Neither made my ballot, but I love both of them. Here are my reviews of each film:
The Cranes Are Flying (1957) -
WARNING: spoilers below
While I'm not the biggest fan of classic romance films, I was definitely eager to watch this film as I've been meaning to get to it for a while. While I'm not sure I consider it to be a great film, I liked a lot about it and another viewing may get me to like it even more.
After finishing it, I was rather surprised as to how it was a fairly low-key romance. After Boris left for WWII, most of the film followed Veronika's attempts of coping with his absence and the fear of him being killed, while she was stuck in a loveless relationship with Mark. Due to this, the film maintained a steady atmosphere of despair, yet never felt like it was wallowing in this. A major thing which sets this film above most other classical romances I've seen is that it refuses to tie itself up into a neat bow in terms of its emotional register. Many tragedies befall Veronika and, though she isn't able to recover from all of them, the ending shows that, even if she can't be made whole again, she can still move on. I found the ending to be more layered and impactful than what I normally see in romance films.
The camerawork and editing were also really impressive. The how-did-they-shoot-that scene of Boris running up a set of stairs as the camera followed him was pretty great, a dreamlike sequence of Boris imagining a wedding between he and Veronika was nothing short of technically impressive, and the air raid shown from the perspective of Veronika's apartment ranks among the most claustrophobic things I've seen in film in a while. I also appreciated how some of the lighting used in the happier and playful moments of the film had a strong, dreamlike glare to it (as could be seen with the sunlight in the opening, for example). These scenes caused the film to be stylistically impressive and they make me more excited to watch Kalatozov's Letter Never Sent.
With all that being said, while there's a lot to love about this film, I'll need to watch it again to decide if I think it's great or just really good since I'm still mulling over a major directorial choice in it. Around the middle of the film, Boris is killed in the war while on a reconnaissance mission. While his death is certainly unexpected and among the most visually and technically impressive scenes in the film, I did wonder whether his death would've had a stronger impact had it been saved for later. As it stood, I felt that his death sacrificed some of the narrative tension I enjoyed over whether he'd survive. To be fair though, this was in service of setting up an even bleaker tone in the second half with Mark being more at the forefront. Since I'm not quite sure what to make of that scene and the effect it has on the film as of now though, I'll have to rewatch the film to decide whether I liked this choice or not.
Regardless of what direction the film goes in in the second half though, I quite enjoyed this film and I found that it mostly lived up to its reputation as a great film. Another viewing may get me to like it even more.
While I'm not the biggest fan of classic romance films, I was definitely eager to watch this film as I've been meaning to get to it for a while. While I'm not sure I consider it to be a great film, I liked a lot about it and another viewing may get me to like it even more.
After finishing it, I was rather surprised as to how it was a fairly low-key romance. After Boris left for WWII, most of the film followed Veronika's attempts of coping with his absence and the fear of him being killed, while she was stuck in a loveless relationship with Mark. Due to this, the film maintained a steady atmosphere of despair, yet never felt like it was wallowing in this. A major thing which sets this film above most other classical romances I've seen is that it refuses to tie itself up into a neat bow in terms of its emotional register. Many tragedies befall Veronika and, though she isn't able to recover from all of them, the ending shows that, even if she can't be made whole again, she can still move on. I found the ending to be more layered and impactful than what I normally see in romance films.
The camerawork and editing were also really impressive. The how-did-they-shoot-that scene of Boris running up a set of stairs as the camera followed him was pretty great, a dreamlike sequence of Boris imagining a wedding between he and Veronika was nothing short of technically impressive, and the air raid shown from the perspective of Veronika's apartment ranks among the most claustrophobic things I've seen in film in a while. I also appreciated how some of the lighting used in the happier and playful moments of the film had a strong, dreamlike glare to it (as could be seen with the sunlight in the opening, for example). These scenes caused the film to be stylistically impressive and they make me more excited to watch Kalatozov's Letter Never Sent.
With all that being said, while there's a lot to love about this film, I'll need to watch it again to decide if I think it's great or just really good since I'm still mulling over a major directorial choice in it. Around the middle of the film, Boris is killed in the war while on a reconnaissance mission. While his death is certainly unexpected and among the most visually and technically impressive scenes in the film, I did wonder whether his death would've had a stronger impact had it been saved for later. As it stood, I felt that his death sacrificed some of the narrative tension I enjoyed over whether he'd survive. To be fair though, this was in service of setting up an even bleaker tone in the second half with Mark being more at the forefront. Since I'm not quite sure what to make of that scene and the effect it has on the film as of now though, I'll have to rewatch the film to decide whether I liked this choice or not.
Regardless of what direction the film goes in in the second half though, I quite enjoyed this film and I found that it mostly lived up to its reputation as a great film. Another viewing may get me to like it even more.
La Dolce Vita (1960) -
I've talked about my relationship with Fellini in the past, but everything I've seen from him so far has left me cold. In addition to this film, I've also seen 8 1/2 and La Strada. While I don't have any issues with those films per se, I felt like they flew over my head. Given that, I wasn't so hot on rewatching this film concerning its 3 hour runtime, but to my surprise, I ended up liking it quite a lot. Though I'm not sure I loved it per se, it's definitely made me more eager to revisit 8 1/2 and La Strada.
On the surface, this film is lovely to look at. It largely consists of various parties Marcello goes to, where he's surrounded by his friends and various women he intends to start a successful relationship with. The deeper one delves into these scenes, however, Marcello's lifestyle feels less like a utopia and more like a prolonged mid-life crisis. The great tragedy of Marcello is that he desperately craves a change in scenery, yet every event he attends results in the same scenery and a similar outcome of winding up back at square one. Instead of abandoning this unfulfilling lifestyle though, he keeps on attending these parties, experiencing more and more failed relationships along the way. Though it's unclear what he wants, there seems to be something he intends to obtain from this lifestyle before he fades away from it altogether, except, one party after another, his attempts keep falling flat. On the surface, it could be said that his intention is to start a successful relationship, but I think his motives are more complex than this. He's already engaged to Emma, yet cheats on her and shows little interest in their relationship. However, if their relationship seems as if it's about to be destroyed, he attempts to prevent that from happening. This raises questions on whether he even knows what he wants. Whatever his intentions are, it's clear his desires won't be fulfilled in his current state.
The most commonly criticized aspect of this film is its length. While I'm not going to pretend the movie kept me fully engaged all throughout (I felt its length in a couple party scenes in the latter half), I think its length was part of the point. I love how Rotten Tomatoes has "...La Dolce Vita remains riveting in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- its sprawling length." in the film's Critical Consensus. Marcello seems trapped in a never ending cycle of attending parties and forming relationships, yet always ends up unfulfilled. His response to these failed attempts are to try again and again until something finally works out. In that sense, the repetition adds more layers to Marcello's characterization. I suspect that another rewatch will make this aspect more profound. As it currently stands, I struggled with the film somewhat (albeit, far less than I did when I first watched it), but the odds of me revisiting it are definitely much higher than they previously were.
Overall, I really liked this film. Brimming with bloat and repetition, it's not for everyone, but there's definitely a lot going on in the film beyond presenting a gorgeous portrait of nightlife in Rome interspersed with some drama. It's not quite a great film for me (again though, I suspect I'll like it more with another viewing), but it's grown on me to the point it's now my favorite of Fellini's films.