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 (22.251)
Releasedate: 12 October 1957
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.
Actors and actresses
Veronika
Boris Fyodorovich Borozdin
Fyodor Ivanovich Borozdin
Mark Aleksandrovich Borozdin
Irina Fyodorovna Borozdina
Volodya
Stepan
Varvara Kapitanova, Boris and Irina's Grandmother
Nikolay Nikolayevich Chernov
Anna Mikhaylovna Lebedeva
Reviews & comments
Film Pegasus (moderator films)
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- 31191 messages
- 5473 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.
Translated from Dutch · View original
tbouwh
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- 5823 messages
- 5404 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.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Dievegge
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- 3180 messages
- 8228 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.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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