RusCiCo Screen captures Courtesy of Ashirg! The Cranes are Flying is an absolute masterpiece and Mikhail Kalatozov's film was far overdue to reach Blu-ray status. Nice to have the new extras and this is 'must-own' territory and has our absolute highest recommendation! It doesn't feel artificial, it doesn't feel faked, it doesn't feel inflated to fit propaganda selling points regarding the war. 6/30: Russia. The film chronicles the plight of Veronika, a young woman living in Russia who finds herself and her lover Boris (the most stereotypically Russian name of all time) separated through the horror of WWII. Menus / Extras . Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying is presented on Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Disc Review: Criterion’s re-release of The Cranes Are Flying is a new 2K digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack presented in 1.37:1 (the restored version was part of the program of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival). Film reviews in 22 sentences (or less) Today: The Cranes Are Flying “It seems to me that one of the great expressive tools of poetic cinema is a free and liberated camera.” (Mikhail Kalatozov) Hi everybody, here is our third review to a movie from our recently most popular director Mikhail Kalatozov. la commune (puffin, 1871)’s review published on Letterboxd: March Around the World 2018. The cranes are flying all right, right over two lovers in Moscow on the eve of WWII. There is a beauty to be found here. Gary Tooze . The restoration itself was … It has been encoded onto a dual-layer disc in 1080p/24hz and sourced from a new 2K restoration performed by Mosfilm. Early on, I remember thinking how different The Cranes Are Flying was from the Mikhail Kalatozov film I watched last year, I Am Cuba. Film Review: The Cranes are Flying (1957) The Cranes are Flying is a great slice of Soviet cinema, focusing on a small set of characters caught up in epic events. Beauty is seen in what we have left. Review: Criterion - Region 'A' / 'B' - Blu-ray. A natural double-bill partner for the slightly later Ballad of a Soldier, The Cranes Are Flying has an even higher profile in the West, managing an impressive double whammy at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival in the form of the Best Film and Best Actress awards, making a major contribution to putting Soviet cinema back on the international map after the death of Eisenstein. Beauty is not seen in what has been lost. While that anthology was very much a document of socialist revolution in Cuba (and was produced in part as propaganda), the early portions of The Cranes Are Flying depict a much more innocent and human romance.