Art & Artistry
Friday night’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix, was a good one, The Cranes Are Flying (1957). I would not have added it to my watch list if a friend hadn’t featured the lobby poster on his Facebook feed. Thanks, Adam. I remembered the title from back in the day. Set in Russia, it is the story of young lovers separated by WWII. One may argue that the depiction of a happy country pre-and-post-war is false, but how else would the creators have been able to make it? It’s far from the level of boy and tractor fare that characterized Russian cinema for a long stretch. This is a tale of human beings enduring not only the hardships of war but their own foibles as well. Tatyana Samoylova is captivating in the lead, and Aleksey Batalov is also fine as her man. The fighting and destruction occur largely off screen. The film features some of the best crowd scenes ever shot. I was expecting a miracle ending but, fortunately, there wasn’t one. The title refers to a positive image seen at the beginning and end. 14,000+ users at IMDb have rated …Cranes…, forging to a consensus of 8.3 on a scale of ten. It is beautiful work.
So how did the artists involved in it fare under the Soviet system in the ensuing years? I focused on five, culling info from IMDb and Wiki. Born in Georgia when it was under Soviet rule, Mikhail Kalatozov directed 20 films. He was censured by the government for ‘negativism’ and forced to do administrative work for seven years, 1932-’39, before being allowed to resume his career. He was appointed Deputy Minister for Film in the 1950’s. He won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for …Cranes… He made only three more films, including The Red Tent (1969), which starred Sean Connery and was shot in part in Italy. He died at 69 in 1973.
Victor Rozov, a dramatist, adapted his own play to the screen. It was his second script. He has 27 titles under his name at IMDb, and 26 plays listed on his Wiki profile page. He passed away at 91 in 2004.
The fantastic cinematography was done by Sergey Urusevskiy, who has 15 other titles under his name, and two credits as a director. He also received the Palme d’Or for …Cranes... He died at 65 in 1974.
Samoylova was in her early 20’s when the movie, her second, was made. Her performance received “special mention” at Cannes. Sadly, she has only 17 other credits, but she did get to play Anna Karenina in a 1968 Russian production of the classic Tolstoy novel. She passed away at 80 in 2014 but will live on as long as mankind does because of her luminous presence in …Cranes…
Batalov had a more substantial career, 53 credits as an actor, five as a writer, three as a director. He received many awards. He passed away at 88 in 2017. Here are the lovers in character:
RIP country music legend Charley Pride, 86. The fourth of eleven children of poor sharecroppers, he had 52 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one. He was the second black to become a member of the Grand Old Opry, following blues artist DeFord Bailey. Darius Rucker recently became the third. Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. He pitched minor league and negro league baseball, and made extra bucks singing before games. When master guitarist Chet Atkins heard a demo, he was instrumental in getting Pride a recording contract. At first his picture did not appear on records — for obvious reasons. He was “outed” at a 1966 concert at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. He told the audience of 10,000: “Friends, I realize it’s a little unique, me coming out here-with a permanent suntan — to sing country and western to you. But that’s the way it is.” He was honored four times by the CMA: 1971 Entertainer of the Year, 1971 & ’72 Male Vocalist of the Year, 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won four Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. Awesome, sir. Thank you.
With the threat of rain in the air I played it safe and set up shop at the dreaded viaduct. As usual, business there was pathetic. My thanks to the Frenchman, who happened along and bought an issue of Paris Review and What Is Man?, a collection of essays by Mark Twain.
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