Vendémiaire

If youre already familiar with Louis Feuillade his littleknown opus Vendémiaire may come as a surprise Unlike the bulk of his work which was characterised as Fantastic Realism Vendémiaire is wonderfully downtoearth realism or downtoFrenchearth realism to be specific The film itself is divided into four chapters the titles of which suggest that this is a movie about the cultivation and consumption of wine But as the narrative unfolds it becomes clear that the cultivation and consumption of wine is an allegory for French culture and French land as a whole and the real purpose of the film is to persuade the directors fellow citizens to defend that spirit and those lands at all costs Its September 1918 and the war is coming to an end but here on the Castelviel estate in the south of France the news has not yet arrived and everyone is busy with the grape harvest