My mom holds a great classic film director upside down - guess who?

Werner Herzog should narrate every documentary that has been made or will be made. I love his voice. He’s one of my very favorite film personalities.

 

Great idea.

 

Great thread, Antonkk!

 

Thanks for posting, antonkk! I just ordered the DVD of Wings and The Ascent. I plan to watch the latter with a good friend of mine who lived in Belarus until she was 12. I'm looking forward to seeing your mother's work.

 

Thanks for sharing these, very cool

 

Mine is on the way, too!

 

I saw "Come and See" many years ago, it made real strong impression on me. There were several things about it that I found memorable.

Years ago, at the bar in the Delano Hotel in Miami Beach, I was with a group that included a very pretty (and no-nonsense) Russian girl who said she was a model. There came a moment where it was just the two of us and we were talking about Russia and the US. She said no one she'd met in the US really knew anything about Russia. I asked her if she'd seen "Come and See."

That brought her to life and we talked about it a bit but then she veered off into Russian stuff that I didn't know anything about -- and that was that.

 

Amazing memories Anton! So did you carry on the family tradition and work in films too?

 

Nope. There is a saying here which goes something like "Nature rests on the children of geniuses" and I'm fully aware of it. I became a musical journalist, a rock critic and then made a career in russian show biz as a publicist for several top acts.

 

I'm sure you will like The Ascent - just as powerful and tragic as Come and See, albeit in an entirely different way. If Come and See is a story of a total genocide, a Hell on Earth shown through the eyes of the teenage boy, The Ascent is a tale of Jesus and Judas told as a story of 2 Belarus partisans captured by the nazis. The acting of Plotnikov, Gostukhin and Tarkovsky's favorite Solonitsyn is out of this world as is the soundtrack of Alfred Schnittke, arguably his finest music.

 

There's so much Russian cinema that we never get to see here in the West. I hope that'll change one day.

 

Your Mom was a cool lady (I hope that's appropriate).

 

Thanx and that's true. But also a great loving mum. I was just 6 when she died but I have the warmest most wonderful memories of her (including many cool moments like her teaching me to sing Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel)

 

Anton, thank you for sharing your memories and insights about the film and your mother.
It adds another level of enjoyment to the film experience.
Cheers to you, your mom, and your dad.

 

P.S. Anton. Do I owe you 10 rubles for your good idea/s?

 

Anton, I’m so sorry you lost your mom at such a young age. That is truly heartbreaking.

 

Looking forward to the "My Second Cousin Beat Kurosawa at Ping Pong" thread.

 

This is nice; thanks for sharing the pictures with us, Anton. She must have been fascinated with your having so many people around the world to virtual conversations with.

One of the more significant things I learned about Russian Cinema in college, was how little we knew about Russian Cinema. Such a wonderful medium to have, to help us understand each other, and we let language and the predjudice of politics keep us from a first-hand look at a culture that is truly on the other side of our world.

Reminds me how much I appreciate having this board and getting a glimpse of everything you people share with one another.

(...except you "mac" people, of course, that's just sick...what's next, cats laying down with dogs...? )

 

You DO know that was the inspiration for Ran, right?

 

One of the great things about XXI century is that you don't have borders anymore when it comes to culture - if I want to check out some film it will end up on my harddrive 1o minutes later. I don't advocate illegal downloads (and if I like it I will make sure to buy it on legal DVD/Blu Ray) but you know what I mean. You can explore very different cultures easily these days.

Btw there was a funny story which happened on Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czech Republic a couple of years ago - I was there to introduce my mother's retrospective program and the first day at the reception an iranian female film director and then an entire iranian delegation comes up to me and says how proud they are in Iran of Larisa Shepitko's iranian heritage. When my eyebrows hit the sealing she showed me an official festival mag that claimed that my mother was a film director of ukrainian-iranian heritage. The next day all the reporters who interviewed me asked me about my mother , a great iranian film director. Had to explain to them that this was and old student joke which started on the VGIK (Moscow film institute) campus around 1958 or something when some of the boys wondered that this new chic is way too hot to be just ukrainian, must be some exotic blood in her, maybe persian). Anyway, I went to see some of iranian movies on the fest and was blown away. I was aware that iranian cinema was a festival favorite in Europe for the last 20 years but had the same prejudices as you guys in the West have against Iran. It's incredible to understand that there are many film centers in the world apart from Hollywood, France, Italy, etc.

 

Nope but we can always share a drink if we'll ever in Moscow (I once had wonderful time meeting a SH forum member JeffMCarney in LA a few years ago)

 

Thanks for the open invite. I hope I can one day take you up on it.

 

I watched The Ascent last night after having bought it several months ago (because of this thread), waiting to be in the right mood. It's pretty devastating, and the last 15 minutes or so I felt this terrible sense of dread. When they walk up the hill toward the end, I experienced the kind of sinking sensation you get when you realize something horrible is happening that's out of your control, and which you can only bear witness to. In the way that Paths of Glory infuriates you, this film makes you feel the absolute insanity of war like a punch in the chest.

The dreams I had last night as a result of this movie were unsettling, to say the least.

 

You're not the only to feel shocked after The Ascent. Wait till you watch my father's Come and See. In many ways even more shocking.

 

Thanks for sharing. I have ordered these two films from my library.
Oh, and I have reserved your father's Come and See as well.