The actress, who did a videotaped audition for Scott only weeks before filming was to begin, is well-known Down Under but less so outside of her native country. She has been winning critical acclaim for several years for her work in such films as “The Monkey’s Mask” and the sexual drama, “Somersault,” the only Australian film screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where the actress won a standing ovation.
“Christie is a twenty-one year old American girl from the Napa Valley in California,” says Cornish, who hails from the Aussie wine region of the Hunter Valley near Sydney. “She learns that she has a birth father and that he's alive and lives in France. So, she makes the journey to his front door (which is when we meet Christie in the film). Unfortunately, she finds out the bad news about Henry, but meets a cousin, Max, whom she never knew she had.
When Christie arrives on the doorstep, it throws something into the mix which changes Max. He doesn't really believe this girl and of course, he's wary of her. Eventually, the two characters find something in each other that they can both relate to.”
Also joining the starring cast is Marion Cotillard (“A Very Long Engagement”) as Fanny Chenal, a Provençal beauty who owns the local café – and who catches Max’s eye. “I liked the script’s spontaneity,” the Parisian beauty states. “I also appreciated Max’s journey – how he comes to understand what he really needs is right there at the chateau and in Provence.
“Fanny is the owner of a restaurant,” she continues. “She's a broken heart who decided that life would be much easier, less painful, without love. She organized her life not to be hurt again. Her café is called La Renaissance, which means ‘rebirth’. But, sometimes, hopefully, life brings you what you need, even if you don’t know what that is. Even if Fanny doesn't want to confess that she needs love, she definitely needs love. And she deserves it, too.”
From his homeland, the director cast British character actor Tom Hollander (“Gosford Park,” “Enigma,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”) in the role of Charlie Willis, Max’s best friend, who guides Max on the possible sale of the property; Archie Panjabi (“Bend It Like Beckham,” “East Is East,” “The Constant Gardener”) as Max’s reliable London assistant, Gemma; and Freddie Highmore (“Finding Neverland,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) as the young Max, seen in flashbacks with Uncle Henry at the chateau.
“I'm the young Max, who’s based on the older Max, because they're the same character,” Highmore offers. “I watched Russell work a bit and we talked about the character and how each of us thought he was going to be. It just came from that. It was just great fun from the moment I stepped onto the set to be with Ridley and Albert and Russell.”
Scott also populated his movie with other popular French performers. Didier Bourdon portrays Francis Duflot, the longtime vintner who has tended to La Siroque’s vines for three decades and who may know the true secrets of the vineyard’s potential. “Francis Duflot is a winemaker. Vinyo, as we say in France,” Bourdon describes. “He has a long history with Max. They knew each other when they were younger. Their relationship is between friendship and mistrust. When Max returns to Henry’s home, after being away for years, Duflot is wondering, worried that Max will sell the château.”
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