Red Obsession

Plot

Red Obsession takes the audience on a journey from Bordeaux to China, where winemakers, wine critics and wine lovers, are interviewed. The trends of the wine industry are also examined, with occasional narration provided by Russell Crowe.

Production

Principal photography began in April 2011. The film was co-directed and co-written by David Roach and Warwick Ross. Ross was in charge of production for Lion Rock Films, while the soundtrack was composed by Burkhard Dallwitz and Amanda Brown. Paul Murphy signed on as editor.

Critical response

As of 7 September 2013, based on 16 reviews collected by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film had received a 100% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 7.4/10. Nicole Herrington of The New York Times wrote that the film "may already be [out]dated, since China's wine fever has cooled recently" although adding that "the movie raises legitimate concerns about the cultural and economic implications of status-minded overconsumption". Jordan Hoffman of the New York Daily News described the film as "probing, fascinating". Urban CineFile's Louise Keller stated that Red Obsession "does justice to the many facets of the wine it describes". Matthew Toomey of The Film Pie labelled it as "one of the year's best documentaries". Ed Gibbs of The Sunday Age found the documentary to be "remarkably enlightening". Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York offered that "[t]he reliance on talking-head testimonials leaves a weak aftertaste, but it's a palate-pleasing provocation nonetheless". Doris Toumarkine of Film Journal International lauded the film's "superb" cinematography. Kenji Fujishima of Slant Magazine awarded the film three out of four stars, commenting that it "may well inspire one to a higher appreciation of wine while also bringing about a greater awareness of the market forces that turn even the highest art into commodities". Ronnie Scheib of Variety opined that "[t]he film's rather simplistic cultural juxtapositions, pitting artistic appreciators against status-seeking philistines, work best when narrowly focused on the subject of wine."