Film tip: The Cranes are Flying

[Skybird]

Earlier this evejing, I watched a DVD, without knopwing that it would show me a film that I have seen a very long time ago, in my teenage years. But then I remembered, and was stunned by the beauty and fragility in it. I am happy that I found it again, it is one of the really great classic from Soviet film making, and with a poetic picture language and of a humanity you do not see often these days. It is black-and-white, dating back to 1957, and plays during WWII.

The plot you can find here . In 1958, it won the Palm d'Or in Cannes, and the title of Best Movie of the British Academy of Television and Movie Arts. the Russians made some very good movies during the Soviet years. Much of their film production was unbearably pathetic and ideologic tours de force, but some films are real gems of great beauty and sensibility. And this classic is one of them.

Not the right choice if you are in the mood for a blockbuster featuring an overdose of bright lights and loud sounds. But highly recommended.

So nice to have found this movie again, really. sometimes you stumble over a long forgotten gem, and you realise what so many movies of today are missing so desperately, despite their technical perfection.


Edit:
On a sidenote, around christmas, I got myself the DVd of High Noon. Well, everybody knows that movie. So did I. It was in my teenage years I saw it last. But not before seeing it now I realised what a briliant masterpiece this movie really is. Everything fits. Back then I could not realise and appreciate the handwriting in making it, the technical and visual craftsmanship. Now I can. Another one of these truly great classic old movies - I know now. If needing to choose ten DVDs for an Eternal Collection, this movie must be one of them.

and after having seen it three times now in the past three months,. I again wonder: why are movies not made that way anymore, at least why do film makers fail so often while all technical possibilities are open to them these days? I've seen Avatar in 3D meanwhile, curious for the visual experience. I left the cionema visually fed up to maximum - and still somehow unsatisfied, and empty. That's just not it, I thought. That's not how to make good movies.