The Magical Mystery of Musigny (2018)
Unrated
Here we have a beautiful, simple black and white animated short film codirected by John Meyer and Emmett Goodman. Meyer, whose voice was made for audiobooks, also narrates. Every word is annunciated with the precision of an orator.
An award-winner on the film festival circuit, Magical Mystery is cleverly inked on cocktail napkins. Every now and again we get a pull-back that reveals the napkins among an arrangement of plates and utensils on a table.
The wonderfully descriptive language is sure to please oenophiles: “the angle of the vineyard hill (of limestone soil) provides excellent drainage.”
A turning point for John arrives at a wine-tasting event, when he imbibes the perfect vintage 1969 Musigny Burgundy. The sip transports him to a shimmering riverbank in Russia as colorful “onion spires of a Russian church” pop up around him. The transcendent serenity of the experience is lost on John’s wife, Suzie. Of course it would. She finds John’s musings on wine pretentious—and the wine itself a nonstarter for his attempts at lovemaking.
A turning point for Suzie comes during dinner at a bistro. She tries the special, a Auxey-Duress, and has an epiphany of her own—scored by the “1812 Overture,” and conducted by Serge Koussevitzky! Ah, finally, a meeting of minds. John gets the last laugh and, it seems, some overdue loving.
The film is wonderful in its construction, execution, scoring and narration. It leaves you with a smile on your face and an urge to reach for the vino.
| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive
