IMDb plot summary: Two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.
Directed by Larisa Shepitko. Starring Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, and Sergey Yakovlev.
The Ascent follows two Soviet partisans during World War II who find themselves captured by the Germans in Belarus and are tortured to give up information about the rest of their party. The most interesting thing about this film for me was how great it was at evoking the absolute torturous conditions of a Soviet winter. Once the characters started spending more time indoors, it lost a little bit of its hold on me, and by the end I could kind of distantly admire it, but I wasn't feeling much about it anymore. I do appreciate films as late as the 1970s going with a black-and-white aesthetic -- it definitely gives it a distinct flavor, and I think in a film that is so much about the starkness of the snow, it was a striking choice. I wonder a little bit if I would appreciate it more on a rewatch, now that I know what kind of style to look for, but as it stands now, it didn't stand out for me very much, especially in the latter half.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Ascent < Sarah, Plain and Tall
The Ascent > Avengers: Endgame
The Ascent < Wild Zero
The Ascent > Cellular
The Ascent > The Cruise
The Ascent < The Defiant Ones
The Ascent < The Kid Who Would Be King
The Ascent > Mud
The Ascent < A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The Ascent < Hal King
The Ascent < Wes Craven's New Nightmare
The Ascent > The Lost Daughter
Final spot: #2540 out of 3897, or 35%.
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