Sightlines · reception
How The Cranes Are Flying was received
1957 · Mikheil Kalatozishvili · The Cranes Are Flying on Sightlines
The arc
A sensation from the start — a massive hit in the Soviet Union and the toast of Cannes in 1958 — it's since only climbed, canonized as the crown jewel of Thaw-era cinema and a film cinephiles keep rediscovering for its jaw-dropping camerawork.
What’s debated
The perennial cinephile debate is one of authorship: is this Kalatozov's masterpiece or cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky's — and did the pair then top it with I Am Cuba?
Its footprint
Its swirling handheld camerawork — the spinning birch trees, the breathless run up the staircase — is among the most referenced imagery in world cinema, a touchstone filmmakers and film-school reels return to endlessly.
Where it stands
A 'you must see this' of the classic canon — a Criterion staple and a reliable Letterboxd five-star generator, famous as the film whose camera converts people to old movies.
Did you know? It remains the only Soviet (or Russian) film ever to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes — and a 20-year-old Claude Lelouch, after visiting the Mosfilm set and watching it being shot, credited the experience with inspiring him to become a filmmaker.