The Cranes are Flying (1957)

Criterion Collection

A film that marked a radical lightness for Soviet cinema; the romantic, lyrical story of a beautiful young girl (Tatiana Samoilova) caught up in the horrors of war. After her fiance (Alexei Batalov) goes off to war, she is raped by his cousin and, fearing that she is ruined for any other man, she marries the man who raped her.  She is evacuated to Siberia, and refuses to believe the news of her true love's death. Mikhail Kolotozov won the Golden Palm at Cannes International Film Festival with Tatiana Samoilova winning Special Mention.

Review ( by Gary W. Tooze) The Russian Cinema Council have meticulously produced a series of Russian classic films. "The Cranes are Flying" is yet another in their ever growing list.

The Cranes Are Flying essentially tells the story of Veronica (Tatiana Samoilova), who is parted from new lover Boris (Alexei Batalov)  in Moscow when he joins the army to fight the invading Germans in 1941. Because of his absence and lack of communication, coupled with the death of her parents in an air-raid and the aggressive seduction by Boris's cousin, draft dodging Mark, Veronica is left confused and needy. After much heartache and disappointment she still clings to the hopeless idea that Boris has survived his stint in the front lines and will return to her. We, the audience, are also left unsure and her belief leaves us as stalwart as she.

Winning the 1958 Palme D’or The Cranes Are Flying is a modernist film by Mikheil Kalatozishvili who came out of the great Soviet silent film era of the 1920s, a disciple of Dziga Vertov ( The Man With a Movie Camera, Three Songs of Lenin etc. ). In this film he shows brilliant and innovative techniques using unique camera angles, dream sequences and inventive fluid montages. He never overdoes each technique allowing the viewer to become complacent. This film is years ahead of it’s time with hand-held shots interspersed with high obtuse angles from above and a pace that keeps you on edge with a suspenseful feel of the catastrophes of war looming on the horizon.

The storyline is not new at all… star crossed lovers and their tragic relationship that can never evolve  to the next passionate level because of absence due to the onset of war. Nothing is exaggerated, cloying or melodramatic in the film and overall it reminded me very much of the birth of French New Wave cinema. The overall examination can only determine it to be a masterpiece regardless of its age, country of origin or any other mitigating factors. For film buffs this is a must own DVD…