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The Letter Never Sent



The great Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov, known for his virtuosic, emotionally gripping films, perhaps never directed one more visually astonishing than Letter Never Sent. This absorbing tale of exploration and survival concerns four members of a geological expedition who are stranded in the bleak and unforgiving Siberian wilderness while on a mission to find diamonds. Luxuriating in wide-angle beauty and featuring one daring shot after another (the brilliant cinematography is by Kalatozov’s frequent collaborator Sergei Urusevsky), Letter Never Sent is a fascinating piece of cinematic history and a universal adventure of the highest order.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Dina Iordanova

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Insanely looking forward to this, though some extras would have been nice.

swo17 wrote:Insanely looking forward to this, though some extras would have been nice.

Well, it is at the lower tier price point which means you can pick it up for 20 bucks.

Only film of his I've seen is I Am Cuba. Excited to check this out.

Drucker, check out The Cranes Are Flying which is one of the absolute treasures of the collection, completely indespensible. I'm really bummed that we're getting dicked over again by not having any features with these Kalatozov films.

A blindbuy for me after I fell in love with I am Cuba via Milestone's marvellous cigar box DVD set. Criterion's most exciting 2012 release yet despite it being barebones.

If anyone is desperate to see it before time, or to just get a taster before the Blu-ray comes out, the film is up on the Mosfilm channel of the YouTube website with English subtitles ( :-$ )

Maybe the I am Cuba cigar box took everything ever said about Kalatozov? (though it came out after The Cranes Are Flying)

colinr0380 wrote:If anyone is desperate to see it before time, or to just get a taster before the Blu-ray comes out, the film is up on the Mosfilm channel of the YouTube website with English subtitles ( :-$ )

thanks

triodelover wrote:

swo17 wrote:Insanely looking forward to this, though some extras would have been nice.

Well, it is at the lower tier price point which means you can pick it up for 20 bucks.

You're doing it wrong if you're spending $20 on the lower tier titles.

Professor Wagstaff wrote:Drucker, check out The Cranes Are Flying which is one of the absolute treasures of the collection, completely indespensible. I'm really bummed that we're getting dicked over again by not having any features with these Kalatozov films.

I'm pretty sure we will get some features on a Cranes upgrade (or re-release). I doubt they will make that a $20 blu release when the DVD had been selling for more. So any features we need on Kalatozov will most likely be put on that.

Will definitely get this!

I've only seen a washed out 2nd gen VHS of this a few years back, and even then the cinematography was stunning. Couldn't be more excited.

I think it surely would have been possible for Criterion to put together a couple special features if they'd been so inclined. However, I was just about to say they should've gotten an interview with Josephine Woll, but just checked and found out she died a few years ago, which I hadn't realized. She had some interesting things to say about this film in her book on Cranes Are Flying, specifically about how and why it failed to meet critics' and audiences' sky-high expectations following Cranes. Surely she is missed. I'm not sure who could speak with similar expertise, but anyway perhaps Criterion feels that interviews or commentaries by actual film critics or scholars aren't what their customer base wants on most releases.

Gregory wrote:I think it surely would have been possible for Criterion to put together a couple special features if they'd been so inclined. However, I was just about to say they should've gotten an interview with Josephine Woll, but just checked and found out she died a few years ago, which I hadn't realized. She had some interesting things to say about this film in her book on Cranes Are Flying, specifically about how and why it failed to meet critics' and audiences' sky-high expectations following Cranes.

If anyone is tempted to read from the book before seeing The Unsent Letter (Woll's translation) should beware of major spoilers. The special features would be great to explore why the film failed expectations and the trying experiences of the cast/crew during principal photography.

Gregory wrote:I'm not sure who could speak with similar expertise, but anyway perhaps Criterion feels that interviews or commentaries by actual film critics or scholars aren't what their customer base wants on most releases.

Critical commentaries are, by definition, expensive.

While you might be able to persuade the director to reminisce in a recording studio for expenses only, a full-length screen-specific commentary by a third party involves a ton of research (even with a comparatively short feature, the word count will be at least equivalent to one of those 100-page BFI monographs), which obviously has to be paid for. So with an inescapably niche feature like this, it's a major budget commitment.

Saw this on VHS years ago, and would love to know more about the incredible location work, if nothing else. Not a 'great' film, imo -- something seems to be missing -- but a behind-the-scenes type doc would have been appreciated. The remarkable b&w cinematography is certainly it's greatest feature.

Please don't waste your energy watching an avi rip of this visual feast on youtube for christ sakes!!

Ranks with Arnold Facnks The Holy Mountain for the most jaw droppingly gorgeous location photography ever committed to film. . . and yet once again Kalatozov & Urusevsky get slighted in the extras department, despite providing some of the most phantasmagorical images in the whole collection.

Narratively, this isn't anywhere near as compelling as CRANES
but nonetheless maintains its grip on the viewer throughout the proceedings with spectacular location work and tight narrative unfolding. Between this and Salt for Svanetiacoming to dvd it's nice to see more of this masters filmography getting distribution this year.

HerrSchreck wrote:Between this and Salt for Svanetia coming to dvd it's nice to see more of this masters filmography getting distribution this year.

I can't wait - I remember when Sight & Sound did a feature on cinematography a few years back, and were casting around for recommendations for a top ten list, and I said "I know this is mainly going to be the usual suspects - Cardiff, Doyle, Storaro, etc. - but I'll be thrilled if you sneak Urusevsky in there". And I think they did, though I'd have to check.

But the Kalatozov/Urusevsky partnership is right up there with Welles/Toland, Bertolucci/Storaro, Jancsó/Kende and Eisenstein/Tisse, where the visual virtuosity, though often jaw-dropping (I still don't have a clue how the hell Urusevsky managed to pull off some of his shots) was absolutely at the service of the film itself. Except possibly in I am Cuba, which is almost entirely visual virtuosity, but the thinness of the material pretty much pushed them in that direction.

HerrSchreck wrote:Ranks with Arnold Fancks The Holy Mountain for the most jaw droppingly gorgeous location photography ever committed to film.

Okay, now I'm sold.

colinr0380 wrote:If anyone is desperate to see it before time, or to just get a taster before the Blu-ray comes out, the film is up on the Mosfilm channel of the YouTube website with English subtitles

Are you sure about those English subs? I don't seen anything.

I'm sure the Blu-ray will look better, but Hulu's print is in pretty good shape with some spots that aren't very noticeable once you get into the experience of this magnificent film. Though the subject matter is often bleak, the pervasive emotion I experienced while watching it was pure joy at the dynamic visual artistry on display. The posters above who have praised the cinematography as one of the medium's best examples are the reason I decided to check it out (haven't seen Cranes just yet...), and they were right! The angles, shadows, and camera movement become hypnotic and, in many places, the film has the appearance of a fever dream. Remove the dialogue and it would function as an extraordinarily effective silent film. This one's special. Thanks, guys.

Try pressing the red square that says "cc" for subtitles.

MichaelB wrote:

HerrSchreck wrote:Between this and Salt for Svanetia coming to dvd it's nice to see more of this masters filmography getting distribution this year.

I can't wait - I remember when Sight & Sound did a feature on cinematography a few years back, and were casting around for recommendations for a top ten list, and I said "I know this is mainly going to be the usual suspects - Cardiff, Doyle, Storaro, etc. - but I'll be thrilled if you sneak Urusevsky in there". And I thinUuk they did, though I'd have to check.

But the Kalatozov/Urusevsky partnership. . .

You and I think along the same lines. . . I always sort of saw them as the soviet union's Mann/ Alton. In fact if I dig around thru the forum archivers a bit I could find numerous such quotes by yours truly.

Youll love it Tom! There is a very nice european dvd release of the film somewhere out there . . I have a fansubbed custom version of it that I received from a good friend from overseas years ago.

This film is paired in my mind with Kuleshov's Pa zakonu -- 3 guys and a gal in Siberia. ;~}