Letyat zhuravli

Plot synopsis:
Fyodor Ivanovich is a doctor who lives with his son, Boris; his daughter, Irina; his mother; and his nephew, Mark. The film centers on Boris's girlfriend, Veronika, during World War II.The character of Veronica represents Soviet women in the context of the aftermath of the aforementioned war.
The call to war sounds, and the country responds with great patriotic fervor. Boris volunteers to defend his homeland from the attackers, much to Veronika's sadness. He is killed in a swamp, while saving the life of a fellow soldier. However, he is listed as missing in action; neither Veronika nor his family learn that he has been killed.
The German blitzkrieg then begins; people take refuge in the subway system underneath the city. During one attack, Veronika's parents refuse to leave their apartment; when Veronika returns, she finds that the building has been bombed. The entire apartment is gone and there is no sign of her parents. Fyodor Ivanovich invites Veronika to live with his family. Mark, who has been pursuing Veronika, is put in charge of keeping her company to lift her spirits. He is obviously in love with her, but she continually rejects him, waiting for Boris to return. However, during one bombing raid Veronika refuses to go down to the shelter and is left alone with Mark. This scene is unclear, but it is implied that Mark rapes Veronika. She is then shamed into marrying him, and the rest of the family believes that she has betrayed Boris.
The family is relocated with many other Russians further East to escape the German offensive. They live in a temporary community where Fyodor Ivanovich, Irina, and Veronika work in a military hospital. Mark spends his time partying and playing music; he and Veronika are both clearly unhappy in their marriage. One of the soldiers in the hospital becomes hysterical when he receives a letter saying that his girlfriend has left him; Fyodor Ivanovich admonishes the soldier to forget about her, since women who cannot wait for their men to return are not worth grieving. Veronika overhears the speech and becomes very upset, since she appears to be such a woman.
Distraught, Veronika brings herself to a bridge and intends to jump in front of a rapidly approaching train. Just before she falls, she turns around and sees a young boy who is on the verge of getting hit by a car. She pulls the boy off the road, to which she learns that he is missing his mother and that his name, coincidentally, is Boris. Veronika decides to informally adopt the boy, and takes him back to the community home.
Fyodor Ivanovich discovers that Mark's deferral from conscription was not because he was considered too talented to be drafted, as he has claimed, but because he bribed an official in Fyodor Ivanovich's name. Fyodor Ivanovich suddenly realizes that Mark has betrayed not only Russia, but the family as well, and has taken advantage of Veronika. Fyodor Ivanovich confronts Mark and kicks him out of the house, while Veronika is invited to stay and is forgiven by the family for "betraying" Boris.
The man that Boris died trying to save comes in search of Boris's family to tell them the news. When Veronika finds out, she refuses to believe it, saying that Boris's friend Stepan, who volunteered with Boris, will know what happened to him. At the end of the war, when the soldiers return, Veronika finds Stepan and learns that Boris is indeed dead. Stepan sadly gives her a bouquet of flowers, and Veronika stumbles in tears through the celebrating crowd. However, the film ends on a hopeful note: Stepan makes a speech asserting that they will never forget those who died in the war, and Veronika hands out the flowers in her bouquet to the returning soldiers.

Tags: anti war, cute, sentimental

Review:
The plot of this movie is set against the most terrible war in history of mankind: the violent clash between Adolf Hitler's Germany and Soviet Russia, from 1941-'45.With the western areas of their country thoroughly devastated, and 20 to 30 million Russian people killed, the vibes of this conflict can be felt in Russia up to the present day.
The level of emotions through the film varies quite a lot: happiness -love-war- despair-joy, but in the end you remain with something quite unique: the joy of seeing one masterpiece of filmmaking.
She is the focal point of a bittersweet war romance against the background of World War II in Moscow.The film is almost poetic in its gorgeous B&W cinematography which was the main reason for watching the film in the first place, since I had never heard of it and decided to give it a try when it aired on TCM.It's a very moving love story about a girl's deep love for a man who is suddenly swept away by his role as a soldier drafted in wartime Russia.
There's a very poignant final scene at a train station where arriving soldiers are greeting their loved ones and the tearful girl shares the joy of the returning soldiers by giving some flowers from her bouquet to the joyous families.The stylish and striking camera-work is what carries the film, as well as the honestly played story.Tastefully done, but perhaps the English subtitles didn't tell the whole tale because some of the plot elements seemed a bit blurred to me as if they had been glossed over.Summing up: Easy to see why it won awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
This is a romantic, dramatic movie that looks long and hard at the repercussions of war, and yes, it does have a message and it certainly hammers it home, but still I think it stays more clearly in the realm of universal themes, rather than falling into the propagandist ditch.In summary, I don't think I have ever seen better acting, better camera work, better editing, or better direction in any movie made previous to it.
The family are forced to move to Siberia to escape the onslaught of the Germans and it is here Veronika learns the fate of her real love.The film's main plot, the love story, is tragic, but the film as a whole is as tragic in it's depiction of war and the immense effect it has on people.
Another stand out scene is where Veronica is 'trapped' by the brother during an air raid, the noise loud, the camera angles obscure, the lighting jarred and ominous, it's a powerful moment, among many throughout the film.The audience learns the fate of Boris way before Veronica, who tries to hang onto hope that he will return.
Finally, word reaches the girl of her loved one's death but, by the end of the film, she has learnt to accept this as a sacrifice to their native country and is content to live with her memories of him.The film features some truly amazing camera-work which makes extremely judicious use of the screen space and, by frequently adopting tracking, tilted and high or low angle shots, renders great power to the unfolding emotional drama.
Individual sequences are equally impressive - two in particular: the stunning scene, frenetically edited and sped-up to boot, in which the girl saves an abandoned boy from being trampled by a truck; and the young man's premature demise in an unfortunate incident at the front, undoubtedly one of the best of its kind I've ever watched (with the sun moving away from him, symbolizing the life that's seeping out of his body, as he imagines the wedding day he'll never have!).
Also notable, however, is the scene where the girl goes to look for her parents in her home that's been hopelessly devastated during an air raid; as is her final violent capitulation to the concert pianist - which she tries to resist by repeatedly slapping him in the face - taking place during a later air raid and making particularly effective use of a set of billowing curtains!Disappointingly, the R1 DVD of this outstanding film is a bare-bones affair (the RusCiCo edition features a few supplements but, being an export, tends to be heavily overpriced and hard to track down to boot!); Criterion released it in conjunction with another war-themed Russian classic, BALLAD OF A SOLDIER (1959) - which my pal at the local DVD rental outlet has told me is forthcoming...
The only other film I've watched from this director is the Arctic epic THE RED TENT (1969; albeit via the much-shorter U.S.-release version!), a star-studded international production based on true events; given the unmistakable artistic quality of THE CRANES ARE FLYING, I regret missing out now on his famous documentary I AM CUBA (1964) a number of times when I was in Hollywood late last year: apart from receiving a one-week theatrical run, it was shown more than once on TV accompanied by a feature-length "Making Of"!!.
The heart of the film lies in the very beginning where the two young lovers Veronika (Tatyana Samojlova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov) stand in each other's arms and watch the cranes flying in the sky.
It doesn't come off as a patriotic spectacle of propaganda but, as I said, it does end hopefully, with the love for the people shining from within the people itself.Tatyana Samojlova is the heroine of the film, and Kalatozov is occupied following her with the greatest of care.
It's a quiet film, the absence of sound is naturalistic, as are the cranes in the sky and the feelings of Veronika as her childish romance dies out while she grows older in the war times.
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.
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.
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.
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..
This was a beautiful film, showing how the political decisions of the day invade the innocence of private lives, in this case of Veronica and Boris.The imagery is striking and poignant at times which adds to the tragedy which weaves itself through the story.
In particular is the scene near the beginning of the film when the young couple witness the cranes flying, and again at the end when Veronica waits with the crowds for the return of the soldiers at the station, and someone notices the cranes flying over Moscow.It is minimalist in atmosphere and this reinforces the anti-war theme in the background..
It is still the only Russian movie to have won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.In Moscow, during World War II, Veronika (Tatyana Samoylova) is deeply in love with Boris (Aleksey Batalov), and is devastated to discover he has joined the army.
Tired of being rejected, he rapes her and she decides to marry him out of shame, but still waits and hopes for Boris' return.Like I said, this is the first Soviet movie that portrays war as it truly is: tragic.
This technique helped convey the feeling of tension, like in the scene where Veronika hurries to meet Boris before he leaves for the front – as she's trying to make her way through the crowd, the camera closely follows her, just like a friend.
Wild Arc. Veronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of the river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.I know very little about Soviet film.
Director Mikhail Kalatozov's 'The Cranes are Flying', winner of the Palm d'Or at Cannes in 1958, seems to boast confidently, "This is how you make a classic!" It tells the story of two young lovers who are separated by the arrival of World War II.
This film was produced and directed about four (4) years after the death of Joseph Stalin the leader of the Soviet Union and is a story about a WW II war between Russia and Germany when Russia was attacked by the Nazi's.
Tatyana Samojlova,(Veronika) played the role of a very beautiful young Russian girl who is deeply in love with her boyfriend, Aleksey Batalov,(Boris) who enjoy the outdoors and they both view a scene with a flock of Craines flying in formation and her boyfriend writes her a poem about these Craines.
Though their talent is undeniable, the male and female leads are a bit too old for a story that at least at the outset is about young love.The events are compressed, as another commenter pointed out, the suddenness with which war comes being a backhanded slap at the "all wise" Stalin who trusted Hitler and left the Soviet Union dangerously unprepared when Nazi Germany attacked with over a hundred divisions.
But Kalatozov changed this depiction, as THE CRANES ARE FLYING was made after Stalin's death, causing a political thaw and creating a worldwide sensation, winning the Cannes Film Festival Palm D'Or, as well as the Best Director and Best Actress (Tatyana Samoilova), reawakening the West to Soviet Cinema for the first time since Eisenstein's IVAN THE TERRIBLE in the 40's.
This film features the famous line, "You can dream when the war is over."  In the final sequence, when the war is over, the soldiers are returning in a mass scene on the streets, Veronica learns Boris died, all are happy and excited with the soldier's return, but Veronica is in despair, passing out flowers to soldiers and strangers on the street in an extreme gesture of generosity and selflessness revealing  "cranes white and gray floating in the sky." The film was released in 1957 in Russia, and according to some reviews, "the silence in the theater was profound, the wall between art and living life had fallen...and tears unlocked the doors.".
The film received (absolutely deservingly) the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival and Tatiana Samoilova was chosen as a recipient of a special award at Cannes for playing Veronika, the young girl happily in love with the best man in the world in the beginning of the movie.
However, this Russian gem shows how the tale of hardship can be told in a different way; by telling us, straight from a soldier's mouth how war is hated by all, that they hope those who died did so for a cause that will allow for peace and the end of fighting, we see a new vision of WWII.
The true star of the film, she must go through many emotions on a journey where she does lose her way, needing to steer back on course, hoping that she did so soon enough for Boris' return.Besides the realism to the story, as well as being unafraid to use tragedy to get the theme across, I also loved the visual style of the film.
It wasn't until 1957 that director Mikhail Kalatozov and writer Viktor Rozov became bold enough to produce what is widely-considered the first post-Stalin Soviet masterpiece, 'Letyat zhuravli / The Cranes are Flying,' one of the finest depictions of war I've seen from any country or time period.
In the film, two lovers, Veronika (Tatyana Samojlova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov), separated by the advent of the WWII {widely known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945}, pledge to marry after the war, but tragedy denies the couple their wish.
The film may conclude with the proud victory of the Soviets, and a patriotic flag-waving parade, but the optimism of this sequence is overwhelmingly eclipsed by the bittersweet tragedy of our young female protagonist, who wanders soullessly through the celebrating crowds.Perhaps the most remarkable feature of 'The Cranes are Flying' is Sergei Urusevsky's inspired and dynamic hand-held cinematography, which realistically and dizzily captures the chaos and confusion of war, not necessarily in the hail of gunfire and the cries of dying comrades {in fact, only one of the film's sequences joins Boris on the Eastern Front}, but from the perspective of the family and friends who are left behind.
You couldn't help but feel Boris' father's exasperation and sorrow as he upbraids his son for such foolishness as volunteering to serve in the great war.Others have summarized the movie so well, so I'll just mention a couple of scenes that moved me the most.
(A few spoilers - but for the ending, you'll have to watch the movie!) A simple story - in Moscow on the eve of war between Russia and Germany in WW II Veronika (Tatiana Samoilova) is in love with Boris (Aleksei Batalov) but they have a spat when she learns that he has enlisted in the army.
(For anyone interested in film technique another movie by Kalatozov, I AM CUBA, has at least two superb set pieces - one of them a long tracking shot that begins with a funeral procession through the streets of Havana, rises two stories to a cigar factory, tracks though the window and follows the procession down a long, long avenue - all without a cut.) Superb acting, particularly by Samoilova and Vasili Merkuryev (as Boris' uncle) that is made all the more poignant by sheer understatement.
Basically walking the streets of Moscow, Russia, are happy couple Veronika (BAFTA nominated Tatyana Samoylova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov), they are laughing together and are very much in love, they look in the morning sky to see the cranes are flying.
Samoylova is good as the young hospital worker parted with her lover and in a loveless marriage, the love story element is fine, but the most eye-catching moments for me are in the battlefields of the Second World War, it is not the most exciting film I have seen of this sort, but it has some good moments, all in all it's not a bad romantic drama.
The sentiment must be justified because we all seem to salute it as we pass it on the way to the next war.I feel I have to expatiate a bit on the direction and camera work because probably most people watching the movie won't recognize how innovative two Soviet movies were at the time, how much impact they had on the West.
This movie begins with two young lovers, "Boris" (Aleksey Batalov) and "Veronika" (Tatyana Samoylova) happily enjoying each other's company in Moscow prior to World War 2.
The film then proceeds to show the hardships of life that Veronika has to endure as her parents are killed in a bombing raid and she goes to live with Boris' family who feel obliged to take her in for his sake.
While this isn't my favorite soviet WWII film (that would be the simple and super-effective BALLAD OF A SOLDIER), it is exceptional and well worth seeing.Veronika and Boris are young and in love.
Boris volunteers for the war effort, leaving behind his lover Veronica, and while away on the battlefield she is married to his cousin whom she doesn't love.
-Spoilers- The Cranes are Flying is about a love relationship between a Soviet soldier, Boris and Veronika.
The film tries to play off on a romantic tragedy with the demise of Boris in war and Veronika hoping beyond hope to be reunited with her love.
While Boris(Aleksey Batalov)is off to fight in war against the Germans for his Mother Russia, his beloved Veronika(Tatyana Samojlova)marries his conniving cousin Mark(Aleksandr Shvorin)in a moment of weakness shortly after her parents were killed in an air raid over Moscow.