A Walk In The Clouds (1995)
In this atmospheric romantic drama, Keanu Reeves plays Paul Sutton, who has just returned home from a stretch in the Army during World War II. Still reeling from the horrors of war, Paul wants to settle down and start a farm, but his wife Betty (Debra Messing), whom he met and impulsively married shortly before shipping out, has arranged for him to take a job as a salesman peddling chocolates. While taking a sales trip to another town, he befriends a beautiful but distraught young woman, Victoria Aragon (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon). While away at college, Victoria met and fell in love with a young man and soon became pregnant; however, when her boyfriend discovered she was expecting, he abandoned her. She returns home full of shame and fearful of her father's reaction. But Paul gets an idea ? he'll pose as her husband and leave after a day or two, so when she's left alone with the child, the disgrace will be on him, not her. Victoria agrees, and Paul joins Victoria as she arrives at her family's estate in the California wine country. Most of the Aragon family take to Paul readily enough, especially Grandfather Don Pedro (Anthony Quinn), but Victoria's father, Alberto (Giancarlo Giannini), senses something amiss between the young couple. A Walk In The Clouds was the first American film from director Alfonso Arau, who previously made the international hit Like Water For Chocolate.
"A man in search. A woman in need. A story of fate."
Alberto Aragon: Just because I talk with an accent doesn't mean I think with an accent.
Beringer Vineyards - 2000 Main Street, St. Helena, Napa Valley, California, USA
City Hall - 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA
Courtyard, City Hall - 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA
Duckhorn Vineyards - 1000 Lodi Lane, St. Helena, Napa Valley, California, USA
Haywood Vineyards - 18000 Old Winery Road, Sonoma, California, USA
Mayacamas Vineyards - 1155 Lokoya Road, Napa, Napa Valley, California, USA
Mount Veeder Vineyards - 1999 Mount Veeder Road, Napa, Napa Valley, California, USA
Redwood Cellar, Charles Krug Vineyards - 2800 Main Street, St. Helena, Napa Valley, California, USA
San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA
Keanu Reeves was injured during a friendly game of hockey with his friends during spare time. His lip was split, requiring six stitches. In his next scheduled scene, a love scene with Debra Messing, he was quoted as saying to her: "please don't hurt me."
Continuity
When Paul goes to put the candy wedding band on Victoria's hand, he has a wedding ring on. Then he reaches back into the candy box for another band and puts it on and his original wedding ring is missing from his hand.
After the serenade Paul walks through the vineyard and away from the house. The moon is behind him and casts his shadow before him. He turns to look at the house and faces the moon. Now here is a bright light on his back (from the direction he was walking towards).
When Paul and Victoria are looking at the view of Las Nubes, the sun is over the house (and therefore in front of them) in the shots of the house, but in the shots of them standing together, the light and shadows show that the sun is behind them.
While talking to his father in law on the balcony, Paul's hair changes repeatedly between shots.
When presenting her with wedding ring from the candy box, three candies had "wedding bands" on them. After he removes one for her and one for himself, the remaining "wedding band" changes places in the box.
Revealing mistakes
There are no cable car tracks visible in the street scene. Cable cars run on tracks pulled by an underground cable.
Anachronisms
The train locomotive is a General Motors EMD F7 first made in February 1949.
At the beginning of the movie, when Paul is walking home, a woman wearing a blue Air Force uniform enters a building. The Air Force wasn't a separate branch of service until 1947.
Although a version of the music that the German/Austrian band plays at the wine festival existed in the 1940s, the version played did not exist until 1975.
There is a scene of a country road with solid white lines painted along the edge. In the 1940's roads were not painted this way.
On first arriving at the vineyard, a Ferguson Tractor is shown sitting in a shed. Harry Ferguson did not begin producing that line of tractor until 1948.
Errors in geography
As Paul is hitchhiking home south to San Francisco, a driver said he can take him as far as San Rafael. San Rafael is north of San Francisco. The car is also driving south (ocean to its right), which is correct. However, the coast is at least an hour out of his way to the west of Napa, and he would not have gone that way.