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Mikhail Romm’s dense tale of love – for people and for country – has lost none of its cold war potency in the 60 years since it was first released

As the French New Wave was starting to crest, and with the Cuban missile crisis just under a year away, Soviet film-maker Mikhail Romm directed what might have been the nuclear physicists’ version of Jules et Jim. This was the very intriguing Nine Days in One Year, now restored for its 60th anniversary. It’s a poignant love triangle, a story of broken hearts represented, in a rather David Nicholls-ish device, by the events of nine separate days over one year in the romantic lives of those whose duty was to the Soviet motherland – and to the great cause of the Ussr gaining nuclear power.

Dmitri Gusev, played by Aleksey Batalov, is a dedicated scientist working on thermonuclear physics in Siberia,...

Some classic Russian films are impressive, others are interesting — and this one takes our heads off, as if we were seeing great moviemaking for the first time. Soviet filmmaking under Stalin was locked in the grip of stifling bureaucratic sameness; Mikhail Kalatazov waited until the passing of Joe Stalin to direct with a degree of freedom. This show about lovers separated by war won prizes around the world, giving Soviet films new life internationally — its bravura montages and fluid camera set pieces still astound.

The Cranes are Flying

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 146

1957 / B&w / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Letjat zhuravli / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasily Merkuryev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Svetalana Kharitonova.

Cinematography: Sergey Urusevsky

Film Editor: Mariya Timofeyeva

Original Music: Moisej Vajnberg

Written by Viktor Rozov from his play

Produced and Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Yes, we saw a lot of pictures in film school,...

Soviet actor who starred in award-winning films during a burst of freedom for the arts before repression set in again during the mid-60s

The years following the second world war represented a low point in Soviet cinema, both in quality and quantity. It was only after Stalin’s death in 1953 and Khrushchev’s speech in 1956 attacking aspects of Stalinism, that the Soviet film industry began to pick up.

The result of this thaw was a number of films that merited international success, notably Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (1957), which was named best film at Cannes, and Josef Heifits’ The Lady With the Dog (1960, which got the special jury prize at Cannes. Both starred Alexei Batalov, who has died aged 88.

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Russian actor Alexey Batalov, known for the 1957 Cannes winning film The Cranes are Flying and the 1980 Oscar-winning movie Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears, died in Moscow on June 14 at the age of 88, Russian news agency TASS reported on Thursday, quoting the actor's personal assistant.

Batalov was born in the Central Russian city of Vladimir on November 20, 1928, into the family of actors of the Moscow Art Theatre (MKHAT).In 1950, he graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre's Acting Studio-School and joined the theater's troupe.

This is the first letter in the first series of what will be an ongoing installment of correspondences between Scout Tafoya and Veronika Ferdman on the topic of Soviet cinema. Each series will be organized around a theme—director, genre, time period, mood or more whimsical connectors such as color or season. In short, the writers reserve the right to let Soviet cinema be their muse and guide the orientation of the letter writing. For this inaugural dispatch from the celluloid wonders of the Soviet bloc the subject can best be described as love in a time of discontent.Dear Veronika,I’m excited to be writing to you about the many, many undiscovered, unsung gems hiding in the vast canon of Russian cinema. There’s so much to cover that it’s frankly a little overwhelming to me. A whole world of movies I’ve never heard of just waiting to be watched.

Today is the 109th anniversary of one Chester Gould the creator of Dick Tracy. Every time Dick Tracy (1990) comes up, I think "you should watch that movie again!" but I never do. I think I'm still mad that Warren Beatty kept cutting away from Madonna's "More" performance... which should've easily been one of the best movie musical numbers of the 90s (sigh). Otherwise I quite like the movie

Trivia Alert! Dick Tracy is one of Oscar's two favorite comic book movies along with The Dark Knight (2008). Their Oscar track was very similar. Dick Tracy had 7 nominations and 3 wins. The Dark Knight had 8 nominations and 2 wins and in mostly the same categories, too.

Supporting Actor (both, and the only two comic book performances ever nominated*: Al Pacino and Heath Ledger, winner)

Cinematography (both)

Art Direction (both)

Costume Design (Dick Tracy only)

Sound (both)Sound Editing (The Dark Knight only,...