Eight mountains. A movie with great sensitivity about the friendship between two children that later evolves into a friendship between men. Life is complicated, and everyone has their own struggles and hangups. These men surely have theirs. The tension between them could easily turn into an overt romantic relationship, but we are left with hints and possibilities. Something to unfold at a different time or in a different life. The anticipation of something developing makes the movie feel excessively long, and it certainly is a very long movie. The story transcends a failed romance. Ultimately, it’s a tale of losses—some inevitable, others that we’ll forever hold as missed opportunities. However, we can’t return to certain mountains.

My mother put this on randomly a while ago, I had never heard of it before. I was shocked, how good a mountain movie could be. Ever had a friend who actually shouldn’t be your friend because they share different values entirely? I think this movie captures a kind of relationship like this perfectly. Of course there is the conflict of different approaches to life that is central to the movie but the true highlight for me is the realistic and relatable relationship. The complex feelings these two hold for each other and for the people around them really make the movie. This doesn’t take away from the conflict though, the resolution to which is amazing as well. Because of course Bruno dies, but he dies happily and gratified. The movie depicts no approach as right and none as wrong. Pietro is happy wandering the mountains and Bruno is happy, literally dying on that mountain. The aesthetic of the actual mountains is gorgeous. Some movies go for the imposing monuments of nature aesthetic for mountains and they do that when Pietro and Bruno are children. But it’s beautiful to see how the mountains change from these feared monsters to a realm of freedom for Pietro, because the way the mountains are shot goes along with it. I can’t comment too much on the acting because I watched this movie with German voice actors. But the physical performance is incredible especially from Luca Marinelli, Pietro’s adult actor. Hope to see more from him. Overall I love this movie. Absolute sleeper hit. My mother put this on randomly a while ago, I had never heard of it before. It’s great drama with realistic and complex characters and great philosophy behind it.

A heavily themed film with a focus on cycles of inhereted behaviours, seasons, friendship and estrangement, travel to and from and up and down & ultimately life and death. A recurring soundtrack by Daniel Norgren echoes and molds itself to the current mood throughout the film be it aluring or ominous. A very gripping watch.

A beautiful story of friendship that makes you think about what is really important in life.

A sky burial - the mountain man will not renounce the mountain, even in death

Shot narrow. No special effects. Just pure dialogue and life. Fantastic film. Better than 99% of big budget movies.

Amongst the choice of at home watchable movies The Eight Mountains is at the top of well done , well feeling , thoughtful worth your time.

The Eight Mountains delves into themes of friendship, loss, and human bonds. Filmmakers Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch skilfully tell this story, framed by the stunning Italian Alps. Central to the plot are two boys, Bruno (played by Alessandro Borghi) and Pietro (acted by Luca Marinelli). Their strong friendship blossoms amidst the breathtaking mountain scenery. Much like the towering peaks, their relationship is moulded by their shared journeys, mutual understanding, and deep attachment to their surroundings. As adults, their paths in life separate, leading them down distinctive journeys. Still, the friendship they forged when young remains strong, an unquestionable constant amid their ever-evolving lives. The movie cleverly wraps history and culture into the story. It shows changes in Italy's countryside and the traditions that hold its people together. The mountains are almost like a character in the film; their rugged beauty reflects the complicated relationships between people. We see Pietro's and Bruno's life journey through several small scenes spread over many years. They face obstacles in life, love, and dealing with loss. Time, space, and their own problems test their friendship. But, it lasts, showing the power of human strength. Themes like friendship, loss, and the need to belong strike a chord. The acting by Alessandro Borghi and Luca Marinelli is so real, it brings their characters to life. You can feel their bond, which makes it believable and emotionally touching. Felix van Groeningen's and Charlotte Vandermeersch's direction is superb. They beautifully showcase the majestic mountains, yet they also craft touching interactions among the characters. Daniel Norgren's music is affecting and eerie. It emphasises the movie's emotional intensity. Ruben Impens' cinematography is amazing. With his camera, he paints a moving portrait of the Italian Alps. The mountains are like a person, changing moods like our characters do. They chose a square film format, different from the usual wide screen. This change highlights the mountains, which are important to the story. It also makes you feel boxed in, like the characters who live in a hidden alpine village during summer breaks. This movie progresses at a thoughtful speed, letting us fully dive into Pietro and Bruno's lives. The shifts in time and feelings are expertly interwoven into the story by the editor. The script, penned by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, is succinct and moving. It often expresses hidden feelings with gentle nods and unstated words. I checked out this film at an early showing a couple of weeks ago, and it's still on my mind. If you are looking for a film that is simultaneously visually stunning and heartwarming, you must watch it. The Eight Mountains is a gorgeous, deep, and smart journey into friendship you shouldn't miss.

Set primarily in the Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains is the story of Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), childhood friends who help each other navigate their way through life, despite the fact that their time together is often fleeting. Alternately joyous and heartbreaking, it is a film filled with valuable life lessons and perspectives worth examining. The cinematography is beautiful, the mountain vistas are stunning, the acting is topnotch throughout, the score and soundtrack effectively capture the desired vibe, and the dialogue is insightful but never pretentious. While it's hard to explain the 4:3 ratio that was used, The Eight Mountains remains one of the most visually impressive movies in recent memory.

A very simple story/movie. Not much to it. I didn't feel that it was worth my time.

I was disappointed with this movie. Some lovely shots (especially of walking the ridges), but I didn't care for the characters: I wasn't moved. We barely got a glimpse of the abandoned daughter, so why should we care she was abandoned? Something about standing at the high centre of mountains and paths instead of roaming those paths and mountains... hanging Nepalese prayer flags on the mountain hut wasn't going to make this movie profound by association. It was full of clichés about what it means to be a man: off wandering on his own while sporting a beard or bonding over a barn-raising. Strong, silent, beer-drinking. His own worst enemy, but hey! There were some interesting bits: urbanites wanting to wallow/escape in "nature", depopulation in rural Italy. The ultimate reason I didn't enjoy this movie over all was a fatal one: I became bored.

The Eight Mountains is an epic tale of male friendship and finding a purpose and place in life. It's beautifully rendered and very moving. The story begins in 1984 in Italy. Pietro lives in Turin with his family. Each summer they visit the Italian Alps, where Pietro meets Bruno. Bruno lives with his uncle and aunt who are traditional farmers. The 11 year olds form a strong bond until Bruno's father sends for him to live in another country. They meet again briefly at 16 but then don't see each again for another 15 years. At this point Pietro has lived a rather itinerant life whilst Bruno has settled totally into the farming lifestyle. They come together again when Pietro's father dies and leaves behind a crumbling house in the Alps. The two men rebuild over one summer and rebuild their friendship, vowing to meet each summer from there on. This wonderful film is a superb depiction of friendship and examines with tender care the paths we take and how life can and should be approached. It's magnificent to look at with breathtaking mountain scenery and the two lead performances from Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi are stellar. A glorious film of great depth and character.

A truly beautiful film and an instant classic. Honestly one of the better movies I've ever seen. Cinematography is beautiful, at times like still photography come to life, at other times truly athletic and dynamic. The coloring of the scenes was particularly impressive. While I can not pick up on intricacies of the Italian language acting, I thought they represented their characters very well and it was a joy to watch them grow up. This had to have been a tremendously demanding production. As someone who lives in Montana, I found the subject matter to be very modern and relatable, even though it took place in the Alps. But like the film says, "The mountains are the same everywhere." Beautiful, powerful, lovely film.

Considering the importance of friendship in our lives, it's somewhat surprising that there aren't more movies devoted to this subject. But perhaps that's because it's difficult to make truly engaging films that effectively address this topic. Such is the case with this would-be grand sweeping epic set against the mountain landscapes of Italy and Nepal. In this tale of life-long friendship and self-discovery, directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch attempt to examine these issues through the complex relationship of two boyhood chums (Luca Martinelli, Alessandro Borghi) over the course of four subsequent decades. Unfortunately, the film seeks to cover so much ground (and lacks the kind of clarity required to do so) that much of the narrative seems muddled, meandering and just plain dull. The filmmakers try to paper over this central shortcoming with its visually stunning cinematography, which is so impressive in itself that it almost makes the picture worth watching. However, given the overall lack of focus, snail-like pacing and inclusion of too much easily removed extraneous material, the visuals are not enough to overcome a script that's not as profound as it likes to think it is. Moreover, the chemistry between the two protagonists is often unconvincing and unclear as to what the true nature of their connection is supposed to be, making it hard to believe that they're genuinely the good friends that the directors are attempting to claim they are (or, strangely enough at times, that they're perhaps more than just the friends that they allegedly are). In the picture's defense, it improves somewhat the further one gets into the story, but so much narrative clutter has preceded this that it's difficult to muster much enthusiasm for how events play out. And, despite a supposedly uplifting message, this offering has a profound level of sadness attached to it that the filmmakers try to deflect with a sense of overblown phony nobility that, even if widely held, fails to muster the empathy it tries to generate with audience members. Friendship is indeed something that deserves wider attention in the cinematic landscape, but this release is not the way to go about it.

pace, story , visuals, music and deep profound friendship love captured my attention from beginning to end. I watched slowly and carefully and sorrowfully at the end. beautiful.

Didn't love the book, didn't love the movie, and still both are worth to be read and watched. Loved the setting, photography, and the soundtrack.

这是一璐对于一群住在山上的人如果跟上时代脚步的外语电影，璐过好的是下面有英文字幕，所以还是能理解整个哗情的??

best movie?????

There are certain movies in modern cinema that have an abstract length and tempo. They're often hard to describe and sometimes even tougher to sit through. At the same time, they work somewhat like a time travel machine. Suddenly, everything stops and life flashes before your eyes. Before you even realize it, you're contemplating the sense of your life and are forced to evaluate the decisions you made and the person you've become. You either love it or you hate it. In 2021, Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi was a pitch-perfect example of such cinema. Now, it's almost impossible not to feel similarly about The Eight Mountains by Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch. The film follows a simple yet complex story of Pietro, who visits an almost abandoned mountain village as a child with his mother during summer. There, he meets Bruno, a boy his age who's one of the 14 citizens who have stayed following an "industrial revolution." Their lives vary on every possible level. Pietro is a city-raised boy, with all the flashy clothes and fancy Adidas on his feet, while Bruno wears the same dirty bags and has to take care of cattle. The former is successful in school, while the second struggles to read. Yet, they form a connection that, to much of their surprise, would hold them together until the end of their lives. At first sight, The Eight Mountains feels like an ordinary story of friendship that was lost in time, yet marks its return in an unexpected fashion as both Bruno and Pietro (now adults) find themselves building a house together. A house, that was a dream of Pietro's father, who doesn't really have a significant relationship with his son but has found an oddly, though, understandably, strong bond with Bruno instead. The friendship between Pietro and Bruno is a feat so incredibly acted and written, with its subtlety telling us more emotions than any words could have, that it's definitely a perfect choice to have it as a main story. What does true friendship mean? And how much can it take? Does it have boundaries, and if so, can they ever be crossed? You'll find answers to these questions here. But The Eight Mountains is much more than that. It's a tale about stepping out of your parents' shadow, yet struggling to cut away the same (often toxic) habits they had. It's about searching for your own purpose, while also trying to fulfill your parents' wishes and dreams. It's about looking for your own place in the world in light of always being the second choice among the people you know, but still coming back and finding happiness and solace with them. It's about crossing your own limits in your head but failing plenty of times along the way. The list of themes in The Eight Mountains is definitely a lengthy one. Such cases are often a recipe for messy productions that struggle to keep viewers' attention. This time around, it's also not perfect. There are moments when you start crying, only to wipe your tears and focus again on the short but important conversations, with dramatic, almost thriller-like music suddenly playing in the background. Then you're back to crying but also holding your breath. Yes, The Eight Mountains can be sometimes hard to keep track of. With all its emotional themes and rhythmical rollercoaster, you will find yourself confused, just like I did. Still, it does an even better job of gluing you back into the screen, not only due to the story but the monumental views it shows. The majority of the movie takes place somewhere in Italian Alps. While I've never personally seen this part of the world, I don't need any convincing anymore to do so. The film is shot masterfully, with the camera often zooming out and transforming the main characters into a small element of the background, while the astonishing mountains take the main stage. There aren't many moments like these in The Eight Mountains, but when they strike, they do so with full force. With an inspiration surely taken from a movie like Into the Wild (2007), it feels somewhat familiar, but it doesn't take away the pleasure and with its unusual narrow camera angle, it's certainly special. On top of that, these mountains, cliffs, edges, and so on aren't only there to take your breath away. They're a perfect metaphor for the story. "The mountain is a way of living life. One step in front of the other, silence, time and measure," says Bruno throughout the film. The Eight Mountains is an incredibly ambitious project which tells numerous stories, all connected to each other. Pietro's journey to self-discovery is one that won't grab everyone's attention at first sight, but those who give it a try and have some patience will certainly be rewarded with a mix of emotions. Emotions, that take your heart by storm and won't let go. You either love or hate this kind of cinema, and I unquestionably belong to the first group. After watching The Eight Mountains, you will love it as well.

Capolavoro assoluto per meraviglia e per coraggio, sublimazione della giovane carriera di un regista di altissimo livello come Felix Van Groeningen. Tratto da un famoso romanzo, la storia di un'amicizia (vera oltre che di fronte allo schermo) dei due protagonisti meravigliosi e con una sintonia inimitabile. Sicuramente, il coraggio del prendersi lunghi tempi per introdurre l'infanzia dei personaggi, il rapporto con il padre di uno dei due e la scoperta della montagna, non è indifferente ed è probabilmente l'unica parte che si potrebbe far fatica a digerire completamente. Con l'introduzione di Borghi e di Marinelli, inizia il vero spettacolo. L'incredibile bellezza delle immagini, la straordinaria potenza dei dialoghi e degli sguardi tra i due attori, la stupenda colonna sonora di Daniel Norgren danno vita a sequenze mozzafiato ed estremamente potenti, che proiettano lo spettatore seduto a fianco ai protagonisti, nella loro vita. Ogni elemento è al suo posto, funzionale all'insieme e perfetto se preso singolarmente. Film assurdamente escluso dalla selezione italiana per gli Oscar, che spero diventi un classico del cinema nostrano.