Irony of Fate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is about a movie; for the eponymous concept, see Irony of fate (cosmic irony).
| Irony of Fate | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
|
| Directed by | Eldar Ryazanov |
| Written by | Emil Braginsky Eldar Ryazanov |
| Starring | Andrei Myagkov Barbara Brylska Yuri Yakovlev |
| Cinematography | Vladimir Nakhabtsev |
| Editing by | Valeriya Belova |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 192 min |
| Language | Russian |
| IMDb profile | |
Irony of Fate (original title: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!, in transcription: Ironiya Sudby ili S Lyogkim Parom) is a Soviet comedy-drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov. The screenplay was written by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov, and the movie was filmed in 1975 at Mosfilm. The film is traditionally shown on Russian TV every New Year's Eve and is as warmly viewed every year as the American film “It’s a Wonderful Life” is during the Christmas holidays. Many phrases from the film have become catch phrases in Russian.
The term "Irony of Fate" refers to gods toying with the lives of mortals. The second title, "S lyokhkim parom!" (literally something like "Here's to your light steam!") is an idiomatic expression used to compliment somebody who has just come out of the shower, the banya, or the bathtub ("lyokhkij par" translates to "light steam").
A large part of the plot revolves around what some perceive as the soullessness of Brezhnev era architecture.
The score to the film was composed by Mikael Tariverdiyev.
[edit] The story
Some friends meet at a banya in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve (Russian: Новогодняя Ночь, Novogodnyaya Noch). All of them get very drunk, and two of them, including the main character, Zhenya (Andrei Myagkov), pass out. The others forget which of their unconscious friends was meant to be catching a plane to Leningrad, and so Zhenya is put on the plane by accident instead of his friend. He wakes up at Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He gets into a taxi and gives the driver his address. It turns out that there exists a street in Leningrad with the same name, and a building which looks exactly like Zhenya's. The key fits in the door of the apartment, and even the layout of the apartment is the same. Zhenya is too drunk to notice any differences, and goes to sleep. Later, Nadya (Barbara Brylska), who lives in the apartment, comes home and finds a man she has never met before asleep in her bed. To make things worse, Nadya's fiance, Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), arrives before Nadya can convince Zhenya to wake up and leave. Zhenya desperately tries to get back to Moscow in time to spend New Year's Eve with his own fiancee, and Nadya wants to get him out as fast as possible, but unfortunately there are no flights to Moscow for some time. The plot starts out as a comedy, but later becomes more dramatic as it explores the developing relationship between Nadya and Zhenya, as well as their relationships with their fiancees. Initially, Nadya and Zhenya dislike each other intensely, but they eventually fall in love during the course of the movie.
An important note about the coincidence with the addresses: many street names are/were common to Soviet and now Russian cities (for example, Red October Street, Leninskaya, etc.). Many houses look identical, and even apartments look very much the same from the inside. Thus, e.g. nobody has to ask for directions to the toilet, because the toilet is always next to the kitchen, and knives are always in the same drawer in the same cupboard that was built in all apartments of a certain type. The fact that the key matches as well is probably a joke by the filmmakers, though many Soviet locks look very much the same.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Irony of Fate at the Internet Movie Database
- review at The New York Times
- Screenshots
- Trailer and Screenshots
