A beautiful story of friendship in the long run, that's what Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen propose with The Eight Mountains, Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Pietro and Bruno meet as children and the viewer will follow them for several decades, in a village lost in the mountains where the two friends meet every year. This is the adaptation of the novel of the same name, written in 2016 by Paolo Cognetti. This is the first time the two Belgian filmmakers have worked together. If Felix Van Groeningen was already recognized, thanks to Alabama Monroe (2012) and My Beautiful boy (2018), Charlotte Vandermeersch signs here her first film as a director.
And for the first time, the two artists relocate to Italy. The Eight Mountains is shot in fabulous natural settings. Throughout the nearly 2.5 hours of the film, the protagonists, played by Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi, roam the magnificent lands of the Aosta Valley. In addition to the beautiful story, the viewer can enjoy the hiking scenes, very contemplative and beautifully filmed. But the strong point of the film remains the characters and especially the bond that unites them.
Pietro is a city boy, Bruno is the last child to live in a forgotten village in the Aosta Valley. They become friends in this hidden corner of the Alps that serves as their kingdom. Life takes them apart without being able to separate them completely. While Bruno remains faithful to his mountain, Pietro travels the world. During this journey, they will experience love and loss, their origins and their destinies, but above all, a life and death friendship.
Our opinion
Sublimated by the dreamy setting, The Eight Mountains moves us thanks to the strong relationship that unites its two protagonists. From childhood to adulthood, we see them go through all possible states and a whole life passes by on the screen. The film may seem long, but it is precisely because it takes the time to make its characters believable that it manages to be so successful.
It is the small details of their relationship that make this story so subtle. Despite the years, this bond resists but evolves, it is abused, broken, repaired. The more than thirty years the script has been running allow the work to take on a great magnitude. It is thanks to this constant identification with the two friends that the emotion arises, until the heartbreaking final scene.
December 2023 cinema releases: list of films in theatres and opening times near you
Christmas and New Year's Eve are fast approaching, and to relieve the stress of last-minute shopping, why not take refuge in the cinema? Here's our calendar of cinema releases for December 2023! [Read more]
December 2023 cinema releases: list of films in theatres and opening times near you
