Friendship, mountains, growth and the changing of our relationship with the planet in the wake of the pandemic are the main elements of the Cannes competition title.The Eight Mountains “by Belgian directors Felix van Groningen (“The Pretty Boy”) and Charlotte Vandermerch. (See the trailer above.)
The film is based on the Italian novel of the same title by Paolo Cognetti. It has won numerous awards in Italy and France, and is also the author’s first book published in the United States
“Eight mountains ‘hu A tale of coming of age set over three decades about two young Italian boys—one, Pietro, the son of a chemist, and the other, Bruno, a stonemason—who spend their childhoods together in a secluded Alpine village roaming the surrounding peaks and valleys before their paths diverge. . After many years, they reconnected in the same place.
The film marks Van Groningen’s first entry into the Italian language film industry which broke before his English debut “Beautiful Boy”, with the Oscar-nominated “The Broken Circle Breakdown” followed by the Sundance Award-winning “Belgium”.
Van Groeningen collaborated on “Eight Mountains” with Vandermeersch, his life partner, an actor and writer now in her directorial debut. They previously collaborated professionally on “Breakdown”, for which she worked as a co-writer.
In an interview with the directors, Van Groningen said they were very impressed with the characters of the book, which he called “a simple story, really epic, against a beautiful backdrop” that she spoke to directly, with elements that “were very personal to me,” he said.
They meet early in the process with Paolo Cognetti who lives six months out of the year in the Alps. “He showed us a lot of locations that served as inspiration for this book,” he said, so they eventually shot the Italian part of the movie, which was also shot in Nepal, near the writer’s home in the Alps.
“We wanted the mountains to feel as real as possible,” Van Groeningen said. “So we built a house at 2,000 meters; we went to a glacier. It wasn’t always easy, but it was what we felt was essential for this movie.”
“Even the internal parts, we shot them at 2,000 metres, which is kind of crazy. The manager indicated that in the end I think it works.
Vandermeersch pointed out that It is a multi-layered story spanning more than 30 years in which the viewer witnesses different stages in the lives of these two friends.
As in many lifelong friendships, “As you grow up, at first you spend time together as kids, and time seems endless. In the case of our heroes, every summer. But then things get more complicated, and you have to make an effort to be a friend.” You have to desire it. “Throughout life’s hardships, you have to know how to be there for each other,” she said.
The directors wrote the script during the lockdown and both say it was “really nice” to be in the Alps and Nepal, the two main locations for the film, at that particular time. This “the journey we took in our imaginations to these corners of the world during lockdown” was leaked into the film, Vandermeersch noted.
“I think a lot of people have felt the need to get out. It is time to sit back and re-evaluate your way of life; our way as human beings on this planet to find a new respect for the Earth. That is also something that is in the project.
“The Eight Mountains “Italian A-lister Luca Marinelli (“Martin Eden”) and Alessandro Borghi (“Demons”) – respectively as Pietro and Bruno – as well as Filippo Timi (“Vincere”) and Elena Leite (“Three Floors”).
Van Groeningen noted that Marinelli and Borghi played friends before in Claudio Caligari’s “Don’t Be Bad” (“Don’t Be Bad”) which went to Venice in 2015.
The film is produced by Mario Gianni and Lorenzo Gangarosa for Wildside, a Fremantle company, and co-produced with Belgium’s Rufus and Menuetto, Pyramide Productions and Vision Distribution in association with Sky.
The executive producer is Louis Tisné of Elastic Films in the UK. Vision Distribution is also an international sales agent and will distribute the film in theaters in Italy, while Pyramide Distribution will release the film in France and Kinepolis Film Distribution and Dutch Film Works will handle theatrical distribution in Benelux.
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