Jacques, divorced, on the verge of bankruptcy, runs his own wine cellar in a small French provincial town. He meets Hortense, a devoted Catholic midwife who wishes to have a child and who is going to enroll in his wine tasting workshop.
Tasting is the meeting of two single people who have not always had it easy and who are very different. Jacques (Bernard Campan), divorced, is a wine merchant. He has to stop drinking because he has serious heart problems. He meets Hortense (Isabelle Carré), a midwife who delivers babies all day, who has no children and dreams of having one, and helps the homeless. …by offering them good wine! At the same time, Jacques will take on an internship Steve, a “social case”, a young man who has been rejected by all his host families and who will try to reintegrate by working in Jacques’ wine cellar. To the question: “Where does champagne come from?” Steve replies, “It’s for partying, from Saint-Tropez.” It’s not win ! »
This film is the adaptation of the play La dégustation, which was a real success in France, winning the Molière in 2019 for best comedy. Even if we did not see the play, it seems that the tone was more that of real comedy where the lines are frank and the situations comical. The film, which is however directed by the author of the play, Ivan Calbérac, is more half-hearted and the tone is sometimes hesitant between a bittersweet comedy that borders on social drama.
One of the most successful scenes is that of the tasting where Jacques, his bookseller friend, Hortense and Steve meet, who are introduced to the pleasures of wine. There are sometimes dubious, but very funny parallels between the different stages of tasting and the approach of a woman. First, there is the visual aspect; we observe the wine, then there is the olfactory dimension, and then we taste it. We discover new flavors and the first impression we will have in the mouth is called the attack! So attack!
It is Steve who creates the surprise since he discovers that he has the finest nose and a magnificent palate. “No one ever gave me filthy weed!” “, he launches.
We feel the great complicity between the two main actors who are very fair. They are the same as in the play, which we also saw in 2002 in Zabou Breitman’s very beautiful film Remembering Beautiful Things. Mounir Amamra, as Steve, is excellent.
We have a good time, the dialogues are tasty, and we do not remain insensitive to this beautiful love story. It’s not a great vintage, but it shows.
