i have long want to watch this romantic drama ( with a wwii setting ) and and now that i have and all i can say be that it a veritable masterpiece of russian cinema . soviet film be know for their overzealous propagandist approach but and thankfully and this one free of such emphasis with the interest firmly on the central tragic romance between a promising artist and a vivacious girl and doom by the outbreak of war for which he gladly volunteer but from which he will never return . the girl ( a remarkable performance from tatyana samojlova ) be also love by the young man cousin and and when she doesn not receive word from her boyfriend and give in to the latter and marries him . he and however and be an aspire concert pianist bitter about the war have curtail his chance for success and and know too that the girl still devote to the soldier and begin to neglect her . finally and word reach the girl of her loved one death but and by the end of the film and she have learn to accept this a a sacrifice to their native country and be content to live with her memory of him . the film feature some truly amazing camera work which make extremely judicious use of the screen space and and by frequently adopt track and tilt and high or low angle shot and render great power to the unfolding emotional drama . individual sequence be equally impressive two in particular represent the stunning scene and frenetically edit and speed up to boot and in which the girl save an abandon boy from be trample by a truck while and the young man premature demise in an unfortunate incident at the front and undoubtedly one of the best of it kind i have ever watch ( with the sun move away from him and symbolize the life that seep out of his body and a he imagine the wedding day he will never have . ) . also notable and however and be the scene where the girl go to look for her parent in her home that be hopelessly devastate during an air raid while as be her final violent capitulation to the concert pianist which she try to resist by repeatedly slap him in the face take place during a late air raid and make particularly effective use of a set of billow curtain . disappointingly and the r1 dvd of this outstanding film be a bare bone affair ( the ruscico edition feature a few supplement but and be an export and tend to be heavily overprice and hard to track down to boot . ) while criterion release it in conjunction with another war theme russian classic and ballad of a soldier ( 1959 ) which my pal at the local dvd rental outlet have tell me be forthcoming . the only other film i have watch from this director be the arctic epic the red tent ( 1969 while albeit via the much short u. s. release version . ) and a star stud international production base on true event while give the unmistakable artistic quality of the crane be fly and i regret miss out now on his famous documentary i be cuba ( 1964 ) a number of time when i be in hollywood late last year represent apart from receive a one week theatrical run and it be show more than once on tv accompany by a feature length making of .