A sprawling, ambitious take on the friendship between two Italian men set against the mountainous landscape of the Piedmont region. Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, two Belgian filmmakers, co-wrote and co-directed this adaptation of Paolo Cognetti's novel (they also collaborated on the Oscar nominated BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN).
Pietro and Bruno meet as young boys when a summer holiday brings them together. Pietro is a city kid from Turin while Bruno is a native of a tiny hilltop village. Despite their divergent upbringing, they have a good time together. As fate would have it, they drift apart. They are brought together as young adults by a request from Pietro's father to establish a homestead in the hills. After some twenty years apart, its awkward at first, but, soon they again form a bond. Pietro (played as an adult by Luca Marinelli) has the most to adapt to in no small part because he has spent most of his intervening life adrift. For Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), it's more about returning to his roots.
The story is, by its very nature, episodic. The glorious settings (which later include the Himalayas) keep it visually interesting. The foreboding landscapes are well captured in the classic 1:37 aspect ratio by Cinematographer Ruben Impens (TITANE). The framing keeps the characters at the focus, while also allowing for the general vertical shape of the mountains. The acting is quite good, including Filippo Timi as Pietro's father and Elisabetta Mazzullo as Bruno's wife.
Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch are to be given credit for striving to dig at some of the fundamental questions about relationships and how to make one's life meaningful. Still, they never quite answer the fundamental riddle of whether Pietro and Bruno were ever truly "friends", let alone soulmates. Instead, it settles for more ambiguous notions and life lessons. THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS may be flawed, but, it has a certain emotional and visual pull that can't be denied.
Winner of David di Donatello for Best Picture (the Italian "Oscar").
Pietro and Bruno meet as young boys when a summer holiday brings them together. Pietro is a city kid from Turin while Bruno is a native of a tiny hilltop village. Despite their divergent upbringing, they have a good time together. As fate would have it, they drift apart. They are brought together as young adults by a request from Pietro's father to establish a homestead in the hills. After some twenty years apart, its awkward at first, but, soon they again form a bond. Pietro (played as an adult by Luca Marinelli) has the most to adapt to in no small part because he has spent most of his intervening life adrift. For Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), it's more about returning to his roots.
The story is, by its very nature, episodic. The glorious settings (which later include the Himalayas) keep it visually interesting. The foreboding landscapes are well captured in the classic 1:37 aspect ratio by Cinematographer Ruben Impens (TITANE). The framing keeps the characters at the focus, while also allowing for the general vertical shape of the mountains. The acting is quite good, including Filippo Timi as Pietro's father and Elisabetta Mazzullo as Bruno's wife.
Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch are to be given credit for striving to dig at some of the fundamental questions about relationships and how to make one's life meaningful. Still, they never quite answer the fundamental riddle of whether Pietro and Bruno were ever truly "friends", let alone soulmates. Instead, it settles for more ambiguous notions and life lessons. THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS may be flawed, but, it has a certain emotional and visual pull that can't be denied.
Winner of David di Donatello for Best Picture (the Italian "Oscar").