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Upon its release in 1957, The Cranes Are Flying (directed by Mikhail Kalatozov) was a watershed moment in Soviet cinema. Its reception was marked by a sharp divide between the emotional resonance felt by the public and the initial skepticism of the old-guard Soviet establishment, followed by massive international acclaim.
Here is the specific detail of its reception:
The film was released during the "Khrushchev Thaw," a period of relative liberalization following Stalin's death. Before this film, Soviet war movies typically focused on grand military strategy, the genius of leadership, or the collective heroism of the Red Army.
Critics and filmmakers at the time were stunned by the cinematography of Sergey Urusevsky. His work broke almost every established rule of Soviet filmmaking of the 1940s:
The film's reception abroad was even more rapturous than its domestic release. It was entered into the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, where it achieved a level of success unprecedented for a Soviet film.
Specific reviews from the period (1957–1959) generally focused on three elements:
At the time of its release, The Cranes Are Flying was seen as the "manifesto" of a new generation of filmmakers. It signaled that Soviet cinema was moving away from the "Stalinist Empire style" and toward a more psychological, intimate, and visually daring form of art. It successfully bridged the gap between a domestic audience hungry for emotional truth and an international audience looking for artistic innovation from behind the Iron Curtain.
This anecdote from scholar Josephine Woll illustrates the powerful emotional response the film elicited from Soviet film professionals before its public release. It provides specific evidence for the film's impact that goes beyond the general claims in the AI Summary.
Specific box office data provides quantitative evidence of the film's commercial success both domestically and internationally, which supports but adds specificity to the AI Summary's claims about audience reception.
While the AI Summary mentions Samoylova's international stardom, it omits her specific award recognition at Cannes and BAFTA nomination, which provides concrete evidence of her critical reception.
This detail about the US release being part of official cultural diplomacy adds important context to the international reception, showing governmental recognition of the film's potential to bridge the Cold War divide.
This contradicts the AI Summary's framing of 'initial skepticism followed by success' - it suggests the sequence was moderate reception → international acclaim → domestic critical embrace. This is an important nuance about the timeline of acceptance.
Upon its release in October 1957, The Cranes Are Flying received a mostly positive reception from Soviet critics and was embraced by audiences for its honest, unheroic depiction of World War II from an individual perspective - a radical departure from Stalinist propaganda films. At a pre-release screening, the film produced 'collective ecstasy' among film professionals, with director Mikhail Romm reportedly sitting through it in tears. However, some early domestic criticism focused on the film's perceived pessimism and the controversial character of Veronika, who marries her fiancé's cousin after being raped - seen by some as a betrayal of Socialist Realist ideals. One source indicates the film was 'not well received in the Soviet Union by critics until after it was celebrated throughout Europe,' suggesting the domestic critical embrace grew after international success rather than following initial widespread hostility.
The film's international reception was rapturous. At the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, it won the Palme d'Or (the only Soviet/Russian film ever to do so) and Tatyana Samoylova received a Special Mention for being 'Most Modest and Charming Actress.' The film attracted 28.3 million admissions in the USSR and sold 5.41 million tickets in France alone. Western critics praised the film for humanizing the Soviet Union and focusing on universal themes rather than propaganda. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther noted it was 'a picture about two young people romantically in love – in love with each other, that is, and not with a tractor or the Soviet state.' Samoylova was compared to Audrey Hepburn and became an international sensation, though the Soviet government prevented her from accepting Hollywood offers.
Contemporary reviews (1957-1960) consistently praised Sergey Urusevsky's revolutionary cinematography - his handheld camera work, innovative use of subjective perspectives, and the famous death scene with swirling birch trees. Critics noted the 'lyrical realism' that contrasted poetic visuals with harsh reality, the camera's participatory quality, and the film's focus on human emotion over ideology. Scholar Josephine Woll later called it 'the first indisputable masterpiece of post-Stalin cinema,' and it was seen as marking a turning point signaling Soviet cinema's move away from Stalinist style toward psychological, intimate storytelling that would influence later filmmakers like Tarkovsky.