The Eight Mountains
In Paolo Cognetti’sLe otto montagne , the storyteller ruminates , " If the degree at which you eat up yourself in the river is the nowadays … then the past times is the piss that has flow past you . “The Eight Mountains , an adaptation of Cognetti ’s novel written by the source alongside theater director Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch , follows Pietro ( Luca Marinelli ) from adolescence to adulthood and the film is like the river Cognetti writes about . Like the book it ’s found on , The Eight Mountainsis a pensive film , one that use 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 friendly relationship that is achingly pure even as outside forces change the course of it .
Pietro and Bruno meet one summertime in the Italian Alps . The pair come from two vastly different background : 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 begetter puzzle out structure jobs . Vandermeersch and Groeningen phase these other setting beautifully — the camera feel closer to its subjects and the mountainside meadows they move through , accent the young doer ' size against the towering mountains . Francesco Palombelli and Andrea Palma , who play untested Bruno and Pietro , respectively , imbue their carrying out with a delicate naturalness that is crucial to the issue that unfold inThe Eight Mountains .
As Pietro and Bruno mature older , the camera sense as if it is subtly soar upwards out , framing Pietro and Bruno against immense , empty landscapes , mime the smell of tedious isolation that creeps up on you through the years . Pulled asunder by circumstance beyond their ascendence , it ’s nearly two decades before the span reunite , and it ’s fitting that what bring them back together is the very affair that drive them apart . There ’s no way for melodramatics , here , though — The Eight Mountainsis deliberate in its depiction of friendship , attender in the way it follows Pietro and Bruno as they find out about each other ( and themselves ) all over again .
That process is n’t easy . The Eight Mountainsis an exacting film — it does not shy off from the sameness of trek up a mount or build a Isidor Feinstein Stone house bed by layer . It looks at relationships similarly . Pietro and Bruno ’s friendly relationship is filled with quiet moments that , if not recognise by the film , would not seem all that meaningful . Some will find this part of the film slow and its runtime sure impart to that , butThe Eight Mountainswouldn’t work its way under the peel the manner that it does if it did n’t have the time to . It ’s a celluloid that sneaks up on its hearing , revealing layer to friendship and other intimate kinship that otherwise would not be parse through if there was n’t the sentence .
Taken literally , the complete quotation mark , when finished , seems to symbolise both Pietro and Bruno : " … the future is the water that comes down from above , bringing dangers and surprise . The past is in the vale , the future is in the mountains . " Pietro mill around in the valley amniotic fluid , let the next wash over him . Bruno , on the other hand , swims upstream , against the electric current and into the future . He also , quite literally , spends most ofThe Eight Mountainson a mountain , the one that mean the most to Pietro ’s father Giovanni . It takes a while for Pietro to catch up to him , but that process is what makesThe Eight Mountains , and the animation it examines over three decade , so affecting . It ’s paradoxical , certain — The Eight Mountainslacks fore impulse many are used to in a narrative like this , but if you permit it wash over you like the river of the past , it can be a deeply rewarding experience .
The Eight Mountainsis now playing in choice dramaturgy . The film is 147 minutes long and is currently unrated .
Alessandro Borghi and Luca Marinelli in The Eight Mountains.
Cast
The Eight Mountains is an adventure / play flick that follow two boys who live in closing off in the Italian Alps in a small-scale village and develop a close fraternal bail bond . As years draw , Bruno rest home as Pietro seeks more out of life , but despite the divergence in their life course , the two reunite decades later on .
