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. 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. 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. 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.
SPECIAL FEATURES
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
The Homeland of Electricity, a 1967 short film by Shepitko
Larisa, a 1980 short film tribute to his late wife by Klimov
Two documentaries from 2012 about Shepitko’s life, work, and relationship with Klimov
Program from 1999 featuring an interview with Shepitko
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by poet Fanny Howe
domino harvey wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 6:02 pm
Not counting the Bergmans and the silent bonus Ozu film, is this the first Eclipse title to be upgraded to the mainline as a solo release?
Yes, though I am still surprised they didn’t just make it a complete filmography set.
domino harvey wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 6:02 pm
Not counting the Bergmans and the silent bonus Ozu film, is this the first Eclipse title to be upgraded to the mainline as a solo release?
Program from 1999 featuring an interview with Shepitko... she died in 1979 unless the program was produced in 1999 featuring an archival interview with Shepitko.
Caught this movie on the channel a few months ago just randomly hopping around. It's fantastic. Shepitko was was a real discovery for me. Might buy it, but it's not the kind of movie I'd want to watch a lot.
As for upgraded eclipse stuff, I'd love to see some Robert Downey Sr. But I'm not sure about the rights situation. Vinegar Syndrome put out Putney Swope recently, I know.
Love this film and will gladly upgrade, but how strange that the first Eclipse title to get a spine number is from a two film set, I wonder if Wings will get the same treatment at some point. Though this film never ever had the popularity of The Ascent (I'm still surprised at how popular it is, when the Eclipse was announced I was sure these were very obscure titles, since I had never heard of them before, yet it's very popular and highly rated on places like LetterBoxd).
It would have been a perfect opportunity to add Wings as a supplemental film, and just leave the Eclipse set as the DVD version of the release. Glad to see the short film added though.
not to derail so much but it always bothered me that End of Summer got relegated to an eclipse set. That being said The Ascent along with quite a number of films that were put into eclipse sets were much deserving of mainline releases from the start so this is a nice start to what will hopefully be a semi-regular upgrade pattern.
black&huge wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:52 am
not to derail so much but it always bothered me that End of Summer got relegated to an eclipse set. That being said The Ascent along with quite a number of films that were put into eclipse sets were much deserving of mainline releases from the start so this is a nice start to what will hopefully be a semi-regular upgrade pattern.
There was a lovely 4k restoration of Ozu's TOKYO TWILIGHT within the last year or so, hopefully it'll continue the Eclipse Upgrade tradition.
Not to steer this in a different direction, but I could really see Criterion releasing an Ozu box as more and more of his films get restored.
As for The Ascent no reason keeping this in Eclipse land with Mosfilm performing a 4K restoration. I'm sure that will happen with Wings. What will be curious is will Criterion put an Eclipse set OOP if all the films have been upgraded
I liked this much more than Come and See, which I didn't like at all. The Ascent has a spiritual and biblical feel weaving it's way through the narrative which hooked me. I'm a sucker for religious symbolism in film. The imagery of the film also had that quality, like Sotnikov representing a Jesus Christ figure and Shepitko's representation of slow march to the gallows mimics the Roman procession to the crucifixion. I'm sure there are other connections that I will discover on re-watches. Perhaps this can be a candidate for Mr. Sausages' Criterion Film Club. Would love to read what folks think of this one. Step up to the plate Therewillbeblus
