(TheAustralian) - AN actor recently pilloried one of my questions with the rhetorical flourish: "Well, have you ever made a film?" It was a moot point, really; the actor hadn't made a film either, he'd merely participated in a few. Nevertheless, the notion that you can't assess, or even try, something you haven't done yourself strikes me as nonsensical. Except in the case of football commentators, who are any good only if they have played at the top level - grammar, wit and charisma be damned. Look at filmmakers. Oodles of them have turned their knowledge of a good drop into winemaking. And as I've spent some time drinking, it seemed only right to bring my critical faculties to the job of critiquing filmmakers doubling as vignerons.