The Cranes are Flying

Recently watched this wonderful film that seems as fresh today as it was 50-plus years ago when it was made. It captures the sense of coping with WWII from the domestic side, as lovely Veronika is forced to live life without her boyfriend, Boris, who volunteered for the front. After a fateful explosion, she comes to live with Boris' family and is soon seduced by the brother, an inspiring concert pianist, who she is never able to fully warm up to.

At the heart of the story is a stuffed squirrel with a little basket of nuts, which Boris gave to his dear "Belka" before leaving for the train. In the basket, Boris had stuffed a note which isn't revealed until much later when Veronika and Mark have relocated to Siberia, with Moscow under siege by the Germans. Veronika has not be able to forgive herself for giving up on Boris, and it is during a tough scene at a hospital, where she works as a nurse for Boris' father, that the point of her unfaithfulness is driven home by a wounded soldier who gets a "Dear John" letter.

It doesn't make it any easier when she learns the fate of her first love. The movie doesn't pull any punches and probably would have never seen the light of day under Stalin. Not that it is politically charged, but there are some biting comments made by the father in regard to state of Soviet affairs at the time.

I can't help but think that if more movies like this had been made available to the broader public during the Cold War there would have been much less tension between the Soviet Union and the West, as this movie gives a very humane view of life behind the Iron Curtain, which we saw so little of in the West.

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Ward No. 6

Ward No. 6 is a short story written by Chekhov in 1892. It has appeared in various collections of Chekhov short stories, including The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories translated by Constance Garnett in 1921. In this story, Chekhov explores the inner working of a run-down lunatic asylum in a provincial town. He introduces the readers to a coarse porter who speaks mostly with his fists, various patients, a doctor who presides over this ward, and expresses his thoughts with a local postmaster. It was recently made into a movie , featuring Vladimir Ilyin. Here's a clip . There's also this very recent short film (30 min.) by Suzana Purkovic, with English subtitles.

Light and Dark

I'm still trying to sort out the ending. The story had to end tragically but was surprised that Rogozhin actually sought forgiveness in Myshkin after what he had done to Nastya, although I think that Dostoevsky intended the two to be read as one, along similar lines as The Double . He kept Rogozhin a shadowy figure throughout the novel, ever lurking in the dark of the Prince's soul. Try as he might, Prince Myshkin could not alter events and thus the fantasy world he had lived in upon returning to Russia crumbled before his eyes, leaving him at a total loss as how to reconcile himself with it. Once again, Dostoevsky plumbs great depths of the human soul. This is a psychological drama told in theatrical terms, perfectly suited for the stage. Characters appear and disappear as if moving from the shadows of the stage. I can see the "green bench" as the central stage piece. In the final part, one gets the sense that Lebedev is orchestrating events, and may even

The Morning of Our Motherland

I was watching a History channel special on Socialist Realism art of the Soviet Union and this was one of the grand canvases that is now stuffed away in the Tretyakov State Gallery . The painter was Fyodor Shurpin and he had a wonderful eye for detail, right down to the secret service black car on the road to Stalin's right. To the left, one sees a row of combines turning over the field of golden wheat, which became symbolic of Stalin's Soviet Union. Утро нашей Родины is from 1949, with Stalin radiating a post-war confidence. It is also known as Dawn of our Fatherland and other titles. Shurpin was one of the better artists to carry over from the pre-war years. The narrator pointed out how socialist realist art changed dramatically as a result of the war, becoming much more static and propagandist in appearance. He pointed to two stops along the Moscow subway as an example of this divide. Here, Shurpin essentially transposes Stalin for an earlier "Mother"

Chekhov's Gun

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