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Vineyard Chronicle

Chronique Vigneronne

Switzerland 1999. S-16/35mm Dolby stéréo; Beta/VHS, colour, 84 min.
 

How does one make wine from grapes? Following the rhythm of the four seasons of a wine grower’s year, the film shows us the work, the worries and the joys of a family of wine growers and producers, the Potterats of Lavaux, Switzerland. Three generations who live and work together, keeping up old-time traditions. Techniques may have changed and know-how may have improved, but the pitched region of Lavaux has seen relatively little mechanization due to the small size of the holdings. The love of a job well done is what sets these «gardeners of the vine» apart, with their delight in healthy grapes and the need to see and touch what they produce.
 

 Details, texts, documents (in french)

Press review

All is restraint, lyricism, content, simplicity, in this "Chronicle", that throughout days and toil "as of yesteryear", tells of healthy lives, interprets real worries, and ends on the open air mass and the song of Swiss cowherds, the"Armaillis", before they leave for another sojourn in the mountain chalet...Full of flavour!! Le Figaro, Paris, 17/18.8.91 (Jacques Dhaussy) It's neat and clean, takes its own sweet time, it's as beautiful as the most beautiful postcard, an idyllic and tender dream of real life, it's real, it's Swiss. Télérama, Paris, 17-23.8.91 (Irène Berelowitch) The land of Vevey is serene, peaceful. The poetic film of Jacqueline manages to convey all the stability only the land can offer when one knows how to love and respect it. Le Figaro, Paris, 14.8.99 (Sophie Latil) "What can I say? I wouldn't like to be a wine grower now. Far too complicated, far too technical. Before, one had more of one's heart in this job. Not that one's heart is lost, but maybe it's not quite in the same place." Despite the beauty of the scenery, the filmmaker has avoided failing into the trap of a bucolic poem. The modern world is on the move, the vintners sons have been to an agricultural college, work methods are changing, helicopters irrigate vineyard plots. Antoine Duplan, L'Hebdo, 8.7.99 What a delight to discover "Vineyard Chronicle" by Jacqueline Veuve, a film that is original, stimulating and poetic, served up as an aperitif before the theme of the Vevey Vintner's Festival. Jean-Yves Nau, Le Monde TRM, 7.8.99 A sensitive chronicle that is also a salute to often sumptuous scenes around Lake Leman. JS, La Liberté, 14.8.99 By small touches, using the light of the different seasons, focusing close on the efforts required, the Vaudois filmmaker lifts the veil on the total alchemy needed to make wine. Cathrine Kille Elsig, Le Nouvelliste 14.8.99 Despite its useful side, Vineyard Chronicle" has not turned into a didactic film. Particularly, because of the portraits of the men of the region of "Epesse", people who only give us the details of their chores one tiny facet at a time, quizzed by the movie maker more about the disappearance of an archaic rural way of life, in its relationship to nature and seasons. Andreas Furler, Tages-Anzeiger, 6.9.99 It would have been impossible to find a better overture at the Festival for the series on "Filmmakers of the present" than Jacqueline Veuve's Vineyard Chronicle". A salute to vintner's culture, or rather to a well-filled life. H. -J. Rother, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10. 8.99

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