Back to Burgundy

Jean (Pio Mar­maï) is the slick world trav­eller who returns to his child­hood home in the famous wine region of Bur­gundy and is reunit­ed with his broth­er and sis­ter (Jérémie and Juli­ette) when he learns that his father has con­tract­ed an ill­ness. This reunion is no fore­gone con­clu­sion after years of sep­a­ra­tion, espe­cial­ly since he now has to help man­age the fam­i­ly. vine­yard. Rela­tion­ships, cul­tur­al lega­cy and the joys of good wine are the themes of Cedric Klapisch’s feath­erlight com­e­dy-dra­ma, Back to Burgundy.

As the sto­ry rolls gen­tly on, we get to see Jean evolve into his new role thanks to the inter­ac­tions with his fam­i­ly and oth­ers in the near­by vil­lage. It’s easy to under­stand that each one of the sib­lings has changed, grown up and grown apart. The bond that keeps them togeth­er is their idyl­lic child­hood with their father and on his vine­yard. And yet, Jean’s sto­ry doesn’t inspire much com­pas­sion: recon­nect­ing with the French coun­try­side is a pain for him after trav­el­ing to many dif­fer­ent coun­tries, and when it isn’t so much about him but more about his fam­i­ly. It isn’t easy to relate to his broth­er Jérémie (François Civ­il) and sis­ter Juli­ette (Ana Girar­dot), whose sto­ry is slow­ly told.

As for the sec­ondary char­ac­ters, who are only here for a short time because of their sea­son­al work­ers sta­tus, the rela­tion­ship they have with the fam­i­ly is anec­do­tal and give the film any much need­ed ener­gy. The wine­mak­ing process is at times more inter­est­ing than the plot. Despite a few amus­ing scenes, when Jean and Jérémie make fun of any man try­ing to impress their sis­ter Juli­ette, Back to Bur­gundy is far from the usu­al endear­ing and rhyth­mic sto­ries that the French direc­tor offers – he remains famous for his 2002 hit, L’auberge espag­nole.

There are a few pret­ty shots of fields across the sea­sons which work as a handy tourism advert for the region, and even though the steps to make wine are seen in the back­ground, you can’t help but feel that div­ing com­plete­ly into that world would have made the movie far more satisfying.