The Cranes Are Flying
This landmark film by the virtuosic Mikhail Kalatozov was heralded as a revelation in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and the international cinema community alike. It tells the story of Veronica (Tatiana Samoilova) and Boris (Alexei Batalov), a couple who are blissfully in love until World War II tears them apart. With Boris at the front, Veronica must try to ward off spiritual numbness and defend herself from the increasingly forceful advances of her beau’s draft-dodging cousin. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, The Cranes Are Flying is a superbly crafted drama with impassioned performances and viscerally emotional, gravity-defying cinematography by Kalatozov’s regular collaborator Sergei Urusevsky.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interview with scholar Ian Christie on why the film is a landmark of Soviet cinema
- Audio interview from 1961 with director Mikhail Kalatozov
- Hurricane Kalatozov, a documentary from 2009 on the Georgian director’s complex relationship with the Soviet government
- Segment from a 2008 program about the film’s cinematography, featuring original storyboards and an interview with actor Alexei Batalov
- Interview from 2001 with filmmaker Claude Lelouch on the film’s French premiere at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
Cover design by Century.Studio
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New interview with scholar Ian Christie on why the film is a landmark of Soviet cinema
- Audio interview from 1961 with director Mikhail Kalatozov
- Hurricane Kalatozov, a documentary from 2009 on the Georgian director’s complex relationship with the Soviet government
- Segment from a 2008 program about the film’s cinematography, featuring original storyboards and an interview with actor Alexei Batalov
- Interview from 2001 with filmmaker Claude Lelouch on the film’s French premiere at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
Cover design by Century.Studio
Cast
- Tatiana Samoilova
- Veronika
- Alexei Batalov
- Boris
- Vasily Merkuryev
- Fyodor Ivanovich
- Alexander Shvorin
- Mark
- Svetlana Kharitonova
- Irina
- Konstantin Nikitin
- Volodya
- Valentin Zubkov
- Stepan
- Antonina Bogdanova
- Grandma
- Boris Kokovin
- Chernov
- Yekaterina Kuprianova
- Anna Mikhailovna
Credits
- Director
- Mikhail Kalatozov
- Screenwriter
- Viktor Rozov
- Director of photography
- Sergei Urusevsky
- Production designer
- Evgeniy Svidetelev
- Music by
- Mieczysław Weinberg
- Sound design by
- Igor Mayorov
- Editor
- Mariya Timofeyeva
A scene from The Cranes Are Flying
