Posts; Ask me anything; Archive; s-shalhoub. [5] Throughout her directing career, Shepitko only started working on a film if she felt that "if she does not do it, then she dies. The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age forty, just as she was emerging on the international scene. Larisa Shepitko’s final film—a shattering, intimate World War II drama, newly restored Now on Blu-ray The crowning triumph of a career cut tragically short, Larisa Shepitko’s final film won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and went on to be hailed as one of the finest works of late-Soviet cinema. Though her name is now unjustly obscure, Larisa Shepitko was one of the boldest, most renowned filmmakers of the Soviet era. Faith in goodness and the need for our work, and it is this faith that was absolutely a material substance, which can be very real to rely on. Larisa Shepitko’s black-and-white feature film Voskhozhdeniye (The Ascent, 1977) is based on the 1970 novella Sotnikov by the Belarussian writer Vasil Bykov. The main accusation was that Shepitko allegedly made a religious parable with a mystical tone from the partisan story; this was considered an insurrection in the atheistic Soviet cinema. Ben Wheatley is the director of Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England. This film was internationally a sensation when it was released, winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Festival 1977. The Ascent (Russian: Восхождение, tr. Larisa Shepitko was glamorous and gifted, and in her heyday she had the movie world at her feet. She expresses this by contrasting her character's r… Býkaŭ valued Larisa Shepitko very highly and once admitted that had he met her before, he would have written Sotnikov differently. Larisa Shepitko's fourth and final film, 1977's The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye), is a bleak trek across the frozen Byelorussian landscape during WWII.Set in the small Eastern European country just north of the Ukraine, it details the ravages its people suffered under the German invasion and their perseverance in the face of crisis and tragedy. Tarkovsky’s favorite actor, Anatoli Solonitsyn, plays the cynical torturer whose job it is to break their will. Long before The Ascent, Shepitko became ill with hepatitis on the set of the movie Heat. She has so internalized the military ideas of service and obedience that she cannot adjust to life during peacetime. There are better films than "The Ascent", but hardly any others which hit their chosen marks as concisely as Shepitko's masterpiece. The award-winning young director of this unusual wartime drama died shortly after beginning work on her next film. The Ascent . [5] Together with this, the filming process was planned in such a way that the actors started with the easiest acting in the psychological sense, and scenes which allowed them to gradually sink into their characters. [11] Gostyukhin recalled that he transformed into Rybak to such a degree that even the made-up bruise only fell from his face after three weeks. The release on DVD of these two films from Larisa Shepitko allows us a chance-finally-to see two masterpieces from a director who, sadly since her death in 1979, has been all but forgotten. It was while working that set that he was noticed by Larisa Shepitko's assistants. Nearly four and a half decades since its release, Larisa Shepitko’s 1977 film The Ascent remains a crowning achievement like no other.Shepitko additionally helmed the films Wings (1966), Beginnings of an Unknown Era (1967), In the 13th Hour of the Night (1969), and You and Me (1971), but the Soviet director’s career was tragically cut short in a fatal car accident in 1979. Nearly four and a half decades since its release, Larisa Shepitko’s 1977 film The Ascent remains a crowning achievement like no other.Shepitko additionally helmed the films Wings (1966), Beginnings of an Unknown Era (1967), In the 13th Hour of the Night (1969), and You and Me (1971), but the Soviet director’s career was tragically cut short in a fatal car accident in 1979. [14], In order to achieve the desired performance from the actors, Shepitko sometimes talked for a long time with them out in the cold. I can say that the film matured us too. directed by Larisa Shepitko Feature film. Shepitko's use of religious symbolism and iconography is, in my view, as interesting and powerful as her contemporary Tarkovsky. The founder of the website Screen Slate picks a selection of favorites, including an ’80s indie gem, shockers ranging from Eraserhead to Canoa, and two films that capture the “twilit feeling of childhood.”. The same fate befell Nikolai Gubenko. At the end of the film, Masherov - contrary to tradition (usually at such premieres opinions were heard first from the lower ranks and then from the highest) - came on stage and spoke for about forty minutes. 296 notes. The Ascent, director Larisa Shepitko’s final film and said to be one of the finest war films ever made, is a bleak and harrowing masterpiece of genuine gut-wrenching power.It is a story of survival, sacrifice and betrayal that captures the fragility, ugliness and greatness of man. Larisa Shepitko's fourth and final film, 1977's The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye), is a bleak trek across the frozen Byelorussian landscape during WWII.Set in the small Eastern European country just north of the Ukraine, it details the ravages its people suffered under the German invasion and their perseverance in the face of crisis and tragedy. Every day she was haunted by the possibility of death; reading the novel Sotnikov by Vasil Býkaŭ during this period helped Shepitko express this state on the silver screen. The policeman tells him that their commander wants him and leaves him alone in the courtyard. Voskhozhdeniye, literally - The Ascension) is a 1977 black-and-white Soviet drama film directed by Larisa Shepitko and made at Mosfilm. The Ascent, a 1977 Soviet film set in World War II; Kodiyettam (Ascent), 1977 Indian film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan "The Ascent" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), a 1996 episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"Ascent" (American Crime Story), an episode of the second season of American Crime Story"Ascent" (), an episode of The Dead Zone [6][6] Only a long conversation with the director allowed him to understand her vision of Portnov: the personification of the negative side in the eternal history of man's struggle with the animal inside himself in the name of the supreme value – namely, the value of the spirit. Sometimes Gostyukhin had to carry the director from the car to the hotel room by himself: Shepitko was sometimes not very well and occasionally her strength weakened. When they fall into the hands of German forces and come face-to-face with death, each must choose between martyrdom and betrayal, in a spiritual ordeal that lifts the film’s earthy drama to the plane of religious allegory. For example, in one long scene, the partisans are running away with difficulty through the thick snow from their pursuers. Amazon's Choice recommends highly rated and well-priced products. Set in Nazi-occupied Belarus during World War II, The Ascent follows two Soviet partisans who brave harsh winter landscapes in search of food to sustain their fellow escapees. When Sotnikov refuses to answer Portnov's questions, he is brutally tortured by members of the collaborationist police, but gives up no information. It was impossible to be one person on the set and to be another one in real life. [8] Shepitko retorted that she was not religious and that a story about betrayal was antediluvian. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for The Ascent (1976) - Larisa Shepitko on AllMovie - The award-winning young director of this unusual… The Ascent (Russian: Восхождение, tr. The Ascent 1977 ★★★ Larisa Shepitko’s “The Ascent,” intentionally or not, is an anti-Hollywood movie, much as say Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” is just that. The headman, now suspected of supporting the partisans, and Basya Meyer, the teen daughter of a Jewish shoemaker, are imprisoned in the same cellar for the night. [2] It was also selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 50th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[3]. Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent is one of the most tactile of films. It is cited as being from a "New 4K digital restoration". [14] This approach was endorsed by Larisa Shepitko, according to whom the actors had to "feel the winter all the way down to their very cells" for a more reliable way of entering the character. [6] Twenty or thirty minutes after Masherov had started watching, he found he could not tear himself away from the screen, and by the middle of the movie he was crying, without hiding away from the republic's leaders who were present in the hall. The award-winning young director of this unusual wartime drama died shortly after beginning work on her next film. Larisa Shepitko’s “The Ascent”: An Archaic Iconography. The next morning, all are led out to be hanged. [16], German poster - (left to right) Rybak, the village headman, Sotnikov, Basya, Demchikha, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, sfn error: no target: CITEREFКлимов1987 (, List of submissions to the 50th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, List of Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Ascent_(film)&oldid=995957339, Articles containing Russian-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 December 2020, at 19:46. the director came over to him to warm him up and to thank him. Two soldiers (Boris Plotnikov and Vladimir Gostyukhin, both excellent) search for food, while dodging enemy fire in the snowy forests. Rybak accepts Portnov's offer and the Germans let him join the police. We spread the word about Larisa Shepitko, one of the true visionaries of Soviet cinema, when we released two of her incredible films in 2008, but she remains an under-the-radar figure for most movie lovers. Plotnikov had immediately attracted the director with his constitution, smile, look and plasticity while Gostyukhin's appearance did not coincide with how Shepitko saw Rybak: the young actor came to his audition with "frivolous" bangs which were uncharacteristic for a partisan. This should be a very good actor. Features The Ascent is a 1977 Soviet film made by Ukrainian director Larisa Shepitko. It was Shepitko's last film before her death in a car accident in 1979. "[6], Shepitko's husband Elem Klimov suggested the film's title. Set during World War II’s darkest days, Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent follows the path of two peasant soldiers, cut off from their troop, who trudge through the snowy backwoods of … The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age forty, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The authors "returned" the belt to Rybak but he was deprived of the ability to hang himself; implying that even death refuses a traitor. The director of Martin Eden chooses a selection of films dear to his heart, including classics that made a deep impression on him in childhood. by . Larisa Shepitko’s film, an extraordinary depiction of the horrors of war, set in German-occupied Belorussia, begins as a fight for survival. Her ability to enthrall her colleagues had already manifested before: Yuri Vizbor (lead actor in the movie You and I) said: "We worked for Larisa, specifically, personally for her. The production designer Yuriy Raksha later spoke about the situation as follows: We started to work and began our unique existence along with the characters. [10], From the moment she read the story Sotnikov, it took Larisa Shepitko four years to prepare and to obtain permits from the authorities to begin shooting the picture. Tout sur Wings/the ascent 2008/st gb/b&w - DVD Zone 1 - Larisa Shepitko, DVD Zone 1 et toute l'actualité en Dvd et Blu-ray. She died in a car crash while scouting locations for what was to be her next film, Farewell to Matyora. Ignoring advice to go to Moscow, she went on to shoot the picture from a stretcher on which she was brought from the infectious barracks. By 1979, when she was tragically killed…, and two films that capture the “twilit feeling of childhood.”, New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray, New selected-scene commentary featuring film scholar Daniel Bird, New video introduction by Anton Klimov, son of director Larisa Shepitko and filmmaker Elem Klimov, New interview with actor Lyudmila Polyakova, Two documentaries from 2012 about Shepitko’s life, work, and relationship with Klimov, Program from 1999 featuring an interview with Shepitko. By the latter's suggestion it was done to collect their attention and will and also to give texture and credibility to their characters. However, they are discovered and captured. [14], For the role of Rybak the director screened 20 candidates. His words were not recorded by anyone but Elem Klimov testified that his excited speech was one of the best he ever heard addressed to his wife. Technical and organizational difficulties led to the necessity of calling an ambulance for the director's health. As the reviewer above notes, the Ascent deserves to be remembered among the very best films to come out of Russia. [6][6], When adapting the script from Sotnikov the main concern of the director was not to lose the deeper philosophical content of the story. Publications. On working with Shepitko, Plotnikov spoke of "a meeting with a living genius." Klepikov, by his own admission, "could not withstand the energy of the typhoon whose name was Larisa," and started the task of revising the literary foundation which he later described as "a piping philosophical parable which combined the high spirit of man with his obvious desire to keep the body as a receptacle of the spirit. I could not find any other material with which I could transmit my views on life, on the meaning of life. The Belarusian writer and veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Ales Adamovich, who was present at the screening, described Masherov as someone who questioned, "Where did this girl come from, who of course experienced nothing of the sort, but knows all about it, how could she express it like this? By that time Shepitko had already gained a reputation of an inconvenient director. In the darkest days of World War II, two partisans set out for supplies to sustain their beleaguered outfit, braving the blizzard-swept landscape of Nazi-occupied Belarus. The Ascent (bahasa Rusia: Восхождение, tr. Her bright career as a director only lasted a single decade, ended abruptly by a tragic car accident. There is a new 17-minute video introduction by journalist Anton Klimov, son of director Larisa Shepitko and filmmaker Elem Klimov recorded for the Criterion Collection in September 2020, Klimov talks about the singular vision of his mother, director Larisa Shepitko, for The Ascent, and the devotion to her work of his father, filmmaker Elem Klimov. Shepitko belonged to a gifted generation of Russian filmmakers like Andrej Tarkovsky, Elem Klimov and Kira Muratova. The release on DVD of these two films from Larisa Shepitko allows us a chance-finally-to see two masterpieces from a director who, sadly since her death in 1979, has been all but forgotten. The digital image and sound restoration was by Mosfilm Cinema Concern in 2018. With stark, visceral cinematography that pits blinding white snow against pitch-black despair, The Ascent finds poetry and transcendence in the harrowing trials of war. Production took place under an atmosphere of severe stress. Her bright career as a director only lasted a single decade, ended abruptly by a tragic car accident. Long before, in 1963, a tradition was established between the future spouses that for a good idea they would receive ten roubles. The Ascent (15*) + Introduction by writer Vlad Strukov ... Larisa Shepitko’s film, an extraordinary depiction of the horrors of war, set in German-occupied Belorussia, begins as a fight for survival. Having graduated from the Moscow Film School in 1963, Shepitko had produced three features and a segment for an omnibus feature by the time she gave birth, at the age of 35. If I had not shot this picture it would have been a catastrophe for me. Larisa Shepitko was glamorous and gifted, and in her heyday she had the movie world at her feet. During the war, the senior official was himself a partisan and moreover in 1942 the German occupiers hanged his mother for collaborating with the partisans. In the darkest days of World War II, two partisans set out for supplies to sustain their beleaguered outfit, braving the blizzard-swept landscape of Nazi-occupied Belarus. The two men and a sobbing Demchikha are taken to the German headquarters. [11] With this dedication the shooting took place without interruption and was completed one month ahead of schedule. Eclipse Series 11: Larisa Shepitko (Wings / The Ascent) (The Criterion Collection) Maya Bulgakova (Actor), Boris Plotnikov (Actor), Larisa Shepitko (Director) & Rated: Unrated. ", In the harsh conditions in which the shoot took place, this factor was very important: extras and crew members were frostbitten, but no one complained. The film won the Golden Bear award at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival in 1977. According to Yuri Klepikov even "the fruitful spontaneity was due to the very environment of the shoot," which was ensured by the carefully crafted script. [15] Moreover, Shepitko did not recuperate enough, and the consequences of the disease adversely affected her well-being in the future, in particular on the set of The Ascent. The embodiment of resistance is not the impetuous and combative hero. While the literary work by Býkaŭ was full of sensual details like "icy cold", "famine", "danger", Shepitko strongly discouraged attempts to be satisfied with external action and demanded an "internal justification" of each movement, gesture and glance of the heroes. She had faith and that was the reason. November 18 [2020] December 23 [2020] [Futuristika!] We had a lot of fun producing this episode, and we hope you guys dug it. But Shepitko still rose two to three hours before the crew to have time to prepare, after which she worked to the maximum limit of her strength throughout the day. The Ascent is a tremendously significant film in the life of its director, who never had a chance to become tremendously significant herself. [6] She waited for the necessary expression of emotion, for the right facial expression and gestures and then suddenly would give the order to start filming. Why has everyone forgotten her, asks Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. [6][7] Shepitko practised the "engineer's" approach: she did not tolerate uncertainty or haziness in work and did not rely on director's improvisation or creative inspiration. Even so, Shepitko initially had doubts about the candidate, who even with his actor's training, was still only a stage laborer. Because of this, she rejected Andrey Myagkov, who wanted to act in the picture. Shepitko urged him to start work immediately and a single telephone conversation with her convinced him to drop everything he was doing. Introduction. Shepitko's habit of clearly stating her thoughts contributed to a successful transmission of information; she always avoided abstruse terms that might mask the lack of clarity. Despite her short career, she however managed to create some of the best Soviet films of her time. Firsova was an administrator of an association of military-patriotic films. For example, Boris Plotnikov was dressed very lightly and quickly grew numb from the cold and the piercing winds in the open field; but after the command "Stop! Realizing what he has done, he tries to hang himself in the outhouse with his belt, but fails. The following long close-up of majestic nature signified the freedom which Rybak desperately desires and was intended to emphasize the utmost despair "of a person who lost himself. Before The Ascent, the director Larisa Shepitko shot the film You and I. Directed by Larisa Shepitko • 1977 • Soviet Union Shepitko's emotionally overwhelming final film won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and has been hailed around the world as the finest Soviet film of its decade. As the reviewer above notes, the Ascent deserves to be remembered among the very best films to … ... Start watching with your public library card or university login. Why has everyone forgotten her, asks Larushka Ivan-Zadeh. Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) has to take him to the nearest shelter, the home of Demchikha (Lyudmila Polyakova), the mother of three young children. The Ascent (1977) Larisa Shepitko is a name very few are familiar with. But he felt that the character would turn out to be little but a caricature, as in cheap popular literature. The still somewhat wet film was brought to Minsk directly from the lab, and Larisa Shepitko herself sat at the mixing console . All motion pictures are personal but the desire to film The Ascent was almost a physical need. *WARNING: THIS PIECE CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR THE ASCENT* Ukrainian-born Soviet director Larisa Shepitko’s fifth and final film, The Ascent, is a war narrative unlike any other.Shepitko was not interested in battle sequences and displays of gallantry – which, in other films, often serve to glorify war and bypass its true costs – but rather in the extreme physical and … Theoretically, the film could portray the absence of the belt, but then - according to the writers - the scene would be limited to the designation of the circumstances: informative but unimpressive denial in terms of the artistic sense. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), two Soviet partisans go to a Belarusian village in search of food. Her husband, Elem Klimov, finished the film for her in 1984 under the abbreviated title Farewell. Though her name is now unjustly obscure, Larisa Shepitko was one of the boldest, most renowned filmmakers of the Soviet era. The release of the film was not any easier; the censors deleted critical scenes and Shepitko had to fight for every single one of them. Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna. [7] Gostyukhin, who had worked for six years in the Soviet Army theater as a furniture and prop maker, had once replaced a sick actor in the play Unknown Soldier. — The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977) 1.5M ratings 277k ratings See, that’s what the app is perfect for.