When Boris is shot and he begins to twirl, and there is a montage of the trees, and the flashback of him running up the stairs in a similar motion, and then the imaginary wedding ceremony, and it's all edited into one dreamy sequence, I thought I was going to die! What a scene!!! What a movie!!!!
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Yes, it's such a masterly scene! Being a guy I don't often cry in the movie theatre, and I had actually seen the film through on dvd before seeing it on the big screen (because I was writing about it for the film club that showed it) but it utterly punched me in the belly, watching it in the dark room. I felt a huge lump in my throat watching that scene. Very few serious directors would have dared to do it like that - in 99 out of 100 attempts it would have become cloying, but here it is genuinely tragic and beautifully done.
Part of the reason for its impact is that in most of the film, Boris and Veronika don't stand for anything but themselves. They are not made into symbols or "heroic types" - and that was a determined departure from older, Stalinist films. But in this one scene, Boris seamlessly merges with everyone else who died on the frontier fighting Hitler - or even as a civilian. He's still Boris, but he also becomes the unknown Russian soldier.
Mr.Hitler has made life very difficult for Shakespearian companies.
I seem to be late to this thread, but I just recently had the same experience on my first viewing last week. This was the most amazing scene that left me jaw-dropped in quite some time, floored me!!
Another great scene that takes my breath away is when Veronika runs up the stairs to her parents flat and when she finally arrives at the door and swings it open, the camera pans behind her to show the bombed city. Freakin incredible movie.. Also anyone who loves this movie has to check out Letter Never Sent blu-ray Criterion
I have to watch this film again soon - and Letter Never Sent, which is new to me - but there's no way I could forget its impact. Beautiful photography, great acting and many standout scenes. The one where Boris dies is indeed a gem, it's one of the most striking scenes of death in war I have ever seen. It has the power to punch your guts every bit as much as that famous news clip where the police chief of Saigon shoots a prisoner point blank in the street - but in a completely different way of course!
I still think very few directors would have had the nerve to do the scene in that way, nor would it have succeeded without the beuatiful, dignified photography and the flawless editing and music. It's a point where dream and inhuman realities meet and they just make the tragedy come out clearer.
You are a lunatic, Sir, and you're going to end up on the Russian front. I have a car waiting.
That was indeed a sublime scene and the way the two worlds were edited to be as one.
Never test the depth of the water with both feetshare
no way, it was cheesy as hell
so many movies, so little time