irony of fate

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Movie
German title irony of fate
Original title Ирония судьбы, или С легким паром
(Ironija sudby, ili S ljochkim parom)
Country of production USSR
original language Russian
Publishing year 1975
length 184 minutes
Age rating FSK -
Rod
Director Eldar Ryazanov
script Emil Braginski
Eldar Ryazanov
production Mosfilm
music Mikael Tariwerdiev
camera Vladimir Nachabzew
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Irony of Fate. The continuation

Ironically ( Russian Ирония судьбы или С лёгким паром / Ironija sudby ili S ljochkim parom , eigtl. Irony of fate or with light steam ), a Soviet's television film of Eldar Ryazanov from the year 1975. The main roles played Andrei Myagkov and Polish Actress Barbara Brylska . To this day, the film is broadcast on Russian television every year on New Year's Day and enjoys cult status . It is as much a part of the Russian New Year's television program as Dinner for One is part of the German New Year's television program.

The three-hour film is a romantic love comedy, it consists of two parts that are usually shown with a short break one after the other.

The first broadcast of the film on Soviet television took place on January 1, 1976. Immediately afterwards, the telegrams of enthusiastic viewers arrived at the station every minute. By the time the film was first rerun on February 7, tens of thousands of citizens of the Soviet Union had sent a telegram or letter. The film was also shown in theaters, with a reduced number of 295 copies and approximately 7 million viewers.

Story and original film title

The film is a film adaptation of the play "Congratulations on the sauna!" Or Once upon a New Year's Eve. "By Emil Braginski and Eldar Ryazanov, who later also wrote the script. The play was written in 1969 and by the time the film was made it had already been performed successfully in a number of theaters across the Soviet Union. With this film, a period began in Eldar Ryazanov's filmmaking, in which he combined the comical and serious, in which he approached melodrama and even tragicomedy . In his previous cinematic creative period, Eldar Ryazanov had made films in his opinion, for the caution, car thief! was a case in point.

The Russian film title "Ирония судьбы или С лёгким паром!" (German transcription: "Ironija sudby ili S ljogkim parom!") Literally means "irony of fate or congratulations on the banya!". Whereby “S ljogkim parom!” Strictly speaking means “With light steam!”, A congratulatory formula after the steam bath that is not used in German-speaking countries.

As soon as the film was released, it became a tradition in the former Soviet Union to broadcast this film on one of the central Soviet television channels on New Year's Eve or New Year's Eve, and it was often also broadcast by local television stations.

action

The feature film begins with a satirical animation sequence about prefabricated buildings that are identical in all cities . The director and animator of this part was Vitaly Peskov .

Some friends meet in a Moscow banya to celebrate New Year's Eve. There is beer and vodka drinking until all eventually are drunk. Ending the old year in the banya is an old Russian custom to receive the new year cleanly. An important utensil for the sauna is the Wenik ("sauna rod").

Later, the four drunk friends drive to the airport because one of the friends was supposed to fly to Leningrad that evening . Two of the friends, including the hero of the film Shenya, fall asleep due to excessive alcohol consumption and cannot be woken up. The rest of the friends can't remember which of the two should get on the plane. Erroneously, the completely drunk Schenja, the main male character in the film, is put on the plane to Leningrad instead of his friend.

He wakes up at Leningrad Airport believing that he is still in Moscow and takes a taxi to go home. He gives the taxi driver his address (“3. Straße der Bauarbeiter”, building 25, apartment 12) and the taxi driver drives off. It turns out that there is a street of the same name in Leningrad. In addition, the new development area that the taxi will bring Schenja to looks exactly like the one in Moscow. Already in the introductory sequence of the film, animated sequences indicate that the buildings and street names are uniform throughout the Soviet Union.

Shenya's key also fits into the strange apartment, which - still completely drunk - he considers his own. The standard socialist interior is also similar to that of his Moscow apartment, so that he does not notice his mistake and goes to sleep.

Shortly afterwards, Nadja, the main female character in the film, who lives in the apartment, comes home and finds the man, completely unknown to her, in her bed. She thinks he is a burglar and tries to drive him away. Since he only reacts repulsively in his sleep, she rudely wakes him up with a jug full of water. Before she can convince him that he is in someone else's apartment and should leave, Nadja's fiancé Ippolit rings the doorbell. Ippolit suspects Nadja of having cheated on him and storms off indignantly.

Schenja is now trying to return to Moscow as quickly as possible, where his fiancée is waiting for him. Unfortunately, there are temporarily no flights to Moscow at this time. After some back and forth, Nadja and Schenja finally fall in love.

backgrounds

The film is also a parody of the Soviet housing policy, which produced prefabricated housing estates that looked the same across the country, just as the individual houses, apartments and their interiors always looked the same. This fact is discussed in a short animated film in the opening credits .

Irony of Fate is also a music film. Again and again the protagonists pick up the guitar and intend songs. Verses by well-known poets of the Soviet Union were set to music, such as Marina Tsvetaeva , Boris Pasternak , Bella Akhmadulina , Vladimir Kirschon , Evgeni Evtuschenko , Mikhail Lwowski , Alexander Aronow and Alexander Kotschetkow (read out without music). For the German version of the film (premiered on October 31, 1976 in the first program on East German television ), songs and poems by Boris Brainin (Sepp Österreicher) were retouched.

Others

  • The Polish Barbara Brylska has indeed spoken the entire text in Russian and sung, but was from because of her Polish accent in the film Valentina Talysina synchronized. Talysina also plays a role in the film (Walja, Nadja's girlfriend). That's why she practically speaks to herself in two scenes. However, due to skillful acting and different intonations, this is hardly noticeable for the audience.
  • Alla Pugacheva and Sergei Nikitin , who sang the songs instead of the actors Barbara Brylska and Andrei Mjagkow, are not mentioned in the credits .
  • In a cameo, Eldar Ryazanov played an exasperated passenger on the plane who is constantly bumped into by the drunk Shenya Lukashin. Ryazanov has a guest role in each of his films. In the sequel, Ironija Sudby. Prodolschenije , by the way, Ryazanov repeated his guest appearance again and was allowed to be jostled again - this time by Konstantin Chabensky .
  • The shooting took place in the prefabricated building in Moscow on Vernadsky Prospect 125. The Leningrad house was actually filmed in the neighborhood, on 113 Vernadsky Prospect. Although the two houses are supposed to represent the typical standard prefabricated buildings of the Soviet Union, they actually belonged to an experimental project.
  • The house at 125 Wernadski Prospekt was filmed in 1970 by Vittorio De Sica in the film Sunflowers - in the same setting as in Irony of Fate .
  • Nadja shows Lukashin something: her apartment doesn't have 32 m² of living space, but a lot more.
  • When Ippolit visited Nadja for the first time, the 1974 film Solomennaya Schljapka was shown on television . Among other things, the actress Lyudmila Gurchenko appeared there, who had previously starred in many of Eldar Ryazanov's films. There was no role for her in Irony of Fate , but the director found a way to have her appear in the film.
  • Legend has it that the phrase "Now comes warm" [water] was improvised . When shooting this take, unexpectedly warm water should actually have run out of the tap. The same should also apply to the cult phrase from the film “What a mess your jellied fish is” - the actors had to eat what was prepared in the Mosfilm canteen .
  • The same bottle of 5-star cognac appeared in 3 episodes: on the table in Moscow, in Leningrad (full) and on the table in the airport restaurant (empty).
  • The box of “foam cake in chocolate” appears twice: at the beginning of the film it is sold, the next day Schenja Lukaschin's friends bring it with them. It almost looks as if Pawlik (played by Alexander Schirwindt ) bought the box and carried it around with him for two days - because foam cakes in chocolate were rarely available in the USSR.
  • First Oleg Bassilashvili was supposed to play Ippolit, but he had to cancel the shoot after the death of his father. He was replaced by Yuri Yakovlev . In one scene, however, Bassilashvili can be seen: when Nadja picks up his photo from the snow. This scene could not be re-shot because the snow had thawed in the meantime.
  • It once has a “3. Street of Construction Workers ”in Moscow - but only until 1958. Now it is Maria Uljanowa Street.

Awards

In 1977, the following contributors to the film were awarded the USSR State Prize for the film Irony of Fate :

  • Emil Braginski - screenwriter
  • Eldar Ryazanov - screenwriter and director
  • Vladimir Nachabzew - camera
  • Mikael Tariwerdijew - film music
  • Andrei Myagkov - as the main male character Shenya Lukashin
  • Barbara Brylska - as the main female character, Nadja Shevelyova

continuation

2007 was a sequel to the film Ironija Sudby. Prodolschenije filmed, in which the actors of the first part Andrei Mjagkow, Barbara Brylska and Juri Jakowlew play, but also today's Russian stars. Director Eldar Ryazanov refused to direct. This was then taken over by the Russian star director Timur Bekmambetow . So far (until January 28, 2008) the sequel has grossed the equivalent of 47,639,171 US dollars in Russia alone, making it the most successful Russian feature film of all time.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Where am I? in Süddeutsche Zeitung of December 29, 2012, page V2
  2. ↑ http://www.brainin.org/Sepp_Oesterreicher/
  3. ↑ "Irony of Fate or Good Steam". Music from the Russian cult film ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Article dated January 4, 2009, accessed July 21, 2015.
  4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated January 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Russian)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kinobusiness.com

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