[Marxism] The Cranes are Flying

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Can now be watched for free on http://www.theauteurs.com/, the website 
that Martin Scorsese is funding. You just need to register (free) to 
take advantage of this.

NY Times, March 22, 1960
Screen: Exchange Film:Soviet 'Cranes Are Flying' Bows Here
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: March 22, 1960

SOME things that many people may be surprised to find in a Soviet film 
are the warp and weft of "The Cranes Are Flying," which came to the Fine 
Arts yesterday. These are a downright obsessive and overpowering 
revulsion to war and, in contrast, a beautifully tender, almost lyric, 
feeling for romantic love.

These two amazing expressions, so uncommon in Soviet films, which are 
more often given to extolling patriotic fervor and the lovable qualities 
of hydroelectric plants, are the particular thematic distinctions of 
this extra ordinary prize-winning film, offered here under the cultural 
exchange agreement promoted by the Soviet Union and our Department of State.

Unusual, too, is the employment of a highly intimate, impressionistic 
style of cinematic narration to tell the story of a sensitive Moscow 
girl who weakens and is unfaithful to her sweetheart when he is at the 
front in World War II. Mikhail Kalatozov, the director, has harked back 
to a cinematic style that was popular in the days when Pudovkin and 
Dovzhenko were making heroic revolutionary films. It is a style used in 
silent pictures, full of angular shots and close-up views of running 
feet and anguished faces. But M. Kalatozov has brought it up to date to 
blend with sound and the overlapping idioms of modern screen reportage. 
It might be called neo-romanticism, applied to a tragic tale.

The story is that of two lovers who are parted by the war—he a stalwart 
and patriotic fellow who willingly volunteers and marches off, while 
she, a wholesome maiden, remains behind and tends her hospital job. But 
under the strain of wartime torments, the loss of her family and her 
home in an air raid and the loneliness of waiting and not hearing from 
her beau, she submits to the latter's pianist cousin, who has got out of 
going to war. And, in the turmoil of the moment, she lovelessly marries him.

The illogic of this marriage is the most glaring fault of the plot, 
since it represents a conspicuous old-fashioned romantic cliché. But the 
twist does provide the solid basis for the heroine's subsequent despair 
and the high moral of the fable, which is that one should stay faithful 
to one's love.

Other familiar little details may be noted in the film, possibly 
signifying deliberate propaganda aims. For instance, an aged grandmother 
bestows upon the departing soldier the sign of the cross. The piano used 
by the musician is a Steinway. And family affections are strongly 
pronounced. But most genuine and touching is the emphasis on the 
steadfast love and devotion of the heroine for her sweetheart—and his 
for her, as caught in quick scenes at the front.

Thanks to Mr. Kalatozov's direction and the excellent performance 
Tatyana Samoilova gives as the girl, one absorbs a tremendous feeling of 
sympathy from this film—a feeling that has no awareness of geographical 
or political bounds. She is simply a fine, fecund-looking young woman 
torn from her lover by war. And he, played by Alexei Batalov, is a 
pleasant and credible young man moved by romantic impulses and shattered 
by fates outside himself.

Vasily Merkuryev as the soldier's father, Alexander Shvorin as the 
pianist and Alla Bogdanova as the grandmother make solid characters, too.

Strong music and good English subtitles to translate the Russian 
dialogue complete a moving drama that carries a message of love.




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