326. Letyat zhuravli (The Cranes Are Flying) (1957)

Directed By Mikhail Kalatozov

Synopsis

A girl (Veronica) and a boy (Boris) are separated when the USSR joins the second world war, he joins the army, she stays behind without being able to say goodbye. She is eventually kind of forced to marry Boris' cousin (did he rape her? did she actually betray Boris?) but never forgets Boris. She eventually finds out he died.

Review

If you've been following this list it seems like Russian cinema stopped after Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein. So it is all the more surprising that suddenly you get a film that is so technically and emotionally ravishing as this one, it seems like it came out of nowhere.

If you are a fan of the French Nouvelle Vague this is a film to watch, as an amazing precursor. I am not sure what cameras they are using here but they are amazingly fluid, the film consists of scene after scene after scene of amazing beauty and technical achievement.

Still, if that was all this would not be the film it is. The acting is superb, Tatyana Samojlova is a beautiful and extremely natural actress and that just makes her emotional turmoil all the more poignant. A truly unmissable film.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was the second of two Soviet films to win the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film is online, watch it! Part 1: