Mountain

The symphony of footage suffused in classical music was filmed in inaccessible locations with helicopters, drones, and all the other technological devices that make nature documentaries so much more spectacular than they were ten years ago. The bigger the screen, the more impressive Mountain becomes. But if you are looking for more than beautiful footage, beware.

The film’s ambition is to provide some insight into the modern human obsession to “conquer” or explore mountains, leading to the irresponsible daredevilry of extreme sports people or addicted climbers. But the film does not make good on this promise. Although the documentary refers to Mountains of the Mind, the celebrated book by Robert Macfarlane, Willem Dafoe’s voice-over is sometimes pompous and frustratingly superficial. But perhaps that frustration is partly due to the inflamed desire not to be staring at a cinema screen in a city, but to be in the mountains, staring into infinity.