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a14 people & arts
Friday 28 april 2023
‘The Eight Mountains’ is a luminous, gentle stunner

By JAKE COYLE are in their 30s. By young
AP Film Writer adulthood, they’ve grown
Seasons and years blow apart. They live in differ-
through the high Alpine ent economic realities. The
peaks of the decades- mountains mean different
spanning “The Eight Moun- things to them. It’s not a va-
tains.” But a warm, abiding cation or a refuge for Bru-
glow persists throughout no; it’s his life. Pietro’s father
this tender, even restorative (Filippo Timi), a pivotal fig-
epic of male friendship. ure in the early childhood
The film, by Belgian film- scenes, dies having spent
makers Charlotte Van- his life a workaholic. We get
dermeersch and Felix van the impression his fleeting
Groeningen, is a stunning, few weeks at the mountain
often profound and fre- cabin were the only ones
quently jaw-droppingly that mattered to him.
gorgeous tale of two friends But Pietro’s strained re-
from childhood through lationship with his father
adulthood set against the — and Bruno’s closeness
Italian Alps. Vast and inti- to him — continues to
mate at once, their lumi- shadow the movie. “The
nously languid adapta- Eight Mountains” is rich-
tion of Paolo Cognetti’s est in its first half, when it’s
bestseller reaches sublime This image released by Sideshow and Janus Films shows Alessandro Borghi, left, and Luca Marinelli foremost a father-son tale.
heights. in “The Eight Mountains.” Associated Press After years away, Pietro, a
“The Eight Mountains,” writer, returns to help Bruno
which last year won the jury (now a bearded mountain
prize at the Cannes Film to revisit. Pixar’s “Luca,” just a little songwriter Daniel Norgren, man) rebuild the cabin. It’s
Festival, isn’t hurried. The When we first encounter further south from here.) whose dreamy, organ-in- a project of rehabilitation,
ebbs of its two-and-a-half Pietro and Bruno, they’re As wide-screen as the sur- flected folk songs radiate inside and out, and of rec-
hours are sometimes a little 11-year-olds. They come roundings are, the Belgian throughout the film. It might onciliation with his father’s
too placid. But the passage from different back- filmmakers Vandermeersch seem too much to com- unrealized Alpine dreams.
of time — what changes, grounds. Pietro’s family is and van Groeningen, with pare the effect to Leonard But in tracking the book,
what endures — is much middle-class, lives in Tu- cinematographer Ruben Cohen soundtracking “Mc- Vandermeersch and van
the subject of the movie. rin and only vacations in Impens, shot “The Eight Cabe and Mrs. Miller.” But Groeningen go for some-
Just as the film’s near-sole the Alps. Bruno’s family is Mountains” in boxy Acad- in a similarly rural film where thing more novelistic. Some
setting — a remote moun- hardscrabble and working emy ratio. Somehow, this much goes unspoken, Nor- pains melt away. New
tain cabin beneath the class, and live year-round only enhances the high- gren’s serene music voices ones emerge. Pietro trav-
peaks of northwestern Ita- in the mountains. They be- mountain splendor of the something ethereal, com- els the world. Bruno stays,
ly — beckons Pietro (Luca come fast friends immedi- film, while at the same time passionate and timeless. stubbornly. He falls in love,
Marinelli) and Bruno (Ales- ately, though, and it would drawing its characters clos- The songs combined with starts a family, but struggles
sandro Borghi) throughout hard to imagine a more er together. The hills, you such magnificent images to make ends meet. Pietro
their lives, the intoxicating idyllic rendering of child- might say, are alive. produced a soulful, magi- resolves to return every
atmosphere of “The Eight hood than Pietro and Bru- And the music is a big part of cal alchemy. summer. Different as they
Mountains” is a cherished no’s mountain playground. that. “The Eight Mountains” Most of the film takes place are, the bond they share is
retreat I’m already eager (One honorable mention: is scored by the Swedish when Pietro and Bruno immense.q

Tucker Carlson speaks out for 1st time

after Fox News firing

dress why he suddenly be- completely irrelevant. They media reports Wednesday
came unemployed. mean nothing. In five years centered on material un-
He posted a video on Twit- we won’t even remember covered during Dominion
ter shortly after 8 p.m. East- we heard them. Trust me, Voting Systems’ lawsuit but
ern, the time his Fox show as somebody who partici- redacted from court pa-
used to begin, that talked pated.” pers. Private messages sent
about a lack of honest po- Fox fired its most popular by Carlson with “highly of-
litical debate in the media. personality on Monday fensive and crude remarks”
Carlson said one of the without explanation, less were a “catalyst” in Fox’s
things he noticed, “when than a week after settling decision to cut him loose,
you step away from the a lawsuit concerning the according to The New York
noise for a few days,” is how spread of lies about the Times.
Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for
photos in a Fox News Channel studio on March 2, 2017, in New nice some people are, and 2020 presidential election. Both The Wall Street Jour-
York. how hilarious some are. The mystery about why Fox nal and The Washington
Associated Press “The other thing you no- Corp. leadership, Rupert Post said one redacted
tice when you take a little Murdoch and his son Lach- message included a slur
By DAVID BAUDER day, two days after Fox time off is how unbeliev- lan, decided to suddenly against a senior Fox execu-
AP Media Writer News fired him, with a two- ably stupid most of the dismiss Carlson lingered. tive. Each of the reports re-
NEW YORK (AP) — Tucker minute, campaign-style debates you see on televi- The company has not ex- lied on sources that were
Carlson emerged Wednes- monologue that didn’t ad- sion are,” he said. “They’re plained it, although some not identified.q