Now I can’t wrap my head around this, because we are talking about a masterpiece.
“The Cranes Are Flying” became a real phenomenon of its time. What’s wrong with it – so far no domestic film has been able to replicate the success of the film. At the moment, this is our only film that has received the main award of the Cannes Film Festival – the Palme d’Or.
The plot is based on Viktor Rozov’s play “Forever Alive.” Director Mikhail Kalatozov accidentally came across the work and was shocked. He immediately realized that he wanted to make a film based on this story.
The filmmaker took filming very seriously. Tatyana Samoilova had a very difficult time – even while suffering from tuberculosis, she came to the site and did her job. Some episodes were reshot several times. Alexey Batalov also suffered a lot, but did not complain, even when he was seriously injured. All these efforts and suffering were not in vain – the whole world was talking about Soviet actors.
But in the USSR the film was criticized immediately after the premiere. Politicians thought that Samoilova’s heroine was a libertine. Neither viewers nor critics agreed with this characterization. It’s good that they didn’t ban anything.
