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Letyat Zhuravli (1957)

Drama | 97 minutes
3,81 246 votes

Genre: Drama / Romance

Duration: 97 minuten

Alternative titles: The Cranes Are Flying / Als de Kraanvogels Overvliegen / Летят Журавли

Country: Soviet Union

Directed by: Mikhail Kalatozov

Stars: Tatyana Samoylova, Aleksey Batalov and Vasili Merkuryev

IMDb score: 8,3 (20.204)

Releasedate: 12 October 1957

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Letyat Zhuravli plot

"The compelling story of a girl's impassioned search for happiness."

Veronika and Boris are two inhabitants of Moscow in love, who are madly in love with each other and want to see each other as often as possible. But then suddenly World War II breaks out, leaving Boris recruited by the Russian army a day before Veronika's birthday.

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Full Cast & Crew

Actors and actresses

Boris Fyodorovich Borozdin

Fyodor Ivanovich Borozdin

Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin

Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina

Varvara Kapitanova, Boris and Irina's Grandmother

Nikolay Nikolayevich Chernov

Anna Mikhaylovna Lebedeva

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avatar van Film Pegasus

Film Pegasus (moderator films)

  • 30650 messages
  • 5276 votes

A war film from the point of view of the home front. The impact it had there and the farewell or anxious waiting of loved ones on the war front. Because the film is about that and not about the fight itself, this is quite universal in terms of story. A film at the right time perhaps, almost a generation after the war and after Stalin's death a few years earlier.

The film is clearly a film of its time with quite dramatic acting. A simple film with a somewhat simple story. But that brings out the core a bit better. Filmed with wonderful shots and played with colours. The long shots are striking, especially when Veronika is followed along the fences or on the stairs. A beautiful film especially, where the old-fashioned acting is made up for by the beautiful images.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van tbouwh

tbouwh

  • 5693 messages
  • 5110 votes

An idyllic picture: cranes take flight over Moscow as two sworn lovers celebrate love. And then the war, as a crude disruptor of “too good to be true”. When the cranes fly overhead is today honored as the earliest peak of the Russian new wave (1957-1968).

He has to go, she stays behind. The plot of When the cranes fly over (Letjat zjoeravli) is one from the book, but the cinematic elaboration is a feat of direction and camera. Nearly sixty-five years later, the lasting importance of this production is therefore mainly contained in the stylistic characteristics and the momentum of its appearance at the time.

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avatar van Dievegge

Dievegge

  • 3049 messages
  • 7831 votes

Central to this emotional war drama is the contrast between the individual and the masses. There are scenes with many extras in which a moving camera follows Victoria through a fence. Then suddenly there is a brightly lit close-up. Before the fire, she uses the word bábushka, in a telephone conversation just before she loses her grandmother in a fire. As she walks into the burning house, her face alternates between light and dark from the flickering flames. After that she has soot stains on her pretty face.

Sandbags are the link between the home front and the trenches. During the death scene of Boris, the camera work is subjective. His shaky gaze is fixed on the tall trees and the cloudy sky. Memories and fantasies come before his mind's eye.

The sound is also very well taken care of. A large hall echoes the reverberation of footsteps and whispers. During a bombing raid, Mark tries to drown out the sirens with his piano playing. His fault is that he puts his individual, fickle desires above the common interest. Ethical dilemmas in a historical context connect an individual and a collective perspective. Unfortunately, the anti-war message has not yet got through everywhere.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original