The incredible mountainous vistas envelope this deeply resonating tale of two boys-turned-men with baggage from the past and uncertain futures as they navigate family, friendship and the natural landscape that continually gives them the inspiration to live.

---

---

It’s hard to say why but watching Cannes Jury Prize winner The Eight Mountains made me recall memories of seeing Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).  Maybe it’s the dreamy, melancholy vibe of mountains and snow. 

Or perhaps because this new film from Felix van Groeningen (of 2012’s The Broken Circle Breakdown) and Charlotte Vandermeersch contains one of the most exquisite setlists of heartrending songs used in film in recent years, taken from the work of Swedish singer-songwriter Daniel Norgren. 

There’s some kind of analogue tape hiss in his recordings, which when set against the film’s 1.33:1 aspect ratio, gives an old-world charm to this deeply resonating tale of two boys-turned-men, a story of friendship told over a few decades. 

The incredible mountainous vistas and the overwhelming sea of white continually give Pietro and Bruno inspiration to live despite lives marked by absence (of father figures) and the obligation to conform to societal expectations. 

“I wanted to transform, evolve, leave.”

Bruno has always lived in the Italian Alps while Pietro (Luca Marinelli from 2019’s Martin Eden), on a family trip as a young city boy, meets his lifelong friend in a chance encounter. 

The film is so measured in its pacing that the two-and-a-half hours feel rightly earned, largely from the mileage accumulated from our immersion into the lives of these characters. 

Themes of past baggage and uncertain futures may undergird the narrative, but it is The Eight Mountains’ air of possibility (for change, or perhaps a longing for stillness) that gives it contemplative power.  

How do we fathom the spirit of personal renewal when the roots that bind us run so deep?

Grade: A-

---

Trailer:

Music: