PEAK PRACTICE
THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS The Alpine friendship of two beautiful boys…
When Belgian filmmaker Felix van Groeningen (Beautiful Boy) and his actor partner Charlotte Vandermeersch discovered Paolo Cognetti’s bestselling novel The Eight Mountains, it was a lifesaver. ‘It’s just an incredibly rich story about pure, honest people,’ says van Groeningen.
‘It moved me very much. I came out of a dark period [when I decided to make it]. And I wanted to focus on something beautiful and pure and uplifting.’
At the time, his relationship with Vandermeersch was going through a rough patch. ‘We’ve been together for 15 years,’ she shrugs. ‘And sometimes you go through lows.’ Like everyone else, they were also struggling with COVID-inspired lockdowns. But then came the decision to co-adapt Cognetti’s 2016 award-winner, a poignant story about two boyhood friends, Pietro and Bruno, who find each other again in adulthood.
‘Because the bonding during that period was so intense, I actually felt that the movie was benefitting from it, that we were benefiting from it,’ says van Groeningen, making his first feature since his 2018 rehab drama Beautiful Boy with Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. As they sat down to write, he asked Vandermeersch to co-direct. ‘That really helped us to get above our
own issues with each other and respect each other anew, like the friends do,’ she says. ‘It healed us.’
Choosing to make the film in Italian, to keep it real, they also spent time with Cognetti in the Italian Alps, where the film is set. ‘He showed us all the places and people that were inspirations for the book,’ says van Groeningen, who fell in love with the majestic scenery. ‘Because of this movie I discovered that I really love the high mountains. It’s amazing, the longing for it.’
Casting Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden) and Alessandro Borghi (The Hanging Sun) as the adult Pietro and Bruno, the film also delves into a perennial theme – fathers and sons – which van Groeningen explored in both Beautiful Boy and his 2009 alcohol-soaked drama The Misfortunates. ‘Charlotte and I both lost our fathers,’ says van Groeningen. ‘And, yeah, it just comes part of the stories you are attracted to. [It’s about] starting to look back at our own parents with different eyes.’
With the film sharing the Cannes Jury prize last year, the end result is triumphant, although it was not without its hazards – with crew members picking up injuries while shooting. ‘There’s no mercy with mountains,’ sighs van Groeningen. Yet the drama’s authenticity is there for all to see, with the cast and crew even living together in the mountains. The effect on some was transformative. ‘Luca, he really went for it,’ the director adds. ‘Although he’s a rather anxious person, he came to live there. His devotion was incredible.’
‘We’ve been together for 15 years – sometimes you go through lows’ CHARLOTTE VANDERMEERSCH