Rent The Eight Mountains (2022)

demonstration of a great relationship - The Eight Mountains review by PT

Wonderful acting with very moving subject matter showing the long friendship between the 2 lead characters. Thought provoking and strong story line, a very memorable film.

Contemplative film of a life of friendship set in the Italian alps - The Eight Mountains review by PD

In Paolo Cognetti's film the narrator ruminates, "If the point at which you immerse yourself in the river is the present...then the past is the water that has flowed past you." 'The Eight Mountains', an adaptation of Cognetti's novel written by the author alongside directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, follows Pietro (Luca Marinelli) from adolescence to adulthood and, like the book, it's is a contemplative film, one that uses its lengthy runtime to settle in and take you through the four or so decades in which it tracks Pietro's relationship with Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), a friendship that is achingly pure even as outside forces alter the course of it.

Pietro and Bruno meet one summer in the Italian Alps (the Aosta Valley region, shot over a period of seven months to capture the full scope of its weather, is an arresting backdrop. It’s the kind of vista which would normally demand widescreen photography, but the choice here is to capture it in a tighter, boxy aspect ratio. It works well, accentuating the steep angles, the breathless climbs, emphasising the drama of the landscape. The mountains are a forceful presence throughout, in a film which argues that they fundamentally change the personalities of the people who spend time with them). The pair come from two vastly different backgrounds: Pietro's family is renting a cabin for the summer before they return to the city, while Bruno lives with his aunt and uncle while his father works construction jobs. As they grow older, the camera feels as if it is subtly zooming out, framing Pietro and Bruno against the vast landscapes, mimicking the feeling of slow isolation that creeps up on them through the years. Pulled apart by circumstances beyond their control, it's nearly two decades before the pair reunite, and it's fitting that what brings them back together is the very thing that drove them apart. There's no room for melodramatics, here, though — the film is careful in its depiction of friendship, tender in the way it follows Pietro and Bruno as they learn about each other (and themselves) all over again (a process that isn't easy).

It's an exacting film — it does not shy away from the monotony of trekking up a mountain or building a stone house layer by layer, and looks at relationships similarly. Pietro and Bruno's friendship, with powerful performances from the two leads, is filled with quiet moments that, if not recognised by the film, would not seem all that meaningful. Some will find it far too slow and its runtime certainly contributes to that, but the film wouldn't be able to reveal the layers to friendship and other intimate relationships if it didn't have the time to. There's a fair few weaknesses: the early childhood scenes are perhaps a little cliched and mannered, and there are a few too many musical montages set to accordion-heavy compositions, with lyrics which are a little 'on the nose' (themes are snow, climbing mountains, friendship). And because everything is told from Pietro’s perspective, much is left unsaid and unseen - the women, mothers and love interests, are barely there; Bruno’s home life is only alluded to. Overall, moreover, it's a rather conventional, risk-averse piece of filmmaking. But it remains a beautiful and provocative story about a profoundly rooted friendship, one that’s centres on the consequences of living freely and asking us to consider that which we leave behind in the pursuit of personal enlightenment.