The Diamond Arm

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Brilliantovaya ruka
Film poster
Directed by	Leonid Gaidai
Produced by	Mosfilm
Written by	Leonid Gaidai Yakov Kostyukovsky Moris Slobodskoy
Starring	Yuri Nikulin Nina Grebeshkova Andrei Mironov Anatoli Papanov Nonna Mordyukova
Music by	Aleksandr Zatsepin
Cinematography	Igor Chernykh
Editing by	Valentina Yankovskaya
Release date(s)	1968
Running time	100 min.
Language	Russian
IMDb profile

Brilliantovaya ruka (Diamond Arm, Russian: Бриллиантовая рука) is a Russian film, which was filmed on Mosfilm and first released in 1968. It is sometimes credited as the best Russian comedy ever made. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, and Nonna Mordyukova. Brilliantovaya ruka is a spoof on James Bond or on James Bond-type action movies and has become a Russian cult film. It was also one of the all-time leaders at the Soviet box office with over 76,700,000 theatre admissions in the Soviet era.

[edit] Catch phrases

Many expressions from the movie have passed into everyday use. In fact, the movie is still so popular that many people claim they know its full text by heart.

"As a friend of mine... deceased now... used to say - I knew too much..."
"And if the tenants refuse to buy lottery tickets, we'll shut off the gas supply!"
"Only aristocrats and degenerates drink champagne in the morning..." (Шампанское по утрам пьют аристократы или дегенераты) (pauses, checks out the bottle and drinks right from it)
(tears in his eyes) "They might even give me an award... post-humo-usly!" (sniffs)
"You should come over and visit us in Kolyma (an infamous region in Russia's Far North where convicts are sent)." (Chokes on beer, coughing...) - "Thanks, but I'd rather you come here to see us."
Many people seriously think that "Tsigel" (Cigel, Ziegel) means "time" in some foreign language. The (fictional) phrase "Цигель, цигель, ай-люлю!" expresses hurry and urgency, either for real or as a mockery. (Occasionally, Ziegel is "brick" in German and Yiddish.)
"As our beloved Chief used to say..."
- "Strike iron without walking away from the cash register" (Куй железо не отходя от кассы) (a portmanteau of a proverb "Strike while the iron is hot" and an instruction for customers by each Soviet cashier's desk: "Count your money before walking away from the cash register")
- "When someone else is paying, even teetotallers and those with stomach ulcer like a drink!" In Russian it rhymes nicely: "За чужой счет пьют даже трезвенники... и язвенники!"
- "If a person is an idiot, it'll last a long time" (Если человек идиот, то это на долго)
A curse: "May you live only off your paycheck!" (Что б ты жил на одну зарплату!)
A curse: "May I see you in a coffin, in white slippers!" (Шоб я видел тебя в гробу у белых тапках!)
A mocking reproach: "Semyon Semyonych!..."
A comment to an embarrassing situation when a demo fails: "With an casual hand gesture, the pants are turning into... the pants are turning INTO... into a pair of elegant shorts!"
"Obliko morale" (a mockingly Italianized Russian term "moralny oblik" (моральный облик), "moral character", a part of the cliché "moral character of a Soviet person". In the film it was uttered by the character when he tried to circumnavigate a foreign prostitute: "Russo turisto! Obliko morale! Verstehen?".
"Flowers for his woman, ice cream for the kids. And don't mix it up, Kutuzov!" (Дитям мороженое, бабе цветы.... и не перепутай, Кутузов!)
"I'm not a coward... But I'm scared!"

VHS cover

"I've got an idea: what if I..." -- "You'd better not." -- "I see... Then, maybe I should..." -- "No, you shouldn't." -- "Okay... In that case, maybe at least you'd let me..." -- "Well, yeah, you might try that."
"I haven't yet seen a husband who wouldn't want to become a bachelor for just an hour..."
"As they say, that is c'est la vie!" (c'est la vie is French for "that is life")
"Hmm, well, we'll have to take appropriate action... What else can we do?"
"But Lyolik, that isn't aesthetic!" -- "But it's cheap, reliable and pragmatic." (rhymes nicely in Russian: "Лёлик, но это же не эстетично!" - "Зато дешево, надежно и практично.")
"I'll beat him carefully, but seriously..."
"Hey, buddy, got a cigarette?" (Gorbunkov stutters) "Hey, are you deaf?" -- "Yes."

The song "About Hares" from the film became a popular drinking song.

[edit] Screenshots

This episode was unusually explicit for a Soviet movie.	Anatoly Papanov as Lelik and Svetlana Svetlichnaya as Anna.	Yuri Nikulin as Semyon Semyonych Gorbunkov and Stanislav Chekan as Mikhal Ivanych.	Yuri Nikulin as Semyon Semyonych Gorbunkov and Grigori Shpigel and Leonid Kanevsky as Contrabandists.
Yuri Nikulin as Semyon Semyonych Gorbunkov and Andrei Mironov as Gesha