The Cranes Are Flying (1957): A

Director(s): Mikhail Kalatozov. Screenplay: Victor Rozov. Cast: Tatanya Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov,Vasili Merkuryev, Aleksandr Shvorin and Svetlana Kharitonova. Runtime: 94. Rating: NR. Runtime: 97 min.

A testament to the portrayal of the evils of war in film, as well as a richly timeless creation in post-Stalin politics filmmaking, Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes Are Flying is a work in which expression is thoroughly multifaceted in every aspect of filmmaking -- while breaking your heart. A woman (Tatanya Samojlova), Veronika, and her recently found true love, are brilliantly unified and illustrated via a shot of cranes. This exquisite image also comes back to haunt her: the next time they appear, the resonance of the image is shattered -- [Spoiler Alert] someone is missing. Tonal shift is key in the film, especially as Veronika's sense of dejection increases; via desolate, even tacit camera-work and mise-en-scene, Kalatozov is masterfully able to take her mood and increase it in melancholy in an insinuating matter. By the beautiful, unforgettable last sequence, you weep not for the events in her life, but to the hope that she will one day -- quite similarly to Grigori Chukhrai's 1959 masterpiece Ballad of a Soldier -- refind herself in the confines of her memory.