Jevon Dasilva
This is one of the most breathtaking films of all time. Beautifully written, directed and acted. The cinematography is of legend. I cannot think of a more heartbreaking and real view of youth and war. No matter which country you call home, there is no denying the story that this brilliant Russian director conveys on this film.Without getting into the plot or the story, just know that this tale is one for the ages. You will not be disappointed by this film. No matter how many times I watch it, I am always captivated how they made a war movie from the perspective of the characters in the film, and how they managed to convey the complexities of love, life, family, loyalty as well as the harshness of war and how destitute and desperate it leaves not only the characters, but humanity as a whole.
lasttimeisaw
Mikhail Kalatozov's Palme d'Or winner of 1958 is a riveting anti-war paean composed with a spate of filmmaking virtuosity, especially DP Sergey Urusevskiy's groundbreaking use of hand-held cameras, massively ahead of its time.Veronica (Samoylova) and Boris (Batalov) are two young lovers, envision their beautiful wedding and they are immensely happy together - one stunning scene which shows superior camera mobility is when Boris running upstairs through the spiral stairs with the camera swiftly recording his movements, to stress the euphoria of a man who is truly in love. Two paralleled sequences where they sneak back to their respective bedrooms also signify the affections are mutual. Then Soviet Unions declare war in WWII, a patriotic Boris volunteers to join the army with his friend Stepan (Zubkov), he leaves a toy squirrel as a gift for Veronica's upcoming birthday as squirrel is his term of endearment to her, he conceals a note for her inside the squirrel's basket too, but Veronica is delayed en route to his send-off party, and woefully they miss the chance to see each other for the last time, till death do them apart, Boris' wedding imagination before his death is heavenly heart-rending.War also takes its toll on ordinary people, Veronica's parents died in an air raid, and their house has been destroyed, without any information from Boris, she is helped by Fyodor (Merkurev), Boris' father and the chief surgeon in a local hospital, and lives with his family, where Mark (Shvorin), Boris' cousin, a handsome musician who gets an exemption from recruitment, and has always coveted Veronica, forces himself on her during a nerve-racking air raid. Soon Veronica capitulates and marries Mark. Plagued by her guilty of betrayal and Mark's exposure of his unscrupulous nature, Veronica is under severe distress and attempts to end her life (another mesmerising sequences where Veronica running hastily to the railway station, are montages of a succession of quick-edited shots-in-motion, fervently emotive and transfixing to behold), but instead, she saves a 3-year-old boy also named Boris, which gives her strength to hold on. When bad news finally arrives, Veronica becomes brave enough to face it and holds a tiny chance that a miracle can happen, until the war ends, she meets Stepan, she accepts the fact and has no more illusions, her life must continue, as the flying cranes in the sky.From every respect, THE CRANES ARE FLYING is bordering on perfection, Kalatozov's poetic aesthetics and his effective principle of keeping up an intimate observation on the subjects in the frame, Urusevskiy's erratic shooting angles, the impressionistic chiaroscuro are all textbook exemplars. And the comely Tatyana Samoylova, who shoulders on a gallant and insightful performance as our pertinacious heroine, depicts a transcendent maturation from a carefree girl to a gutsy woman under the ablution of war, an iconic endeavour indeed. When all is said and done, the film is another weighty testament of how advanced and innovative Soviet Union was in the world cinema production, a trailblazer emphatically!
Kirpianuscus
more than a movie, it is a special experience. more than part of a period, it is a form of revelation. for extraordinaries images. for splendid shots. for the simple story. for drama. for the delicacy for present a profound tragedy. for the acting. to see The Cranes are flying is an event. for soul. and for the mind. a travel in time. and rediscover the basic values who defines each life. it is difficult to define it . because it is not only beautiful or seductive, touching or impressive. it is a honest testimony, a kind of window in the Soviet regime's gray reality. a film about love and about war. about innocence. and about survey. about the existence as drawing used the basic colors. see it ! for discover a new frame for your life. and new meanings for every day fights.
Hitchcoc
This film really grew on me. It tells the story of a young man who goes off to war, filled with desire to become a hero and defend mother Russia. He leaves behind a young woman who adores him but is never able to tell him. What happens here is what happens so often. She gives up hope of ever seeing him and ends up married to a man who has had designs on her and whom she actually hates.. What's worse, he rapes her in a building that is being bombed by German aircraft. The "glory" of war is shown for what it is: the human tendency to kill its children while the decision makers sit an pontificate. This is so poignant, so human, and it gives us no winners. By the way, the camera is the star of this movie. The battle scenes take us plodding through the mud, facing death at every turn. It carries us through the masses as they see their heroes off to battle. It shows us graphically the obstructions thrown up by war as they diminish the human condition.
