Mountain (2017 film)

Last updated
Mountain
Mountain (2017 film).png
Film poster
Directed by Jennifer Peedom
Written by Robert Macfarlane
Jennifer Peedom
Produced byJo-Anne McGowan
Jennifer Peedom
Narrated by Willem Dafoe
Cinematography Renan Ozturk
Edited byChristian Gazal
Scott Gray
Music by Richard Tognetti
Distributed byAmstelfilm (Netherlands) (theatrical)
Madman Entertainment (Australia) (theatrical)
Neo Films (Greece) (theatrical)
DCM Film Distribution (Germany) (all media)
Release dates
  • June 12, 2017 (2017-06-12)(Australia)
  • Mountain Live ACO event (Mountain Live ACO event)
Running time
74 min.
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Mountain is a 2017 Australian documentary film, co-written, co-produced and directed by Jennifer Peedom. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House in June 2017. Mountain follows Peedom's 2015 documentary film Sherpa . [1]

Contents

Synopsis

The film explores high peaks around the world while telling the relationship between humans and mountains across time.

Cast

Adventure sports people: [2]

Production

After her critically acclaimed film, Sherpa , [3] Peedom resumes her work with American mountaineer and photographer Renan Ozturk. He is responsible for most of the images in the film. American actor Willem Dafoe narrates the film and reads passages from Robert Macfarlane's book "Mountains of the Mind". [1]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mountain offers a visually thrilling — and surprisingly affecting — look at man's relationship with some of Earth's most imposing natural wonders." [4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [5]

Janine Israel from The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars and called it a "masterful documentary". [6] Gayle MacDonald from The Globe and Mail gave the film three out of four stars, praising the visual and musical feature of the film. [7] Harry Windsor from The Hollywood Reporter called it "one of the most visceral essay films ever made" thanks to the musical score and the non-traditional narrative approach, however, he criticised the length of the movie, defining it "slightly overextended". [1]

Accolades

At the 8th AACTA Awards, Mountain won three awards: "Best Cinematography in a Documentary" (Renan Ozturk), "Best Original Music Score in a Documentary" (Richard Tognetti), and "Best Sound in a Documentary" (David White and Robert Mackenzie). The documentary was also nominated for "Best Editing in a Documentary" (Christian Gazal and Scott Gray) and "Best Feature Length Documentary. [8]

Robert Mackenzie was nominated for the "Award for Best Sound" at the 2017 Australian Screen Sound Guild. [9] The film was also nominated for "Best Documentary Feature" at the 2017 Hamptons International Film Festival and "Best Documentary Film (Local or International)" at the 2018 Australian Film Critics Association Awards. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Shadow of the Vampire</i> 2000 film by E. Elias Merhige

Shadow of the Vampire is a 2000 independent meta period horror comedy film directed by E. Elias Merhige, written by Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe. It is a fictionalized account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, directed by F. W. Murnau, during which the film crew begin to have disturbing suspicions about their lead actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willem Dafoe</span> American actor (born 1955)

William James Dafoe is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA. He has frequently collaborated with filmmakers Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara, Lars von Trier, Julian Schnabel, Wes Anderson, and Robert Eggers.

<i>Tom & Viv</i> 1994 British film

Tom & Viv is a 1994 historical drama film directed by Brian Gilbert, based on the 1984 play of the same name by British playwright Michael Hastings about the early love life of American poet T. S. Eliot. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Miranda Richardson, Rosemary Harris, Tim Dutton, and Nickolas Grace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abel Ferrara</span> American film director

Abel Ferrara is an American filmmaker, known for the provocative and often controversial content in his movies and his use and redefinition of neo-noir imagery. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best known movies include the New York-set, gritty crime thrillers Ms .45 (1981), King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992) and The Funeral (1996), chronicling violent crime in urban settings with spiritual overtones.

Robert Macfarlane is a British writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

<i>Antichrist</i> (film) 2009 film by Lars von Trier

Antichrist is a 2009 horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It tells the story of a couple who, after the accidental death of their son, retreat to a cabin in the woods where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behavior and sadomasochism. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters and an epilogue.

Identical twin brothers Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig, known collectively as the Spierig Brothers, are German-Australian film directors, producers, and screenwriters. They are best known for their 2014 sci-fi thriller, Predestination.

Fighting Fear is a 2011 Australian documentary film about professional surfing. In 2013, the film was honored by the Australian Film Institute with two Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, specifically for Best Cinematography in a Documentary and Best Direction in a Documentary. The film stars Richie Vaculik and Mark Matthews. It was filmed in and around Sydney, Australia, primarily in the South-Eastern Sydney suburbs.

<i>The Summit</i> (2012 film) 2012 film

The Summit is a 2012 documentary film about the 2008 K2 disaster, directed by Nick Ryan. It combines documentary footage with dramatized recreations of the events of the K2 disaster, during which – on the way to and from the summit of one of the most dangerous mountains in the world – 11 climbers died during a short time span.

<i>Meru</i> (film) 2015 film

Meru is a 2015 documentary film chronicling the first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas. It was co-directed by married couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and won the U.S. Audience Documentary Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Peedom</span> Australian director

Jennifer Peedom is a BAFTA-nominated Australian director.

<i>Sherpa</i> (film) 2015 film

Sherpa is a 2015 documentary film by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom. It was filmed during the 2014 Mount Everest ice avalanche.

Antony Michael Partos is an Australian film and TV composer. He specialises in creating scores that blend both acoustic and electronic elements with a mix of world musical instruments. His feature film credits include Animal KingdomThe Rover, Disgrace, The Home Song Stories and Unfinished Sky.

<i>Opus Zero</i> 2017 Mexican film

Opus Zero is a 2017 Mexican-German drama film written and directed by Daniel Graham and starring Willem Dafoe.

<i>Togo</i> (film) 2019 American historical adventure film

Togo is a 2019 American historical adventure film. Directed by Ericson Core and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film centers on Leonhard Seppala and his titular sled dog in the 1925 serum run to Nome to transport diphtheria antitoxin serum through harsh conditions during an epidemic of diphtheria. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Julianne Nicholson, Christopher Heyerdahl, Michael Gaston, Michael McElhatton, Jamie McShane, Michael Greyeyes, Thorbjørn Harr, Shaun Benson, and Nikolai Nikolaeff. It was released on Disney+ on December 20, 2019. The movie received generally positive reviews from critics.

<i>At Eternitys Gate</i> (film) 2018 film

At Eternity's Gate is a 2018 biographical drama film about the final years of painter Vincent van Gogh's life. The film dramatizes the controversial theory put forward by van Gogh biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, in which they speculate that van Gogh's death was caused by manslaughter rather than suicide.

<i>Babenco: Tell Me When I Die</i> 2019 film directed by Bárbara Paz

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die is a 2019 Brazilian documentary film directed by Bárbara Paz. The film premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary on Cinema. It focuses on the last years of life of filmmaker Hector Babenco, who died in 2016, victimized by a cancer. It was selected as the Brazilian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Friedkin Uncut</i> 2018 Italian film

Friedkin Uncut is a 2018 Italian documentary film written and directed by Francesco Zippel. It tells the life and career of the film director William Friedkin. The film had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 31 August 2018. It was released in Italy on 5 November 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Windsor, Harry (20 June 2017). "'Mountain': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Mountain". MNTNFILM Database. 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  3. "Sherpa (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  4. "Mountain (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. "Mountain Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  6. Israel, Janine (13 June 2017). "Mountain review: a sublime rush of adrenaline and orchestral beauty from the director of Sherpa". The Guardian . Guardian News and Media . Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  7. MacDonald, Gayle (11 January 2018). "Review: Do not watch Mountain if you have a fear of heights". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  8. "2018 AACTA Awards presented by Foxtel – All Winners & Nominees – by Category" (PDF). AACTA Awards. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  9. "The 7th AACTA Awards". Australian Screen Sound Guild. 5 December 2017. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  10. "HIFF 2017 Release Centerpieces, Spotlights & More" (PDF). Hamptons International Film Festival. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  11. "The 2018 AFCA Awards". Australian Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.