Ironiya sudby, ili S legkim parom! (1975) (TV)

Director:

Eldar Ryazanov

Writers:

Emil Braginsky (writer)
Eldar Ryazanov (writer)

Release Date:

31 December 1975 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Romance

Plot:

A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Years eve. Occasionally...

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | New Year | Love | Drunkenness | Dress

Cast

Andrey Myagkov	...	Zhenya
Barbara Brylska	...	Nadya
Yuriy Yakovlev	...	Ippolit
Aleksandr Shirvindt	...	Pavel, Zhenya's friend
Georgi Burkov	...	Misha, Zhenya's friend
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Liya Akhedzhakova	...	Nadya's friend
Aleksandr Belyavskiy	...	Sasha, Zhenya's friend
Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya	...	Zhenya's mother
Olga Naumenko	...	Galya
Gotlib Roninson	...	Zhenya's neighbour at the airport
Eldar Ryazanov	...	Zhenya's neighbour in the plane
Lyubov Sokolova	...	Nadya's mother
Valentina Talyzina	...	Nadya's friend and Nadya's voice

Also Known As:

Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (International: English title) (informal English title)

Runtime:

Soviet Union:192 min (2 parts) | Soviet Union:184 min (original release)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Cheremushki, Moscow, Russia

Company:

Mosfilm

Trivia:

The two apartment buildings on "3rd Constructors St., 25" which are supposed to be located in Moscow and Leningrad were actual buildings no. 125 and no. 113 on Vernadsky avenue in Moscow. They are only 700 meters apart. There is no "3rd Constructors St." neither in Moscow, nor in Leningrad / St. Petersburg.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The service phone number on Nadya's elevator is 241-84-44 and has 7 digits. However, phone numbers in Leningrad had only 6 digits in 1975 (whereas Moscow numbers had 7), thus revealing that the shooting was actually done in Moscow instead of Leningrad.

Quotes:

[Zhenya has just come back from chasing Ippolit]
Zhenya: I tried to chase him down, but he drove away... He drives faster than I run.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Ironiya sudby. Prodolzhenie (2007)

Soundtrack:

U zerkala

Truly wonderful, and with universal appeal

Let me sort out what in this film is Soviet, what is Russian, and what is universal.

Soviet is the background, including the cartoon which precedes the appearance of humans: a man with a tube kills any architect originality, even so innocent as balconies. As a consequence, the same buildings are put up in Artica as well in a southern desert before surprised camels. The Soviet reality is the basis of the plot with identical buildings in different cities. Also the New Year tree rather that the Christmas tree is Soviet. However, as the story unfolds, the Soviet reality recedes into little visible background. An exception is a line in one of the songs: if you do not have a dog, your neighbor cannot poison your dog.

Russian are the beautiful poems which are made into songs. There are also some views of Leningrad, but actually only a few, with the St. Isaac Basilica shown several times from different sides.

The cast and the technical crew are largely Russian, but not only. Obviously Armenian, Georgian and Jewish names are listed. The actress playing Nadya has been imported from Central Europe; Barbara Brylska is a Polish actress, well known also from a number of other movies made in Poland as well as in other countries.

The appeal of the film is truly universal ! This is the reason why viewers from countries so disparate as Latvia, Ukraine and China like this film so much (not to mention Texans). The love-jealousy quadrangle, two mothers, friends of Zhenya and colleagues of Nadya could have lived in many countries around the world. Even the story of the same address could have happened for instance in Germany where practically every city and town has Bahnhofstrasse and Poststrasse.

Finally, the atmosphere of this film is unique - a word which very rarely can be used discussing films. We have seen other films directed by Eldar Ryazanov, all of them good, but none comparable to this one. All that takes place in the film is plausible, it could have happened in reality. At the same time, there is the feeling of poetic, unreal and sublime. These two basically opposed reactions to the film coexist somehow in the viewer; this simply does not happen in movies, films directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski excepted. Irony of the Fate is a truly wonderful film, alive 30 years after being created; it will enchant future generations as well.