Directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch took to Italy’s beautiful Aosta Valley to make their transcendental movie about male friendship – but couldn’t avoid their own personal issues
“You’re out of focus!” I’ve just logged in to Zoom to talk to Belgian directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, and they’re laughing already. “Like in Deconstructing Harry, you know that film?” says Vandermeersch I flap around, fiddling with my webcam, but nothing will correct the me-shaped smear on the screen. Like Robin Williams in the Woody Allen film, blurred outside of the cameras even when he goes home, I feel a flush of existential humiliation creeping up.
I could use a long stay in Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch’s transcendentally clarifying new film The Eight Mountains. A parable of the forking paths of two childhood friends – urbanite Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) and shepherd kid Bruno (Cristiano Sassella...
“You’re out of focus!” I’ve just logged in to Zoom to talk to Belgian directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, and they’re laughing already. “Like in Deconstructing Harry, you know that film?” says Vandermeersch I flap around, fiddling with my webcam, but nothing will correct the me-shaped smear on the screen. Like Robin Williams in the Woody Allen film, blurred outside of the cameras even when he goes home, I feel a flush of existential humiliation creeping up.
I could use a long stay in Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch’s transcendentally clarifying new film The Eight Mountains. A parable of the forking paths of two childhood friends – urbanite Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) and shepherd kid Bruno (Cristiano Sassella...
- 5/11/2023
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Focus Features’ Sundance-premiering Polite Society opens on 927 screens, the feature debut of writer/director Nida Manzoor, creator of We Are Lady Parts, the Peacock comedy about the eponymous British punk rock band.
This comedic mash-up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action, where martial artist-in-training Ria Khan tryies to save her older sister from an impending marriage, is 91% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline review here.
It’s joined by a handful of other specialty titles with theatrical debuts ranging from 900 screens to one, following a week where specialty and independent film was showered with kind words at CinemaCon, the annual exhibitor conference. Focus chair Peter Kujawksi called the specialty audience passionate and the market a launching pad for exceptional talent and “unique and elevated stories.” No disagreement there. He also said the specialty business has “recovered better and faster’’ out of Covid than the overall box office. Indie...
This comedic mash-up of sisterly affection, parental disappointment and bold action, where martial artist-in-training Ria Khan tryies to save her older sister from an impending marriage, is 91% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline review here.
It’s joined by a handful of other specialty titles with theatrical debuts ranging from 900 screens to one, following a week where specialty and independent film was showered with kind words at CinemaCon, the annual exhibitor conference. Focus chair Peter Kujawksi called the specialty audience passionate and the market a launching pad for exceptional talent and “unique and elevated stories.” No disagreement there. He also said the specialty business has “recovered better and faster’’ out of Covid than the overall box office. Indie...
- 4/28/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
It can be surprisingly difficult to find a movie with an authentic, lived-in sense of how friendships truly unfold over the course of many years. What we so often get instead are hollow pastiches and tired tropes that hardly scrape the surface of what actually draws two individuals together from very different walks of life — and why. Maybe there's something to be said for a more matter-of-fact approach that gives such weighty topics room to grow, recede, and adapt at a glacial-like pace.
While that's usually considered a critique, this is at least one of the many reasons why "The Eight Mountains" stands in such stark relief from its peers. In the opening act set in 1984 Italy, two children become fast friends over the course of a single summer in the mountainous village of Grana — not through some shared trauma or because they instantly recognize some deep, soul-baring connection to one another.
While that's usually considered a critique, this is at least one of the many reasons why "The Eight Mountains" stands in such stark relief from its peers. In the opening act set in 1984 Italy, two children become fast friends over the course of a single summer in the mountainous village of Grana — not through some shared trauma or because they instantly recognize some deep, soul-baring connection to one another.
- 4/25/2023
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
As news about the 2023 Cannes lineup begins to trickle in, American audiences are finally getting a chance to catch up on some of the films that played at last year’s festival. Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s “The Eight Mountains” made waves when it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the Prix Jury prize in 2022, and now the film is just weeks away from premiering at arthouses in New York and Los Angeles.
The film tells the story of a close relationship between two young Italian boys who spent their childhoods together in a mountain village before going in different directions. At Cannes, critics praised the film’s attention to detail and the way it used elements of nature to conjure the feelings of magic that childhood friendships can create.
“Here, you feel it all, because there is so much heartfelt detail,” Ella Kemp wrote in...
The film tells the story of a close relationship between two young Italian boys who spent their childhoods together in a mountain village before going in different directions. At Cannes, critics praised the film’s attention to detail and the way it used elements of nature to conjure the feelings of magic that childhood friendships can create.
“Here, you feel it all, because there is so much heartfelt detail,” Ella Kemp wrote in...
- 4/7/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
There must have been something in the air at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where two of the top prizes went to Belgian films about the impossible standards set up by masculinity leading to tragedy. Lukas Dhont’s Close, which centers on the end of the friendship between two teenagers over a harrowing school year, won the Grand Prix. The Jury Prize went to Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains, which concerns the end of a friendship between two men who meet as boys during a summer that marks them for the rest of their lives.
Whatever its pictorial beauty, often significant, this adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s bestseller exemplifies my distaste for films that depict toxic masculinity without questioning it, or even suggesting there is nothing heroic or brave about refusing to leave behind damaging practices as long as they perpetuate some limited idea of what constitutes manhood.
Whatever its pictorial beauty, often significant, this adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s bestseller exemplifies my distaste for films that depict toxic masculinity without questioning it, or even suggesting there is nothing heroic or brave about refusing to leave behind damaging practices as long as they perpetuate some limited idea of what constitutes manhood.
- 2/3/2023
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
When Pietro’s (Lupo Barbiero) father passes away and leaves him a plot of land in the small Alpine village of Grana, he decides to return to the mountainous locale to build a house. Upon his return, he bonds anew with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), who he first met when he visited with his mother as an 11-year-old boy many years ago. The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, The Eight Mountains from directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch is an engrossing look at a friendship that transcends time and distance. Editor Nico Leunen tells Filmmaker […]
The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
When Pietro’s (Lupo Barbiero) father passes away and leaves him a plot of land in the small Alpine village of Grana, he decides to return to the mountainous locale to build a house. Upon his return, he bonds anew with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), who he first met when he visited with his mother as an 11-year-old boy many years ago. The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, The Eight Mountains from directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch is an engrossing look at a friendship that transcends time and distance. Editor Nico Leunen tells Filmmaker […]
The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Studied Experimental Filmmaking, Not Editing”: Editor Nico Leunen on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains introduces us to Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) as a young boy visiting the small mountain village of Grana with his mother. During this trip, he meets Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), a herder who also happens to be 11-years-old. Many years later, Pietro’s father passes away, leaving him a long-neglected plot of land in Grana. Upon returning to the Alpine town, he reunites with Bruno, who aids him in rebuilding a house on his newly-inherited land, strengthening a friendship that had previously […]
The post “Cows Are Terrible to Work With”: Dp Ruben Impens on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Cows Are Terrible to Work With”: Dp Ruben Impens on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The winner of the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains introduces us to Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) as a young boy visiting the small mountain village of Grana with his mother. During this trip, he meets Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), a herder who also happens to be 11-years-old. Many years later, Pietro’s father passes away, leaving him a long-neglected plot of land in Grana. Upon returning to the Alpine town, he reunites with Bruno, who aids him in rebuilding a house on his newly-inherited land, strengthening a friendship that had previously […]
The post “Cows Are Terrible to Work With”: Dp Ruben Impens on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Cows Are Terrible to Work With”: Dp Ruben Impens on The Eight Mountains first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/27/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
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