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The Cranes Are Flying poster

Movies that feel likeThe Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

If you loved The Cranes Are Flying, the closest films we have are Ashes and Diamonds (1958), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Mrs. Miniver (1942). All three share The Cranes Are Flying's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Earrings of Madame de... (1953).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Mikhail Kalatozovcontemplativeromantictenderbleak
9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If The Cranes Are Flying hit the spot, these will too

Ashes and Diamonds poster
Ashes and Diamonds
1958 · dir. Andrzej Wajda
🍅 96%★ 7.7drama · war · romanceMax

The same two preoccupations: world war ii, and black and white

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

From Here to Eternity poster
From Here to Eternity
1953 · dir. Fred Zinnemann
🍅 88%★ 7.6war · romance · dramaPrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: world war ii

In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Mrs. Miniver poster
Mrs. Miniver
1942 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 93%★ 7.6drama · romance · war

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

The Best Years of Our Lives poster
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 97%★ 8.1drama · romance · warPrime Video

Contemplative where it counts, romantic underneath

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Battle for Sevastopol poster
Battle for Sevastopol
2015 · dir. Sergey Mokritsky
★ 7war · drama · romancePrime Video

The same mix in both: tenderness, then bleakness

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

The story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

Wings poster
Wings
1927 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 94%★ 7.5drama · action · war

One thread runs through both: battlefield

The difference: Leans harder into action than The Cranes Are Flying does

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.

La Jetée poster
La Jetée
1962 · dir. Chris Marker
🍅 90%★ 8.2drama · romance · science fiction

Drama built on stillness, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to science fiction than The Cranes Are Flying does

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

The Earrings of Madame de... poster
The Earrings of Madame de...
1953 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 97%★ 7.8drama · romanceMax

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

The difference: Trades the bleakness of The Cranes Are Flying for an angle of its own

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

To Live poster
To Live
1994 · dir. Zhang Yimou
🍅 87%★ 8.3drama · romance · war

War with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

Summer with Monika poster
Summer with Monika
1953 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.5drama · romance

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

One summer day, two teens begin a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

Children of Paradise poster
Children of Paradise
1945 · dir. Marcel Carné
🍅 98%★ 8.3drama · romance

Romantic romance in both cases

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Doctor Zhivago poster
Doctor Zhivago
1965 · dir. David Lean
🍅 82%★ 7.9drama · romance · war

Both lean on bleakness more than on war

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Cranes Are Flying’s defining feeling.