"Red Obsession" is a new documentary by the filmmaking team of Warwick Ross and David Roach. Ross and Roach are not well-known in the States, but have found decent success in their native Australia. Beginning in 1988, they produced three films - "Young Einstein", "Reckless Kelly", and "Mr. Accident" - starring a Carrot Top-esque comedian called Yahoo Serious. While those films are silly, slapstick affairs, "Red Obsession" is about as classy and refined as you can get. The film chronicles the recent effects the economy has had on the wine industry of Bordeaux.
Sitting down with Warwick Ross, one has to ask how a filmmaker makes the abrupt switch from Yahoo Serious to Bordeaux. As it turns out, the transition was seamless for Ross, who planted his own vineyard nearly 15 years ago and has made his own wine ever since. Though he wasn't too keen on making a movie about wine - he says most movies about wine are quite dull, with few exceptions like "Sideways" and "Mondovino" - a chance encounter with Master of Wine Andrew Caillard on an international flight convinced him that he could do something special with the subject.
Caillard informed Ross of the current state of Bordeaux wines, which had reached their highest prices in history despite the recent economic collapse. The reason being, China has fallen in love with Bordeaux and is spending exorbitant amounts of money on procuring bottles. To add fuel to the fire, rumors that the upcoming 2010 vintage Bordeaux would be the best wine in a century had already begun circulating.
"And I began thinking, I wonder what happens when China - the wealthy Chinese, the middle-class or upper-class who are cashed up, voracious, and ready to go - what happens when you collide that with a place that makes a limited number of bottles of wine?" says Ross. "It's a status symbol, and they want to buy these status symbols. And overlay on top of that the greatest vintage for 100 years. That just felt like the perfect storm."
Ross admits that "Red Obsession" was always meant to be about China's interest in Bordeaux, but he had no idea just how deep that interest ran. In interviewing wine makers and lovers, Ross claims one sentence from a Chinese man truly gave him a sense of just how impactful wine was on China.
"I asked him about the Chinese and why were they buying this? What was driving them? What was driving this insatiable appetite for these wines? He said 'You've got to understand that if they've been through the cultural revolution, they've been to hell and back.' And I thought woah, what a statement about this society that has newfound wealth and is looking to buy these wines. What does that mean? Let's go and explore that!"
The two most fascinating concepts presented by "Red Obsession" go hand-in-hand. The first is that making wine is akin to making art. Several people Ross interviewed expressed the firm belief that wine-making is no different than painting a picture. Ross found that this was most prevalent in Chinese culture. He hypothesizes that the Chinese have always revered artists in their history, and that they see winemakers as someone who creates something out of nothing. Just as an artist paints on a blank canvas to create art, so does a winemaker raise grapes in a dirt field to produce something beautiful.
The second intriguing concept is that these wines are becoming so valuable that many people that buy them never actually taste them. In some cases, they never even see them! They just purchase the wine, stow it away, and then sell it when the price goes even higher. This struck me more than anything else in "Red Obsession", as it seems to be devaluing the wine's artistic value. After all, what is art if you cannot enjoy it? To this, Ross strongly agreed.
"I think it's a tragedy. I think the commodification of something as ethereal and beautiful as a bottle of wine is a tragedy," Ross declares. "Generally, the feeling is held and I felt personally that when you commodify something you take away the soul. And once you do that, it's a meaningless thing."
He continues by saying that while this commodification exists, it's not as popular in China. He suggests that China is a gift-giving culture that wants to share with each other. Even if they spend $5,000 to $10,000 on a bottle of wine, they are still likely to pop the cork and actually drink it with you.
Ross and Roach filmed over 100 hours of footage for "Red Obsession", and were able to trim it down to a crisp 75 minutes. Unfortunately, it meant cutting out fascinating sub-plots, such as one regarding the lax regulations China has in regards to food (and wine) safety. But Ross and his co-director stayed on task, and more importantly found a great voice to narrate and convey the pertinent information in "Red Obsession" to us: Russell Crowe.
Getting Crowe to narrate the film was a bit of a dream for Ross, and one that he didn't expect to come true. Through a stroke of good luck, Ross's executive producer Robert Coe turned out to be close with fellow-Aussie Crowe, and the wine-enthusiast thespian eagerly jumped on board. Nothing is ever easy, however, and Ross was soon faced with the possibility that his ideal narrator would not be able to help out after all.
"Russell is such an incredibly busy person, that to get a 'yes' from him was a lot easier than actually finding time for him to do the narration for us," Ross explains. "At the time we asked him to do it he was Superman's dad (in "Man of Steel"), he was the Mayor of NY (in "Broken City"), he was Noah (in "Noah"), and he was Javert (in 'Les Miserables'), all at the same time. All at different stages but they were all after his time and he kept saying to us, 'Guys, I just can't see a window.'"
That window came in a rather unfortunate manner in the form of Hurricane Sandy. When the superstorm hit New York last October, it shut down production of everything functioning in New York City - including Darren Aronofsky's "Noah". Taking advantage of this cease-production, Crowe recorded the narration for "Red Obsession" one night in between 2 and 5 AM. Thus, "Red Obsession" came one step closer to being complete.
Ross traveled to Bordeaux five times during production, and each trip was necessary to capture the full scope of Bordeaux's rise and fall. In 2011, Bordeaux produced a sub-par wine (by their standards), and China suddenly lost interest in the label. Ross wanted to get some philosophy out of the wine connoisseurs regarding the future of Bordeaux in the face of this collapse, and so one more visit was essential. This resulted in one interviewee comparing the label to a phoenix, rising from the ashes. It may be down now, but it will come back even stronger in years to come.
Bordeaux is down, but not out. Not by a long shot.
"Red Obsession" opens in theaters and VOD on September 6.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo-DBcTX5dg[/youtube]
