In a previous blog, I described a Russian-produced film called ‘Boomer’. However, I would be sinning if I did not present the films of Soviet cinema classics, which are still watched with nostalgia and joy to this day, by young and old alike. So what if some of these films are known by heart, but we too have our ‘gems’, such as ‘Sami swoi’, ‘Wanted, wanted’, etc., where we also know these films by heart and can watch them hundreds of times, and still never get bored. But let’s get back to the topic of the blog, i.e. Soviet cinema films, which, when watched repeatedly, evoke many emotions: “Бриллиантовая рука”, “Иван Васильевичь меняет професссию”, “Кавказская пленница”, “Белое солнце пустыни”, “Операция “ы””, “12 стульев”, “Золотой теленок”, “Чародей”, “Забытая мелодия для флейты”, “Человек с Бульвара Капуцинов”, “Семь нянь”, “Усатый нянь”, “Карнавальная ночь”, “Ирония судьбы или с легким паром”.
Of the above-mentioned films, the film “Ирония судьбы или с легким паром” (translated as “The Irony of Fate”) deserves special attention. The 1975 film was directed by Eldar Ryazanov, with the main roles brilliantly played by Barbara Brylska and Andrei Miagkov. Every year, and especially on 31 December, Russian television broadcasts this film, the plot of which begins on New Year’s Eve, somewhere in Moscow. A group of friends, at the invitation of the main character, Zhenya, meet in a bathhouse. As the meeting was purely men’s and was spiked with vodka, as a result of an ‘unexpected change of places’ and the amount of alcohol consumed, Zhenia boards the plane to Leningrad instead of her friend. Waking up at the Leningrad airport, Zhenya thinks she is still in Moscow, gets into a taxi and goes home. Everything is correct – the address is the same as in Moscow, the block, the flat number, the key to the flat, the furniture even the same. What is the surprise when the rightful owner, Nadia (played by Barbara Brylska), enters this flat, and a strange, half-naked, drunk man lies in bed. And at that moment, the story that changed the fate of both characters begins. I invite you to watch this film.
