The Cranes Are Flying
1957
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
Written by Viktor Rozov
Starring Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov and Aleksandr Shvorin
With Vasili Merkuryev
Following World War II, Russian cinema was kept under strict government guidelines that extended from subject material to production costs. Few films of merit were released during this time, but in 1956 many of the barriers were lifted. Although Cranes is not free of political dogma, most noticeably during the closing minutes, the film is quite a somber tragedy that is able to jettison most of it's socialist preaching to focus on a simple love triangle. Cranes is very similar to films of the French New Wave--a simple tragic story of two lovers torn apart by war with a leering draft-dodger who attempts to disrupt the relationship even further--at times, the only difference between it and some of Truffaut's romantic films is the Russian language. That isn't to detract from the very Russian-ness (ness?) of the story, but considering that Russian cinema in the 60's was very much unlike French films, Cranes seems to belong to another place and time. Although little of the film is very memorable (excepting the kaleidoscopic train sequence), Cranes will remain a historically important piece of film history, simply for it's very introduction to a society that was still recovering from losing 10 percent of it's population due to war.
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