inyourglass

Audio engineer should be disqualified from ever again working in this industry. For that matter, so should whoever did the lousy subtitles. This is, in fact, a reasonably decent documentary about Anne Frank but is rendered almost unwatchable by the botched soundtrack. Can't this be fixed??

Why do directors permit their leading actresses to look like they're about to burst into tears? The character is a bold, take-charge woman who runs a string of high-class escorts, yet she's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Similarly Laura Sepul in "Banking District" ... who runs a multibillion-euro empire but spends every episode wiping her eyes.

Come on, if you're going to make a whole movie about a specific wine region (e.g. Port), you really should, early on, explain WHAT IT IS. But noooo, the producers have decided you are not entitled to this information. Instead, we get a lot of fanfare, hoopla, cricket, bike riding, and the like. Nothing that even suggests that port is a world-famous after-dinner wine, sweet wine, etc etc etc. Why not? Does David Kennard think we are too stupid?

The other gross insult is at the end, when the music to illustrate the Douro flowing down the hillsides is ... the Moldau by Smetana. Truly gross.

I think Martine Saulnier deserves both credit and blame. Credit for having bankrolled these European vineyard extravaganzas, blame for using them so shamelessly to exploit her own import businesses.

rating six but really should be three.