REVIEW & INTERVIEW: Chateau Sauvignon: Terroir & director David Munz-Maire

- By Bryan Stumpf

Raise a glass for Chateau Sauvignon: Terroir, a wine-soaked horror film currently sluicing through the film festival circuit and winning a slew of accolades.

Combining two of my favorite things, horror movies and red wine, Chateau is an elegant horror short, with earthy notes and grippy tannins. Shot in vineyards in Hudson Valley, New York, where I filmed my horror short Ghost Walks, Chateau treats us to the rare boogeymen of the evil vintner family, and gives new meaning to the term grapes of wrath.

With Oliver Anderson’s elegant cinematography, writer/director David Munz-Maire draws us into his gothic drama with hints of a murderous business practices and aberrant family traditions. With haunting performances by Sean Weil and Michael Lorz, the family’s father and son, respectively, we eventually learn the secret to crafting a perfect wine.

Munz-Maire, with co-writer Allyssa Rivera-Cabrero, keep the dialogue spare, but the subtlety works well, allowing the audience to savor the building notes of tension.

Chateau has earned awards for its acting, cinematography, and sound from several film festivals, and Munz-Maire has proudly walked home with a handful of awards for Best Short. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Munz-Maire about his coming of age as a filmmaker, and the rich, dark, complex bouquet that is Chateau Sauvignon: Terroir.

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At an early age, was there a movie and/or experience that convinced you to go into the film industry?

There was no singular movie or experience that I can point to as a definitive reason for pursuing film & television. Rather, the decision was the combination of multiple influences (friends, school, etc.) that ultimately culminated in my enrolling in film school. For example, a couple of classmates and I would reenact WWI trench warfare in our backyards as our homework assignment for history class. It’s worth mentioning that my parents were not going to send me to film school without me doubtlessly knowing it was a field I wanted to pursue, so enrolled me in SOCAPA, a summer program for high school students interested in production. The experience did indeed confirm my zeal for the medium, yet, my passion for the horror genre was seared into me as early on as the 1st grade. I would visit my best friend at the time and we’d watch wildly inappropriate films for our age, like Terminator 2, whose murderous shape-shifting T-1000 terrified me so much that, for weeks, I could only fall asleep while gripping my bedsheet over my head.

Could you talk a little about where the inspiration behind Chateau Sauvignon came from?

Hailing from French wine country, I was always innately going to shoot a movie in this setting. The concept, however, of a murderous vintner family has been congealing in my head since high school, and was most likely cemented around the time I first watched Eli Roth’s Hostel. While I toyed with the idea for a number of years it wasn’t until my final semester at New York University: Tisch that I took a feature writing class and started to map the feature out. Of course, this was a two-part class, and since I was graduating, I never was able to take the second class that would have forced me to write it. Instead, the film fell to the wayside for a couple of years until I was accepted into a Masters of Directing program at the School of Visual Arts, which required me to direct another short film to earn my degree. So I took the opportunity to explore this vintner family again, but rather than focus on the victims as I had previously done, I thought to shift the lens towards the murderers instead. Understanding their back story and motivations for killing was somewhat of a grey area in the feature’s outline that I absolutely wanted to flesh out more (pun intended). This short film acts as a prequel to the feature, detailing the protagonist’s first kill, and shedding light on their medically reliant cannibalistic tendencies.

Where you based out of? What kind of background can you provide for AireBedd and the cast and crew you assembled for Chateau Sauvignon?

Upon receiving my B.A. in Film & T.V. I co-founded the production banner AireBedd with an NYU: Tisch friend of mine, Michael Beddome, and we remain East Coast based for the time being (primarily NYC). Similarly, the majority of the crew were recent graduates from NYU, including Michael Lorz, who had just finished up his musical theater degree, and had his screen debut portraying our short’s anti-hero, Nicolas. The remainder of the crew had either previously worked with one of our producers, or was brought onboard after tapping into the network of the program I attended at SVA.

Could you talk a little about the production for Chateau Sauvignon? Were there any challenges?

That’s an excellent question for my fellow producers, as I’m sure there were many more challenges they had to overcome during production than I was privy to. They wanted me to concentrate on directing the camera and talent, and did a phenomenal job of keeping distractions to a minimum so I could do just that. One of the biggest challenges for me came halfway through filming, prior to tackling the climactic nighttime chase scene through the vineyards. Director of Photography Oliver Lucian Anderson and I spent the most time planning this sequence, with its extensive shot list, exceptionally long dolly tracks, and giant artificial moonlight weather balloons. It was going to be epic. But we had just come off a couple of long days, and were guaranteed another at a secondary location due to a short handed grip and electric team, a couple of faulty and missing pieces of equipment, and unfavorable meteorological conditions. With this many red flags, rather than go ahead with the initial plan, Oliver proposed we revert back to an older one, wherein we shoot this exterior night scene at our primary location in a semi-guerrilla fashion - all handheld with a one simple primary lighting set up that we’d simply tweak between shots. Having to abandon our elaborate shot list, I placed my full trust in Oliver as he took the reins, making sure to get plenty of coverage of our protagonist running back and forth in the same row, giving the illusion that the vineyard is a lot more expansive than it actually was when edited together. Similar to the malfunctioning robotic shark in Jaws, this expensive ‘hiccup’ worked out for the best for the narrative of the film - the pacing is faster than it would have otherwise been, building the suspense during our character’s moment of crisis, while the rougher handheld style generates more tension.

You appear to have acquired an extensive number of producers, associate producers, and executive producers for Chateau Sauvignon. How were you able to acquire so much producer support for Chateau Sauvignon?

Passion attracts interest. When approaching and pitching this story, whether to producers in pre-production or to potential film goers at festivals, I have a lot of enthusiasm for my project, and that can easily become infectious. Yet, the scope of the project was such an undertaking, and the numerous moving parts required a large roster of producers to divvy up the workload. Our executive producers include my parents, whom always receive the title in my films for the simple fact that they have invested so much in me, my AireBedd co-founding partner Michael Beddome who is also the film’s Assistant Director, and Bob Giraldi, the head of the Masters of Directing program at SVA through which the project was made. The film’s associate producer credits were granted to a mentor and to a colleague from the school’s program, whom respectively pushed me to think more critically about the story, and helped secure our RED Scarlet camera package.

What are your intentions with Chateau Sauvignon? Film festivals? Distribution?

Our short-term intentions are fully festival based, as we’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible with it, which means consistently submitting and attending as many festivals as possible. A significant amount of creativity, time, and effort was dedicated to this project by dozens of people, all of whom are proud of their work (I hope), so I owe it to my cast and crew to find an audience to showcase all their effort and artistry, rather than simply complete it for their reels. It was as much their labor of love as it was mine. Furthermore, while I made a movie that I want to see, I did not make it for my eyes alone, and therefore it is absolutely my responsibility to ensure that my film finds an audience, whether its like-minded filmmakers or bewildered foreigners. To date, we’ve received official selections from three dozen festivals, around half of which we have won awards at. Finding an audience means building a fan base, which has implications for long term benefits. Part of my intention with this short film was to use it as a calling card when approaching benefactors regarding feature films that I’m writing and would like to direct. If I ever do a crowdfunding campaign or awareness raising project for a feature, not only can I reach out to each festival director that screened Chateau Sauvignon: Terroir, but when they repost my campaign, there will be an inbuilt group of people who will already be familiar with my work and be more willing to donate and/or spread the word because of it — particularly if I attended the festival and networked with audience members. Being offered a distribution deal would be the cherry atop the “meat cake.”

Who are your current inspirations for writers/directors?

Being a devotee to psychological and visceral body horror, Michael Haneke is an auteur idol of mine, along with David Cronenberg. I’m also an avid fan of the New French Extremity wave - Catherine Breillat, Gaspar Noé, Alexandre Aja, Xavier Gens, Pascal Laugier - along with their American Splat Pack ‘counterparts’ - Eli Roth, Adam Green, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino. Otherwise, I enjoy Tim Burton’s visual aesthetics, Kevin Smith’s humorous banter, and am a huge dork for all witty Whedon related content.

What are some ways you might stand apart from other writers/directors?

Born to expats, my formative years were spent living around our globe, and I find myself extremely fortunate to have been able to sample dozens of cultures through this cosmopolitan upbringing. The communal aspect of the filmmaking is one of my favorite parts of the business, and my worldly perspective has allowed me to be better adept at working with people from all walks of life, more open minded when confronted with new ideas, and generally more inventive when tackling creative problem solving. Traveling has allowed me to realize that there is not just one way of doing things, and, in the end, we all have the same needs and wants, so it makes more sense to work together. All in all, I stand apart from other writers and directors because I bring a wealth of international perspective to the creative table, and a passion to continue discovering what our planet and its inhabitants have to offer.

What’s next for you and AireBedd?

AireBedd has recently completed three short films, all of which are currently being submitted to film festivals around the world, so this will be a travel and networking fueled year. These shorts include Christian Grier’s Goodbye Charm City, which follows a mother as she prepares her final impact statement to the man that murdered her son, starring Nikki Martin and Francesca Reale. Lady, a comedy by Francisco Corredoira, is about a man who has a day to clean his act up for the girl of his dreams, starring James Fouhey and Teddy Kalin. And a thriller by Joud Kashgari entitled Clearance, which follows a routine airport inspection that goes awry when an overzealous security agent meets a secretive traveler, starring Bobby Kruger, Ara Woland and Sharon Loo. We have a number more projects in post-production that will be premiering at varying intervals throughout the first half of the year, including music videos, short docs, and branded videos, so check in with us regularly on our website and Facebook page for updates on current and upcoming projects!

- By Bryan Stumpf