Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov • 1957 • Soviet Union
Starring Tatiana Samoilova, Alexei Batalov, Vasily Merkuryev
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.
Up Next in The Good War Revisited
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Fires on the Plain
Directed by Kon Ichikawa • 1959 • Japan
Starring Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Mickey CurtisAn agonizing portrait of desperate Japanese soldiers stranded in a strange land during World War II, Kon Ichikawa’s FIRES ON THE PLAIN is a compelling descent into psychological and physical oblivion. ...
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The Bridge
Directed by Bernhard Wicki • 1959 • West Germany
Starring Karl Michael Balzer, Folker Bohnet, Michael HinzBernhard Wicki’s astonishing THE BRIDGE was the first major antiwar film to come out of Germany after World War II, as well as the nation’s first postwar film to be widely shown internation...
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Overlord
Directed by Stuart Cooper • 1975 • United Kingdom
Starring Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas BallSeamlessly interweaving archival war footage with a fictional narrative, this immersive account of one twenty-year-old’s journey from basic training to the front lines of D-day brings to life a...
