Mountain * * *

Enjoy the silence? No chance!

 There is an unfortunate irony with this film.  It is most likely to be shown in small cinemas, in Art House complex’s, which don’t offer large screens. But from the opening shot you wish you could see it on Imax or at least X-Treme Screen. I mean, it’s about Mountains, BIG! You know?

       But regardless of the inadequate viewing conditions that most of us will have to watch it under, Mountain is worth going to see for many reasons: though I have to admit that I also have some reservations with it.

       It’s a collaborative work with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.  Well, tell a muso you’re making a film, and what do you reckon the muso will think the film is about?  This film has the most invasive, insistent, relentless music I have heard in any documentary. There is nothing subtle about it. I ached to hear the sound of nature, the silence on top of a mountain (or whatever you hear up there), the noise (if any) that drifts up from below, but every time we cut to a new scene the damn music would start again, and it is loud!  I wanted to yell at the screen: “Shut up guys! Just shut up for a minute!”  I really didn’t need their muscular interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons constantly cranking up. (Yes, the old Veez 4 Seeez - not a real imaginative choice).

        Aside from that complaint though, the photography is amazing. It’s a loving portrait of mountains which almost humanizes them as director Jennifer Peedom seeks their best side. They are breathtaking, shrouded in clouds or casting long shadows or glowing with snow at dusk.  They are beautiful and majestic. They are as individual as we are. The narrative is excellent, spoken by the fine voice of actor Willem Dafoe.  I especially liked the short history of our interaction with mountains. Hundreds of years ago people would no more try to climb a mountain than they would try to swim the ocean. They were viewed as daunting and impossible.

         The film also shows our modern interaction with them. Aside from conventional climbing it also shows us crazy people who are happy to hang from their fingertips as they climb rock faces that lean out,  to crazier people riding pushbikes up (and down) them, people throwing themselves off the top in flying suits, snowboarding down them with an avalanche tumbling down behind them. What fun! (I suppose).

        Mountain features the big one (of course), with footage which might have been taken when Peedom did her excellent film Sherpa. It shows now how many people fancy themselves as Everest Conquerors each year, making the base more crowded than a shopping mall at Christmas.  Not a pretty sight.  Hand on heart, I can honestly say I’ll never be among them. The local hill is challenging enough for me thanks.