The Cranes Are Flying

According to historians with much more education on the subject than me, Soviet cinema saw a boom during the 1950s the likes of which there hadn't been since the '20s. Filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov was one of the reasons that films made in Soviet-era Russia were seen worldwide. His 1957 feature "The Cranes are Flying" won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and acquired many other awards from other film festivals across the globe. It's also noted for being a film that changed the perception of what heroines and other female characters were allowed to look like after the death of Stalin. Even more, it focused on the impact of war on the common people in ways that much of Soviet cinema hadn't done yet.

Let me be clear; this is a masterpiece and deserves your attention in whatever format you can find it, but know that the new Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection is the best way to view it at home.

The new 2K restoration performed by Mosfilm is nothing short of a triumph, which gives remarkable depth to Sergei Uretusevsky's astonishing cinematography. Add in more than a few special features regarding Kalatozov's career and Soviet cinema to get one of the must-buy home entertainment releases of the year. Criterion has not only outdone itself with upgrading the film from its DVD released in 2002, they have done the work to render it the film even more important with the addition of new features.

Veronica (Tatiana Samoilova) and Boris (Alexei Batalov) are inseparable young lovers blissfully in love until World War II tears them apart. They plan to meet at the bank of a river, only for Boris to be drafted before that can happen. Now, Veronica must fend off the romantic advances of Boris' cousin Mark (Aleksandr Shvorin) in the hopes her lover comes home safely from the war.

The violence and emotion that both Veronica and Boris are feeling in the film vacillate between being of a physical or spiritual nature. Through Kalatozov's stunning montages and Moisey Vayneberg's operatic score, the internal and external turmoil of the characters feels all the more heartbreaking. To Kalatozov, the pain and suffering is something the audience must fight through with the characters as they are happening. He isn't interested in making a villain of certain players, or even Russia itself, as to him the story is about empathy for literally everything, even those who cause pain because they are themselves in pain.

As for the special features, I highly recommend watching Ian Christie's new appreciation of the film. The same goes for the 18-minute excerpt from a 2008 documentary on Sergei Urusevsky. The film wouldn't be nearly as emotionally successful without Urusevsky's work behind the camera. And the documentary draws a clear line between his work on the film and how that influenced Soviet filmmaking going forward. Other special features include:

� Interview from 2001 with filmmaker Claude Lelouch on the film's French premiere at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
� "Hurricane Kalatozov," a documentary from 2009 on the Georgian director's complex relationship with the Soviet government
� Audio interview from 1961 with director Mikhail Kalatozov
� Booklet essay by Chris Fujiwara

"The Cranes are Flying"
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.criterion.com/films/547-the-cranes-are-flying