MovieChat Forums > Voskhozhdenie (1977) Discussion > Very well-made but depressing as hell

Very well-made but depressing as hell

posted 14 years ago by sfviewer123
5 replies | jump to latest

Very well-made film, both technically and in terms of its characters' moral development. No Soviet propaganda here, there is much moral gray and anguish about what is "right" and how people are forced to make agonizing decisions in real life (as opposed to always dying nobly like in many films). This is not to say that the Germans (or their collaborators) are portrayed sympathetically (neither are they mindlessly demonized), just that the main actors and Russian villagers are seen as neither simply monsters or transcendental heroes.

Also a fair amount of Christian symbolism in the "sacrifice" of one of the characters, which I was surprised to see in a Soviet film. The film is in black and white, which seems a little outdated given the year it was made but lends the whole experience an appropriately somber tone/mood. As an aside I enjoyed the fact that the German characters spoke in perfect German even when their conversations were not part of the main scene (or translated in the subtitles).

A well-made depiction of the psychomoral realities behind some of the "partisan story" in WWII.

[–] Scrite 14 years ago

This is exactly what I thought too after watching the film. I give it a 10/10 but I doubt that I'll ever re-watch it.

When the choice is between a American and a Russian film, always choose the latter.

[–] gainsbarre 14 years ago

I will definately re-watch it!

I had read your comments before I saw the film at the Russian film festival currently showing in my city, so I was expecting to have a miserable or severely depressing time watching it, but I didn't find it depressing at all. I found it absolutely riveting and incredibly intense, but not depressing. There is something about Sotnikov's acceptance of death and Rybak's life tormented by guilt that makes this film such a spiritual journey. It really is a stunning masterpiece. I've watched the films of Fellini, Bergman, Antonioni, Tarkovsky et al, but this was something else, something so focused that it was a cinematic experience the likes of which I've never had before.

[–] Scrite 14 years ago

Actually I think you are right.

When the film had really sunken in. I realized that while I did find it really depressing I really wanted to see it again.

Did you see it on the big screen? That would be like a dream come true. I mean I watched it on a pretty big TV with a surround system but that is not even close to seeing it in a movie theatre.

When the choice is between a American and a Russian film, always choose the latter.

[–] gainsbarre 14 years ago

Yeah I was very lucky to see it on the big screen, as they were having a Russian film festival where I live and part of the festival was a Soviet WW2 retrospective. A couple of days before I got to see Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood which was magnificent, I missed out on The Cranes Are Flying, but the other film they had was The Ascent, and I'm fantastically glad I went and saw it, because after I left the cinema, I felt like I was on another planet. I don't know if its the greatest film ever made or even if it's my favourite film (which is Fellini's Toby Dammit) but it certainly was the film that impacted on me the most, I can't say I've ever sat in a cinema and had the same experience as I did watching that film. For me, it was incredible.

[–] bnwfilmbuff 7 years ago

Quite simply this is an incredible movie. Brilliantly captures the horrors of war and the complexities of relationships between all of the people involved. I loved the way the strong became weak and the weak became strong.