Letyat zhuravli (Mikheil Kalatozishvili, 1957) aka The Cranes are Flying

The Cranes Are Flying (Mikheil Kalatozishvili, 1957)
Rating: 10

The Cranes Are Flying is an absolute masterpiece. Sergei Urusevsky’s mobile camerawork and photography is mesmerizingly beautiful while the narrative is astonishingly heartwrenching. I found myself in tears within the first 20 minutes, and this wasn't the last time. It's really hard for to describe in words how emotionally moving this film truly was and some of the sequences are etched in my memory, especially the scene at the trainstation as families and lovers see off the young men going to war, which I will be posting below, and the scene where Veronica discovers her home in rubble following an air raid. There are countless other scenes just as masterfully executed. This is only the second film I've seen from director, Mikheil Kalatozishvili and cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky. Soy Cuba is the other and I have regarded it as one of my favorites. After seeing this film, Kalatozishvili perhaps could be my favorite director. I will be attempting to see for of his work in the near future.

I found a review that shared almost the exact sentiments as I did, so I feel I should post it: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=3585

"Ultimately, the first half is rather stronger than the second – most of the really memorable set-pieces (the air-raid rape, Boris’ death, Veronica’s mad dash through a burning building) happen well before the 40-minute mark, and Veronica’s pining for Boris is somewhat overstretched given that we know that he’s not coming back – there’s a somewhat heavy-handed scene in a military hospital where soldiers and surgeons alike (including Boris’ father) break into a chorus of condemnation of a woman who just happens to have committed the same “crimes” (in terms of neglecting her lover) as her, thus intensifying her sense of guilt.
But on this evidence director Mikhail Kalatozov is an unjustly neglected talent – at its best, this is a thrillingly vivid piece of cinema that can more than stand comparison with other outstanding war movies made on either side of the Iron Curtain."





Tiger Beat Crush of the Week: Tatyana Samojlova