Four Weddings with Fizz at The Mockingbird
- Tony Elvin
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Thank you so much to everyone that joined us for our Friday night screening of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral with Fizz' in Digbeth.
Read on for details on all the wines from the evening, our gallery of photos, and bunch of trivia.
As promised, these are the wines we enjoyed ...
Four Weddings and Five Wines
Award-winning wines from a 160-acre wildlife-rich estate. This charmat method sparkler is crisp, dry and refreshing with elderflower, gooseberry, and grassy notes.
Sparkling wine from Bordeaux .. 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc ad 10% Semillon. This is a traditional method sparkling from 25-year-old vines using Bordeaux grape varieties. Crispness of fresh apples with rich notes of brioche.
Known as the President's Choice due to it's use at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration and Barack Obama’s presidential win celebrations.
This is another traditional method sparkling wine or Cap Classique, Cape Classic Method as called in South Africa. Champagne grapes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. On the nose brioche, on the palate, limey citrus with a reich and creamy finish.
From North East Italy, in the Veneto (Prosecco Land). This Prosecco is made from Glera with 10% Pinot Nero (max allowed 15%). Rose Prosecco was first permitted in 2020, previously just called rosé spumante and couldn’t be called Prosecco. Dolce Colline means rolling hills or gentle hills, describing the terrain where the vines are planted. Red berry and floral aromas. Lively on the palate with ripe strawberry and raspberry notes.
Moscato grape from the region of Asti. This, despite the price, is a multiple award winner. Just last year won silver at International Wine Challenge, Bronze IWSC and Bronze World Wine Decanter. Classic nose of fresh grapes, peach, apricot & wht flowers. Palate melon, peach and honey, light and frothy.
7%-low-alcohol, drives duty and therefore price down. Decanter magazine suggests this as a paring with scallops but also wonderful with salty truffle fries, white chocolate, peanut butter.
Our Wedding Album
Four Weddings and a bit of Trivia
Some highlights from our movie trivia ...
Inspiration for the movie came from Richard Curtis calculating that he’s been to 72 weddings in 10 years and his regret at declining a one night stand offer at a wedding.
For several years this was the highest grossing uk movie .. $260 million.
Filmed in just 36 days during 1993, due to the low budget. They couldn’t even afford to go to Scotland for Scottish scenes
This was the first of five movies between Curtis and Grant, but what are the others?
Notting Hill 1999, Bridget Jones 2001, Love Actually 2003, Bridget Jones Two 2004
Alternative names for the movie before they settled on Four Weddings and a Funeral were all awful and included: True Love & Near Misses, Loitering in Sacred Places, Rolling in the Aisles and Skulking Around.
Although Grant has appeared in five Curtis movies, this was the movie that launched his career.
That's despite them auditioning 70 actors before finding Hugh Grant. For the audition Grant played a video of his Best Man's speech from his brother's wedding.
Other actors considered to play the part of Charles were Alan Rickman (Curtis really wanted him to do it but felt he was perhaps too old), Tim Roth and Griff Rhys Jones.
Phoebe Cates was offered the role of Carrie, she suggested that Tim Roth play the part of Charles.
Sarah Jessica Parker auditioned for the part of Carrie. Marissa Tomei, Mel Griffiths & Brooke Shields all turned the role down. Jeanne Tripplehorn was actually cast but pulled out when he Mother died suddenly before filming.
Shrewd Andie MacDowell waived her fee to take % cut of the profits. She earnt $2 million versus Hugh’s $100k.
Backstories for how everyone knew each other were featured a in deleted scene - Charles (Hugh Grant), Matthew (John Hannah), and Fiona (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) were at university together, and Gareth (Simon Callow) was a lecturer. Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman) was found under Charles' kitchen table after a party and lived there since. By removing this scene they were suggesting that they all met by attending many Weddings together over the years and building a friendship.
Rowan Atkinson says this is the favourite movie he’s been in, but he was almost not cast due to the small part he would play. Curtis didn't want to insult him by giving such a big star at the time such a small part. Michael Sheen was originally lined up to play the vicar.
There is a Chinese subtitled version. In it Atkinson is labelled as Mr Bean or Silly Bean as he is known, even though it's a totally different character.
Dame Kristen Scott Thomas provided her own dialogue for the French version dubbed version.
This was the first Brit movie to win a Cesar (French Oscar)
Hugh Grant, Richard Curtis and many of cast were not happy with Mike Newell’s direction. Then after watching the movie, they were not even happy with final product. It then became a massive hit, as we know, and Grant later realised Newell’s directing, making the humour more grounded and awkward instead of light hearted was absolutely key.
Love is All Around features in this and Love Actually – there is a sub plot connection of Billy Mack making a cover of it in Love Actually.
The Wet Wet Wet version was no.1 for 15 weeks .. arghh.
A scene cut from Four Weddings later appears in Love Actually where a character is trolling about the catering, unwittingly to the caterer.
There is a sequel – One red nose and a wedding, featuring most of the cast.
Hugh Grant’s brother is played by a deaf actor and Hugh Grant learnt sign language for the movie.
At the first American screening there was a mass walkout after the first scene, it was a Mormon filled town that were hugely offended by the swearing.
American financiers had a huge issue with all the cursing and actually managed to get some Fs turned into Buggers for a more family friendly version. They also insisted on no oral sex, and no excessive thrusting or screaming in sex scenes.
At the UK Premiere, 10% of the audience wore Wedding Dresses. It was this same premiere that Hugh Grant was upstaged by his then girlfriend's dress. It was of course Liz Hurley's black Versace number with all the pins.
Extras at the weddings wore their own wedding clothes and were filmed twice to save money in production.
Thank you!
We look forward to welcoming you back to another of our events very soon but why not check out our website or sign up to our monthly mailing list to find out about new events first:
Tony and the Wine Events Co Crew
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