Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 147 mins
UK Distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment
WHO’S IN THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS?
Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Lupo Barbiero, Cristiano Sassella, Andrea Palma, Francesco Palombelli, Filippo Timi, Elena Lietti, Elisabetta Mazzullo, Surakshya Panta
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch (directors, writers), Hans Everaert, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani and Louis Tisné (producers), Daniel Norgren (composer), Ruben Impens (cinematographer), Nico Leunen (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Two lifelong friends (Marinelli and Borghi) find their paths leading back to each other…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS?
They say that some friendships last a lifetime, but in the case of The Eight Mountains, simply watching a friendship lasts a lifetime, as this slow, but undoubtedly beautiful, Italian drama runs a lengthy two hours and twenty-seven minutes.
Not to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding films of similar or even longer length, but watching this movie play out for as long as it does was more than a little taxing for myself, to where I was seriously doubting that it needed to take this long in its storytelling. Even though, by all accounts, it is a very well-made and even intelligent study of two men whose paths seem eternally linked to one another, it is sadly one of those cases where the overinflated runtime felt rather unnecessary, especially for a story that doesn’t always require such an epic scope.
Belgian filmmaking duo Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch direct and adapt Paolo Cognetti’s novel of the same name, which begins in 1984 as 12-year-old Pietro (Lupo Barbiero), who lives in the city of Turin with his parents, heads to their family home for the summer, which is located in a secluded village within the mountains of north-western Italy. There, he meets and quickly befriends the village’s only other child, another boy named Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), and the two of them become inseparable, spending every day together venturing to the many idyllic landscapes, including an ill-fated mountaineering trip with Pietro’s father Giovanni (Filippo Timi).
However, the two boys are separated after Pietro’s parents make a well-meaning but miscalculated offer to have Bruno come with them back to Turin and become educated, only for them to reunite many years later as adults, when Pietro (now played by Luca Marinelli) returns to the family getaway after years of estrangement from his parents, including his now-late father. An encounter with Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) brings the two of them to a rundown cabin located on the mountainside, which they decide to renovate together while also rekindling their friendship – but as time goes on, and the very different lives these two men lead begin to contrast greatly with one another, both of them realise the gravity of their respective situations and how they are, in many ways, imprisoned by their mountain surroundings.
The literal mountains that we see throughout seem like a very self-conscious metaphor for the contained plight of these two lead characters, but that doesn’t make them any less astonishing to look at. With cinematographer Ruben Impens capturing the breath-taking scenery through the lens of a boxed-in (and, at times, appropriately claustrophobic) 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the viewer is transported to this wildly beautiful place where everything from the greenery to the jagged rocks is luscious in its tranquillity. We are right there with these characters as they play around in the fields, walk along the mountaintops, and are just taking in all of the stunning atmosphere around them, to where it almost feels like you yourself are on this pleasant getaway, free from everyday devices and simply absorbing everything that nature has to offer.
The central friendship itself is captivating, because you really get to know both Pietro and Bruno well enough to understand where they’re individually coming from, and together they share a believable chemistry that makes it easy to buy that these two would become very good friends, despite their wildly different backgrounds. Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch’s script really dives deep into their flawed psyches and finds some complex treasures to work with, from Bruno’s firmly-planted roots to his rural but restrictive countryside roots to Pietro’s overall lack of direction in life, as well as a number of conflicting predicaments, such as Pietro slowly discovering Bruno’s close relationship with his estranged father, or even Bruno wooing and soon impregnating a woman that Pietro is initially interested in. It’s smartly executed by the filmmakers, who allow the viewer to keenly observe this slowly biodegrading friendship while also genuinely wonder how, or even if, they will ever get over what may be holding them back in life.
However, because it is being told at such a sluggish pace across this bloated runtime, with scenes going by with little happening or leaning perhaps a bit too much into the meditation of it all, The Eight Mountains can seem like a lot of genuinely strong elements being exhibited with an overwhelming indulgence. Perhaps this was a case of the screenwriters being too literal with their adaptation of Cognetti’s novel, since half the time it does feel like you’re simply watching a book instead of a movie (complete with frequent narration and long dialogue scenes that sometimes forego the fundamental “show, don’t tell” rule of filmic storytelling), but either way you definitely feel the length here, and it can get to a point where you may be checking your watch more often than the actual screen.
It’s a shame, because there is a lot of really good stuff to commend this movie for, and it is by most accounts a great bit of filmmaking, but had it been trimmed down to a more digestible length, then we’d truly have something great on our hands. As is, it’s a good movie that’s on the verge of being a victim of its own excess.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Eight Mountains is a gorgeously shot and smart meditation on life-long friendship, but an excessive runtime and a sluggish pace makes it hard to completely digest with ease.
The Eight Mountains is showing in cinemas from Friday 12th May 2023
