Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Memorial Union Building Theater II
Italian Studies Program presents: The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne), Weds., Oct. 18, 6PM in MUB, Theatre II.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpEtgBA86pg
Set primarily in the Aosta Valley region of Italy and shot in the Italian
Alps, Turin and Nepal, this epic film tells the small story of two
life-long friends and the centrality of the mountains in their
relationship. Directors Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen
encourage viewers to reflect on the characters’, and their own, place
within nature. The screening of The Eight Mountains will be preceded by a screening of the 10-minute short avant-garde film Omelia Contadina (2019) by Alice Rohrwacher and JR. The filmmakers have defined Omelia Contadina as a “cinematic action” to protest the death of traditional agriculture in rural Italy.
Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains, 147 min) a feature-length film which received the Jury Prize at the prestigious Cannes Festival in 2022 and won several David di Donatello (Italy’s highest film awards)
A Film by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, Belgium-Italy, 2022
An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains is a cinematic experience as intimate as it is monumental. Adapting an award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch portray, through observant detail and stunning landscape photography, the profound relationship between Pietro (Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (Alessandro Borghi), who first meet as children in an Alpine village. Years later, the estranged friends reunite, after the passing of Pietro’s father (Filippo Timi), in order to realize his dream of rebuilding a ruined cabin on a mountain slope. This emotional project, and their subsequent explorations of the mountains, create a strong bond between the two—yet individual dreams, and the demands of society, ultimately drive them to pursue irrevocably divergent paths. – The Criterion Collection
An intimate story of friendship projected across the vast alpine Italian landscape, Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains is a stirring, at times spiritual experience of reconnection on both human and environmental levels.— The Guardian
There’s been a lot of talk in these months after the release of The Eight Mountains, people have talked about “beauty and liberty,” but an important topic has been overlooked: the Alpine and Apennine environment as a model of sustainable development, in contrast to depopulation phenomena. And as a future home to new eco-compatible communities, if we think about the possible migrations to high altitude [..] that global warming could cause. – Il Corriere della Sera
