The Eight Mountains

As children (during summer holidays in the Italian Alps) two young boys become acquainted, with a purity and innocence that's well painted, bonding as brothers in a way, having great fun the days they play, quite different backgrounds, but that affect, is far from tainted. As they get older their own journeys change direction, until one loses a father, then reconnection, and a project is established, to realise the one that's passed wish, and from the rubble and old wood, there's introspection. As time passes they move on to different glades, one travels, one a family does raise, but like the land with all those highs, there are some lows that can capsize, as life can be transformed, by where you graze.

Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch succeeded magnificently in bringing the epic tale of Paolo Cognetti about relationships between people and people and mountains to the big screen.

With Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi the main characters were brought alive by probably two of the biggest talents in acting Italy has to offer at the moment.

The mountain scenery is simply stunning and the stuff that every mountain enthusiast's dreams are made of. However, you want to keep your eyes wide open for this picture. Neither flashy nor slow, this movie takes the time to tell a story, without it getting tedious at any point. It gives you the space to take it all in and it allows one's emotions to come into their own.

This is a very special film about a lifelong friendship between Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) and Pietro (Luca Marinelli). Bruno was born and raised in the mountain, while Pietro learned to love the mountain through his father (Filippo Timi) but he is from the big city, Turin.

Felix Groeningen and are people from flatlands, but sincerely fascinated by the book and learned to love high mountain. This is a film about this friendship, often silent and distant, but very deep ubreakable. It's also a film about the few Europeans who still love places of great beauty but distant from social interaction and the comfort of technology. As at one point Bruno says he is good at one thing: to live alone on the mountain. This is a quality that is more and more rare and the directors have made a great film.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"The Eight Mountains" is a story about two young Italian boys spend their childhoods together in a secluded alpine village roaming the surrounding peaks and valleys before their paths diverge. Felix van Groeningen is a filmmaker I have seen previously and I haven't been too big with his works as his works were mainly a bit cheesy for my taste. This being a collaborated project with Charlotte Vandermeersch, this took a different shift.

The film has extremely beautiful camerawork, visual presentation, and sound designs as the film does a pretty good job showing the beautiful landscapes of Italy and the environment. The countryside presentation remained me of aspects from "Brokeback Mountain" or any films from Terrence Malick. The costumes and visual aspects of the film were the selling points of this film. With the characters explored, the film does explore themes of friendship, loss and social conflicts between society and while the film does have good moments, the themes felt a little dull as they felt unevenly explored. Many of the performances from the cast members were pretty good. Even the child actors were really good as well.

However, I wasn't able to fully connect with this film as I was hoping for. There are many great elements that could have been better like some of the characters relationships and conflicts could have been explored a little more and the pacing could have been improved as it did drag a little. Some dialogue moments were really bad. Overall, this isn't a bad film and there are a lot to appreciate, but it was a bit underwhelming since this was one of my anticipated films from Sundance.

Rating: B-

Felix Van Groeningen, the director of The Eight Mountains, was born and raised in an area that's as flat as a pancake. I know, because I live there. There are no mountains in Flanders.

Maybe it takes a flatlander like Van Groeningen to really appreciate the beauty of mountains. His film starts with magnificent images of the Italian Alps, the area where The Eight Mountains takes place. In fact, the whole movie seems to be an ode to the beauty of the mountains. The vistas from the highest summits and the calm of a mountain lake: the images are magnificent.

And so is the story of the two friends, who both love those mountains. As a child, city dweller Pietro befriends Bruno, who lives in a small mountain village. Their friendship continues when they are adults. The film shows how they both try to shape their lives, each in their own way. Both are drawn to the mountains, but in different ways.

Van Groeningen, together with his wife Charlotte Vandermeersch, has made a beautiful and poetic movie about the friendship between Bruno and Pietro. The two men don't show their emotions easily, and the film doesn't aim for easy effects either. In an understated, subtle way, the movie shows how their lives divert, but remain connected through their mutual love for the mountains. It's well directed, well acted and beautifully filmed. This film will find a natural audience: the readers of Paolo Cognetti's bestseller it's based on. But those who haven't read the book might also be fascinated by the friendship between Pietro and Bruno.