Flick Review < The Cranes are Flying | Mikhail Kalatozov (1957)

“That’s what love is, my dear: a harmless mental illness.”

“Cranes like ships, sailing up in the sky,

White ones and grey ones, with long beaks, they fly”

.

* One of the most notable features of the film is cinematographer Sergey Urusevskiy’s then ground-breaking use of hand-held cameras. He had learned how to film like this when he was a military cameraman during the war.

** When the film was released in the Soviet Union, it caused a sensation amongst audiences weaned on propaganda fare. For the first time, audiences were able to weep at the pain of losing millions of their population in the war. It was also the first time that subjects like draft dodging, war profiteering and the black market had been expressed on film.