Russell Crowe is re-united with his friend and collaborator, director Sir Ridley Scott, in "A GOOD YEAR," a charming comedy about a man who has the chance to re-discover life amidst the beguiling beauty of the Luberon in the south of France where he learns that life, like good wine, should be savoured.
Filmed on location in the Luberon, a stunningly beautiful region of Provence in the south of France, and in London's financial district, known as the Square Mile, A GOOD YEAR is as seductive as a vintage bottle of red, says Crowe.
And part of the charm was in doing a relatively small budget comedy which is the opposite end of the cinematic spectrum from the last Scott/ Crowe film, the box office smash "Gladiator."
Crowe won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Maximus in "Gladiator." He was also nominated for Best Actor for his performance as tobacco industry whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann's "The Insider" and mathematician John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind," directed by Ron Howard. He was also awarded a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his performance in "A Beautiful Mind."
Crowe's other credits include playing hard-boiled cop Bud White in "LA Confidential," a rogue cyber space killer in "Virtuosity," a hostage negotiator in "Proof of Life" and boxer Jim Braddock in "Cinderella Man."
Q: A GOOD YEAR is clearly a very different project to "Gladiator." Explain how you and Ridley came to decide on this one please...
A: There was so much expectation after something like 'Gladiator' and of course everybody expected us to do something with buckets of blood and masses of action and all of that sort of stuff, but for us this neutralises all of those expectations. And it just lets people know that from a filmmaking perspective, we didn't do it before and we're certainly not going to start now, we're not going to start making things for other people. We are going to do the thing we want to do.
Q: Was it an enjoyable film to make?
A: It was lovely and I had a great time. Geographically the place is gorgeous. Living in a rural area that is so intensively farmed also comes with it's own great reward because you just see how it all changes and unfolds from season to season. We got there in the middle of summer and you are surrounded by green vines and green trees and two months later it's all dark reds and oranges and yellows.
Q: Max is a money making machine when we first meet him but, as a man, he's lost his way...
A: Yes. He's taken all of these wonderful things that a very smart man, Uncle Henry, taught him and he learnt them all. They're inside him and in a way they are completely embedded within him. He's taken certain things about competition that his uncle taught him and he's brought them to the forefront of his thinking, to the point where he's actually forgotten the second part of the lesson - that competition is fun, it's enjoyable and it's not just about the process of winning, that you must taste both sides of the game in order to fully appreciate what it is to win.
Q: Sum up your approach to a film like A GOOD YEAR.
A: The thing about 'A Good Year' is that if you made it for $60 million it would be a different movie, if you made it for $100 million it would be a different movie again but we made it for $30 plus above the line costs and did it extremely efficiently and actually Ridley brought it in a million and a half below what they allowed for and in he finished it in a shorter number of days than he said he would need.
I think both of our attitudes towards this film were all about being on a set together in a creative environment and enjoying ourselves. Doing it with a predominantly French crew in France and therefore our rhythms have to change as well as theirs. So we find some point of compromised where the language barrier is gone and it's all just about skill on a film set. And, man, the crew were just fantastic. And I mean, fantastic, really talented people and it was a pleasure working with them
Q: Did you enjoy the physical comedy in A GOOD YEAR?
A: Yes, very much. The movie has references to Jacques Tati and Harold Lloyd and there's physicality in the performance that I really wanted to go with.
Q: How are the family?
A: Absolutely great, thanks. My little boy Charlie is a delight and a wonder and now he has a lovely little baby brother to play with. Couldn't be better, thanks for asking.
A GOOD YEAR opens December 6 in theatres nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.