The Cranes Are Flying · reception & legacy

How The Cranes Are Flying has been received, argued over, and remembered.

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, canonised 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.