Unspeakable Histories by Guynn William;

Author:Guynn, William;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

A TRANSGRESSIVE PARABLE

If The Ascent eschews the modes of representation typical of the history film, it also dissents from another set of principles—those that regulate Stalinist representations of history. Socialist realist narratives conceive characters as examples of their social categories with the inherent traits that the class struggle assigns them. Heroic protagonists are always exemplary, models whose actions are meant to be replicated by succeeding generations. They are transparent figures in parables that moralize human events. If The Ascent has a parabolic structure, it is not that of socialist realism. It does retain the primary ethical dimension of characters and their rise toward consciousness, but morality and self-awareness are not defined by the Marxist-Leninist “text”: they come from within. There is no father figure who points the son toward his ineluctable destiny. The Ascent does not allow its protagonists to take their place in a positive vision of history. In terms of socialist history, Rybak and Sotnikov are failures. They do not complete their task. Instead, they are thwarted from bringing their comrades the food that would have enabled the partisans to reach their goal and continue the struggle for liberation of the Motherland. Moreover, they join a cohort of victims, submit to their oppressors, and die tragically or survive ignominiously. In other words, they exist in a complex world of experience that eschews the easy rhetoric of the fable.

The film’s narrative hinges on parallel but opposite trajectories for its central protagonists. Sotnikov is sickly and unsuited to heroic action but proves himself capable of great internal strength; Rybak is physically strong and impatient with others’ infirmities, but under the menace of death gives in to moral cowardice. We see this, for example, in the parallel sequences in which Sotnikov and then Rybak are subjected to interrogation by the sadistic collaborator Portnov. As Shepitko’s framing of the action reveals, Sotnikov rejects the submissive position. The inquisition begins with a shot of Sotnikov’s back that blocks our view of Portnov, who is presumably in a position of power. After he has been tortured, Sotnikov opens his eyes, and we see Portnov standing above him looking rattled. A series of reverse-angle close shots establishes Sotnikov’s unflinching resolve (his staring eyes) and Portnov’s inability to sustain his gaze. In the parallel sequence, Rybak’s interrogation is staged very differently. The relationship of power between interrogator and victim is the reverse. We see Rybak enter Portnov’s office in a wider shot; he is smaller in the frame, and we see in the same shot the scrubwoman cleaning up the last traces of Sotnikov’s torture. Portnov, in total control, simply asks Rybak the existential question, “Do you want to live?” and Rybak begins giving up information. In the following sequence Sotnikov asks Rybak, “Did you stand up to it?” and Rybak replies that one has to know how to “play the Germans.”

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