Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Ascent (1977)

Sunday March 23rd 2014, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: The Ascent (Восхождение, Voskhozhdeniye). Directed by Larisa Shepitko, 1977, 109 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Larisa Shepitko was a Female Ukrainian director who went to school and made films in Russia, but died tragically in a car accident after making just a couple films. She was part of a wave of visionary new film directors at the time which included Andrei Tarkovsky, and she was the wife of the director Elem Klimov (Come ans See). This was her last film, and her crowning achievement.

This film takes place in 1942 in the snow covered landscape of the Belarus, as two young Russian soldiers attempt to find food while evading the German occupation. But this is no thriller in the Hollywood sense, and instead centers on what happens when they are caught… […Lees verder]