted from a Peter Mayle novel by Marc Klein , (Serendipity),  "A Good Year" follows a London investment banker who moves to Provence after losing his job and inheriting a vineyard from his just-deceased uncle. But when he arrives, he meets a California woman who claims that she owns the place and is his cousin.  http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050729e.php

In Author's Notes at the beginning of A Good Year, Peter Mayle writes: "For his crucial contribution to the book, I would like to thank Ridley Scott, whose nose for a good story got me started."  

Favorite Scenes:

Comments by Russell: The only time I do a film is when I read something that touches my heart and that's one of the major thematics of themovie I'm working on now--that people never die as long as you keep them in your heart. For me that's a cool place to be telling a story from, and the fact that Ridley and I would get together again and do a low budget comedy instead of what people would expect-some $150 million bloodfest - I'm enjoying that part of it as well."

On working with Ridley again - "It's been the same experience I had with Ron on Cinderella Man,starting from this deeply resonant point of friendship where we don't tiptoe around each other. I just tell him, 'Mate, that sucks'. It's about the shorthand you achieve because you respect each other and you tend to work really hard, do really long days. After five days of shooting the French crew went to the producer and said [Crowe adopts a silly Clouseau-style accent] 'This is crazy, how can they do this? In five days they did 55 set ups and it's a f..king comedy. Nobody works like this. By the third week the motherf..kers will kills us'."

On Max - "I'm portraying an English banker who is an absolute asshole and who inherits a vineyard in Provence. His principal mentor throughout his life was his Uncle Henry and he taught him the difference between a good and bad red wine and the difference between a good and bad cigar and the importance of a blue suit. Unfortunately he taught him all that around the age of 11, and things have changed. All the things that his uncle put inside him as a young man are still there but they've just been reconfigured by life. By going back to Provence he becomes revitalized."
http://www.murphsplace.com/crowe/cinefile.html

Comments about Russell: Comment made by Marion Cotillard in an interview on French TV. Posted at the Allocine movie message board and translated by Steph: "There is a very nice comment made by Marion Cotillard (Fanny) about Russ in this interview for the release in France of her new movie "Ma vie en l'air" this week ( Interview made by Alain Grasset ) - You've been shooting since last week in the Luberon "A Good Year", directed by Ridley Scott, with Russell Crowe. How it is to make a movie with the star of "Gladiator"? -- "Things are going very well. He's a lovely guy. Someone very delicate and attentive. I've been told he wasn't easy going; I swear this reputation is proved to be very exaggerated. I am very happy to be part of this adventure. I met again Albert Finney, notably, with which I made Tim Burton's "Big Fish""

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