The Eight Mountains

New York Times Critics' Pick
147 mins.
Directed by  Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
NR
Italian with subtitles
2023

Last day Thursday, 6/15.

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery, THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS is a landmark cinematic experience as intimate as it is monumental, as deep as it is expansive.

Adapting the award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch (THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN) portray through observant detail and stunning landscape photography the profound, complex relationship between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who first meet as children when Pietro’s Milan family vacations in an isolated village at the base of the Alpine slopes.

As they mature, Pietro becomes estranged from his business-minded father (Filippo Timi) even as Bruno—emotionally abandoned by his own father—takes up the role of surrogate son. Pietro’s father’s death reunites the two in realizing his dream of constructing a cabin on the Alps, and the project and subsequent explorations of the awe-inspiring mountain range bond Pietro and Bruno in a shared purpose. Yet despite their connection, the purity of nature and the demands of society both threaten to drive the men to pursue different, possibly irrevocably divergent paths on the vertiginous terrain of life.

Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.


“The Belgian writer-directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch keep the characters—and the movie—immersed in beauty... Working with the cinematographer Ruben Impens, they give you a sense of tangible place as they plot the area’s profound geometry, roam across its shimmering glacial snow and catch the backlit mist wreathing the mountains.” Manohla Dargis. A New York Times Critic's Pick!