Wings (1966 film)

Wings
File:Wingsfilmposter.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Larisa Shepitko
Produced by	V. Maslov
Written by	Valentin Ezhov Natalya Ryazantseva
Music by	Roman Ledenyov
Cinematography	Igor Slabnevich
Edited by	L. Lysenkova
Production company	Mosfilm
Release dates	10 November 1966 (1966-11-10)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Wings (Russian: Крылья, tr. Krylya) is a 1966 Soviet black-and-white drama film directed by Larisa Shepitko, her first feature film made after graduating from the All-Russian State Institute for Cinematography.

Plot

Nadezhda Petrukhina, a once heroic Soviet fighter pilot, is now living a quiet, disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal.

Cast

• Maya Bulgakovа as Nadezhda Petrukhina
• Zhanna Bolotova as Tanya
• Pantelemion Krymov as Pavel Gavrilovich
• Leonid Dyachkov as Mitya Grachov
• Vladimir Gorelov as Igor
• Yury Medvedev as Boris Grigoryevich
• Nikolay Grabbe as Kostya Shuvalov
• Zhanna Aleksandrova as Zinka
• Sergei Nikonenko as Sergei Bystryakov
• Rimma Markova as Shura
• Arkady Trusov as Morozov
• Olga Gobzeva as Journalist

Party Guests

• Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev as Misha
• Igor Kashintsev as Andrei
• Vitali Vulf as Party Guest
• Valery Zalivin as Party Guest

Minor Characters

• Vladimir Burmistrov as Cadet
• Natalya Gitserot as School Secretary Natalya Maksimilyanovna
• Pavel Gurov as Tailor
• Pyotr Dolzhanov as Vladimir Danilovich
• Mariya Kravchunovskaya as Bystryakov's Neighbor
• Boris Yurchenko as Sinitsin
• Alevtina Rumyantsev as Museum Tour Guide (Voice: Mariya Vinogradova)
• Lev Vainshtein as Council Member
• Ivan Turchenko as Council Member
• Dmitry Nikolayev as Boy Next Door

Release

The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2008 through its Eclipse series as part of a box set together with The Ascent.

Reception

Film critic Paul Schrader chose the film as one of his top ten favorite Criterion releases. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has called it a "lovely and nuanced character study," an analysis repeated by critic Michael Koresky's description of the film as a "penetrating character study." Critic David Sterritt wrote that it is "a remarkable movie, especially for a directorial debut," while another critic, Dave Kehr, wrote that Shepitko learned from Alexander Dovzhenko how "to bend documentary style realism to more subjective, poetic ends". Similarly, Senses of Cinema praised the film's "rich layers of meaning," DVD Verdict wrote that the "most astonishing thing about Wings is how young Shepitko was when she directed it. It feels like the work of an older director, one who would understand what it's like to live in the shadow of your younger self" and that much of the film's "success leans on the performance of Bulgakova, and she does deliver a phenomenal performance. On a whole, the film doesn't stand out in terms of its storytelling or cinematography, but as a sensitive human portrait, it truly is remarkable," and critic Dennis Schwartz called it a "brilliantly conceived work of art." In Sight & Sound's 2012 survey of 846 critics, programmers, academics, and distributors as well as 358 directors intended to decide which are greatest films ever made, the film reached the 588th place in the critics' poll with Sergio Grmek Germani and Erica Gregor giving it their votes and the 322nd place in the directors' poll with Carol Morley and Vlado Škafar voting for the film.

External links

• Wings at IMDb
• Wings at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wings at AllMovie
• Wings at the TCM Movie Database