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After catapulting Russell Crowe to fame in Gladiator in 2000, director Ridley Scott put him in comfortable shoes for A Good Year. Based on the novel by Peter Mayle, it's the story of a grumpy old man who rediscovers his passion for life in rural France. Sadly the paying public couldn't muster the same enthusiasm for the film, which critics compared to "a feature length Renault Clio commercial..."
Wish You Were Here...
In one of nine 'Postcards From Provence', Scott explains that he decided to make the film because a) Peter Mayle is a personal friend, b) he only lives down the road from where the story is set, and c) Peter invited him to his New Year's party (alcohol must surely have been involved). These admissions jar with what Scott says later on about the common ground he shares with the workaholic main character Max - that is, "Taking a holiday is worse than dying." Somehow though, Scott has managed to combine work and play on the set of A Good Year. Behind-the-scenes footage from the set shows him and Crowe enjoying an unusually laidback shoot in the rolling meadows of Provence.
French actress Marion Cotillard is not so lucky. She ends up driving her bicycle into a ditch for endless takes until Scott is satisfied that the fall is violent enough for his taste. In another postcard we learn that it was his desire for more violence that resulted in the tennis scene between Max and Francis Duflot (Didier Bourdon), which Crowe describes as "war on a clay court". After kicking up so much dust, it's no wonder the star has so much sway with Scott, or as he puts it: "the fluidity to discuss anything freely." Or else...
The Lesser Spotted Warbling Crowe
A two-minute promo plays on the camaraderie between Scott and Crowe as they struggle in their attempts to sum up the plot of A Good Year. Presumably the fast cuts and quick switches between colour and black-and-white are supposed to make it feel more exciting...
A gallery of music videos goes a small way towards making up for the lack of laughs in the film, since they're performed by Crowe himself (and his band The Ordinary Fear Of God). In an unplugged performance of 'Testify', he comes across like your embarrassing uncle at a wedding - stealing the mic and showing the kids how it's done. And as he strolls around a bullfighting ring in 'Weight Of A Man' you half expect a couple of tigers to come leaping out of a trap door behind him. Instead, he's followed around by an old hippy with a guitar (disappointing). Needless to say, this DVD is strictly for the carpet slippers crowd.
EXTRA FEATURES
A Good Year DVD is released on Monday 7th May April 2007.
