Upon that MountainMontanario

Synopsis

One year observing the cable car on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif. A place where the machine, the workers and the users are the main actors in a spectacle designed to overcome the limits of nature. As it portrays daily routine and visitors’ behaviour, the film explores the relationship between technology, tourism and mountaineering, city, modernity and natural environments, observation and image, representation and experience.

Director's note

During a long exercise in observation, I followed the changing seasons, the structure itself and the routines of those who work there. At altitude, experience is both real and imaginary: the landscape changes constantly and every image tends toward the spectacular. The constant presence of phones, photographs and videos led me to question the relationship between experience and representation: does continuous reproduction multiply wonder, or does it end up neutralising it? The film grows out of this tension, seeking an ongoing dialogue between what is observed and what the image opens up to the imagination.