Cannes review: “The eight mountains” by Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeesch

After his 2012 Oscar nominated drama for international competition break a broken circleAnd he made his Hollywood debut in 2018 Beautiful boyFelix van Grenningen made his debut in the Cannes competition eight mountainsProbably the least popular film of his career so far.

This is a sensitive story about decades of long-term friendships that seem a little distant with such a heavy burden. With his unusual photography and two engaging presenters, he is pleasing to the eye, as well as at two hours and 27 minutes, but he is blurry and pale next to Paolo Sorrentino. The hand of GodWhich included themes similar to adolescence and youth during the latest awards season.

Franco-Italian-Belgian co-production, Eight Mountains (The Eight Mountains) He could have been more sensitively placed in Venice, where he was probably less thoughtful. Despite the festival show, it has a ready audience adapted from Paolo Cognetti’s 2016 bestseller. Fans of the book won’t be disappointed, as the film perfectly captures its captivating holiday reading spirit. However, the novice’s script, written in collaboration with Van Grenningen co-director Charlotte Vandermisch, is filled with frustrating non-adventures, wacky sounds, and editing.

The first 35 minutes would be an interesting brief in itself: Pietro, 11, rests with his mother and father in the Italian countryside and rests in the city of his claustrophobic life. The only other child on this side is Bruno, more or less the same age, and he lives with his aunt and uncle until his father’s birth. Summer with them is idyllic, but their friendship is unhappy. In an attempt to convert Bruno, whose only hoped-for future is in the family’s dairy farm, Pietro’s parents offer to take him home and send him to school. Out of jealousy, Bruno’s father will take the baby and they will not see each other for another decade.

However, this introduction is nothing more than the basis of a strangely bloodless and understanding film that awakens the soul of television. bell and sebastian With his landscapes and his homilies. Pietro, now played by Luca Marinelli, returns to the city where he and his family are separated and estranged from his father, a paradoxical creature whose hidden ends begin after his untimely death.

To mourn his father, Pietro returns to the family’s holiday home, where he meets Bruno (Alessandro Borg) and discovers the secret bond that has formed between his father and the boy from the village during his absence. Both men now have thick beards and their beards will get too heavy in the next couple of hours as the subtext of the boys, men and their fathers becomes the dominant speech.

The mountainous environment is impressive, but the breathtaking views of the hills and glaciers promise a tension that will never materialize. There is a little sense of conflict between man and nature and there is no point in doing it between Pietro and Bruno, he seems to grow old, even after Bruno moves in with Pietro’s girlfriend. Not many comments are made as he fascinates Pietro and replaces the unmistakable rustic simplicity of the Italian Alps with the unmistakable rustic simplicity of the Himalayas, where he eventually finds inspiration, becomes a writer of some fame and learns “The Eight Mountains. The word popular salad, which, to say the least, sums up the traveler’s experience with the wisdom of a person who never leaves home.

Bruno, meanwhile, is struggling and for the first time a crack appears in their 10-year relationship. Such a dramatic catalyst takes a long time and comes so late that many viewers may no longer be able to reach it. For those on the hike, however, the extra opening is completely connected and there’s a quiet wholeness that’s totally in line with the film’s provocatively low ambition.