The Ascent (1977) (Criterion Collection) UK Only [Blu-ray] [2020]

"The Ascent" is one of the few films, along with perhaps Lean's 1948 version of "Oliver Twist" and Bergman's "Persona" which could be described as "perfect". By that I mean that it is a film where there is hardly one wasted shot, where every line of dialogue, gesture, piece of music and mise-en-scene is used with maximum impact. There are better films than "The Ascent", but hardly any others which hit their chosen marks as concisely as Shepitko's masterpiece."The Ascent" is also the bleakest of all films, with a final scene of personal suffering that surpasses the grimness of the finales of "Lola Montes" and "Strozsek" combined, and one that seems to reach out to the emptiness and vulnerability in all human beings. It also has, in Anatoly Solinitsyn's performance as the quisling interogator, perhaps the nearest cinema has ever got to portraying sheer evil in human form. It is a magnificent, tortured performance, to me one of the greatest in the history of cinema. (There was good reason that Solinitsyn was Tarkovsky's favourite actor.)"The Ascent" will probably be forever known as a very "Russian" film, which means it is grim. It is also the greatest film ever made by a female director, as if that distinction matters. But it is better than that. It is a film that asks questions about the human soul while retaining its own soul, and all the time dissecting us with scalpel-like ruthlessness and precision.

Larisa Shepitko's film remains one of the most haunting cinematic poems produced in the USSR. Her work has influenced directors like Spielberg...and for good reason. This is a transcendent, magical work by an artistic soul who made film vocabulary flow in her very personal way. What a tragedy that she was killed so early in life. She embodied her mentor, the great Aleksandr Dovzhenko's motto: "You have to approach each film as if it were your last."

I first saw 'The Ascent' on TV in Australia as an impressionable 15 year old. This film has haunted me ever since. Its stark black and white cinematography brings to mind a mix of Andrei Roublev (Ivan's childhood) and Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew, but it has a more personal quality. I don't want to give the ending away but simply stated it is emotionally devastating. Unfortunately the director was killed in a motor vehicle accident, although her husband has continued the tradition.

Clearly the main inspiration for Come and See on so many different levels. This film is heartbreaking and yet strangely uplifting. It brings the true horror of the war on the eastern front to life in all too terrible detail. Salvation and damnation are only a heartbeat away for the characters.