Irony of Fate
Encyclopedia
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! is a Soviet comedy
-drama
directed by Eldar Ryazanov
as a made-for-TV movie. The screenplay was written by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov, loosely based on Ryazanov's 1971 play Once on New Year's Eve . For distribution outside of the Soviet Union, the film was titled Happy New Year. The movie was filmed in 1975 at Mosfilm
. Simultaneously a screwball comedy
and a love story tinged with sadness, the film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and the former Soviet republics and satellite states every New Year's Day
. It is viewed as fondly every year as is the American film It’s a Wonderful Life during the Christmas holidays.
A sequel, The Irony of Fate 2
was released in December 2007.
public architecture. This is made explicit in a humorous animated
prologue, in which architects are overruled by politicians and red tape. This results in the entire planet being polluted with identical, unimaginative multistory apartment buildings - of the sort that can, in fact, be found in the suburbs of every city and town across the former Soviet Union. These buildings are uniform right down to the door key of each apartment. The rest of the film is live-action.
Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya
(a traditional public bath) in Moscow
to celebrate New Year's Eve
(Новогодняя Ночь, Novogodnyaya Noch). The friends all get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrei Myagkov
) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a plane to Leningrad
; Zhenya, on the other hand, is supposed to go home to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancée. Both Zhenya and Pavlik pass out. The others cannot remember which of their unconscious friends is supposed to be catching the plane; eventually they mistakenly decide that it is Zhenya and put him on a plane instead of Pavlik. On the plane, he collapses onto the shoulder of his annoyed seatmate, played by the director himself (Ryazanov) in a brief comedic cameo appearance
. The seatmate helps Zhenya get off the plane in Leningrad. He wakes up in Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He stumbles into a taxi and, still quite drunk, gives the driver his address. It turns out that in Leningrad there is a street with the same name (3rd Builders' street), with a building at his address which looks exactly like Zhenya's. The key fits in the door of the apartment with the same number (as alluded to in the introductory narration, "...building standard apartments with standard locks"). Inside, even the furniture and layout of the apartment is nearly identical to that of Zhenya's apartment. Zhenya is too drunk to notice the differences, and goes to sleep.
Later, the real tenant, Nadya Shevelyova (Barbara Brylska
), arrives home to find a strange man sleeping in her bed. To make matters worse, Nadya's fiancé, Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), arrives before Nadya can convince Zhenya to get up and leave. Ippolit becomes furious, refuses to believe Zhenya and Nadya's explanations, and storms out. Zhenya desperately tries to get back to Moscow, and Nadya herself wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, but unfortunately there are no flights to Moscow until the next morning. Thus the two are compelled to spend New Year's Eve together. At first they continue to treat each other with animosity, but gradually their behavior softens and the two fall in love. Comedic moments punctuated by unexpected guests, the repeated returns of the jealous Ippolit, the buzzing of the doorbell, and the ringing of the phone are interwoven with the slowly developing love story. In the morning, they feel that everything that has happened to them was a delusion, and they make the difficult decision to part. With a heavy heart, Zhenya returns to Moscow. Meanwhile Nadya reconsiders everything and, deciding that she might have let her chance at happiness slip away, takes a plane to Moscow following Zhenya, easily finding him in Moscow, since their addresses are the same.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
-drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
directed by Eldar Ryazanov
Eldar Ryazanov
Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov is a Soviet/Russian film director whose comedies, satirizing the daily life of the country, are very famous throughout the former Soviet Union....
as a made-for-TV movie. The screenplay was written by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov, loosely based on Ryazanov's 1971 play Once on New Year's Eve . For distribution outside of the Soviet Union, the film was titled Happy New Year. The movie was filmed in 1975 at Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
. Simultaneously a screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
and a love story tinged with sadness, the film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and the former Soviet republics and satellite states every New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
. It is viewed as fondly every year as is the American film It’s a Wonderful Life during the Christmas holidays.
A sequel, The Irony of Fate 2
The Irony of Fate 2
The Irony of Fate 2 or The Irony of Fate: Continuation is a 2007 Russian romantic comedy film directed by Timur Bekmambetov based on a screenplay by Alexey Slapovskiy produced by Channel One and released by Mosfilm...
was released in December 2007.
Plot
The key to the plot is the relative uniformity of Brezhnev eraBrezhnev stagnation
The Era of Stagnation, also known as Brezhnev stagnation or the Stagnation Period, refers to a period of economic stagnation under the rules of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in the history of the Soviet Union which started in the mid-1970s.-Terminology:Various authors...
public architecture. This is made explicit in a humorous animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
prologue, in which architects are overruled by politicians and red tape. This results in the entire planet being polluted with identical, unimaginative multistory apartment buildings - of the sort that can, in fact, be found in the suburbs of every city and town across the former Soviet Union. These buildings are uniform right down to the door key of each apartment. The rest of the film is live-action.
Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya
Banya (sauna)
Banya in Russian can refer to any kind of steam bath, but usually to the Russian type of sauna. In Bulgarian, banya usually refers to a bath and bathing...
(a traditional public bath) in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to celebrate New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
(Новогодняя Ночь, Novogodnyaya Noch). The friends all get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrei Myagkov
Andrey Myagkov
Andrey Vasilyevich Myagkov is a Soviet/Russian film and theater actor. He is best known for his roles in famous films directed by Eldar Ryazanov, such as The Irony of Fate , Office Romance , The Garage and A Cruel Romance .-Biography:Andrey Myagkov was born on July 8, 1938 in Leningrad, USSR...
) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a plane to Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
; Zhenya, on the other hand, is supposed to go home to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancée. Both Zhenya and Pavlik pass out. The others cannot remember which of their unconscious friends is supposed to be catching the plane; eventually they mistakenly decide that it is Zhenya and put him on a plane instead of Pavlik. On the plane, he collapses onto the shoulder of his annoyed seatmate, played by the director himself (Ryazanov) in a brief comedic cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
. The seatmate helps Zhenya get off the plane in Leningrad. He wakes up in Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He stumbles into a taxi and, still quite drunk, gives the driver his address. It turns out that in Leningrad there is a street with the same name (3rd Builders' street), with a building at his address which looks exactly like Zhenya's. The key fits in the door of the apartment with the same number (as alluded to in the introductory narration, "...building standard apartments with standard locks"). Inside, even the furniture and layout of the apartment is nearly identical to that of Zhenya's apartment. Zhenya is too drunk to notice the differences, and goes to sleep.
Later, the real tenant, Nadya Shevelyova (Barbara Brylska
Barbara Brylska
Barbara Brylska is a native Polish actress who also was featured in numerous films throughout the countries of the Warsaw Pact including the Soviet Union. She is noted especially for her role as Nadya in the 1975 Soviet comedy film Irony of Fate.-Biography:Barbara Brylska was born on June 5, 1941,...
), arrives home to find a strange man sleeping in her bed. To make matters worse, Nadya's fiancé, Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), arrives before Nadya can convince Zhenya to get up and leave. Ippolit becomes furious, refuses to believe Zhenya and Nadya's explanations, and storms out. Zhenya desperately tries to get back to Moscow, and Nadya herself wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, but unfortunately there are no flights to Moscow until the next morning. Thus the two are compelled to spend New Year's Eve together. At first they continue to treat each other with animosity, but gradually their behavior softens and the two fall in love. Comedic moments punctuated by unexpected guests, the repeated returns of the jealous Ippolit, the buzzing of the doorbell, and the ringing of the phone are interwoven with the slowly developing love story. In the morning, they feel that everything that has happened to them was a delusion, and they make the difficult decision to part. With a heavy heart, Zhenya returns to Moscow. Meanwhile Nadya reconsiders everything and, deciding that she might have let her chance at happiness slip away, takes a plane to Moscow following Zhenya, easily finding him in Moscow, since their addresses are the same.
Cast
- Andrey MyagkovAndrey MyagkovAndrey Vasilyevich Myagkov is a Soviet/Russian film and theater actor. He is best known for his roles in famous films directed by Eldar Ryazanov, such as The Irony of Fate , Office Romance , The Garage and A Cruel Romance .-Biography:Andrey Myagkov was born on July 8, 1938 in Leningrad, USSR...
as Zhenya - Barbara BrylskaBarbara BrylskaBarbara Brylska is a native Polish actress who also was featured in numerous films throughout the countries of the Warsaw Pact including the Soviet Union. She is noted especially for her role as Nadya in the 1975 Soviet comedy film Irony of Fate.-Biography:Barbara Brylska was born on June 5, 1941,...
as Nadya - Yuri Yakovlev as Ippolit
- Aleksandr Shirvindt as Pavel, Zhenya's friend
- Georgi BurkovGeorgi BurkovGeorgi Ivanovich Burkov was a Soviet film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1967 and 1988. He died on July 19, 1990 at the age of 57 due to thrombosis.-Selected filmography:Actor* Liberation * Stariki-razboyniki...
as Misha, Zhenya's friend - Liya AkhedzhakovaLiya AkhedzhakovaLiya Medzhidovna Akhedzhakova is a Soviet and Russian actress who is famous both for theater and cinema.-Biography:Akhedzhakova was born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. She grew up in a theatrical family in Maykop. Her Father Majid Salehovich Ahedzhakov was the principal director and her mother an...
as Tanya, Nadya's friend - Aleksandr Belyavskiy as Sasha, Zhenya's friend
- Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya as Zhenya's mother
- Olga Naumenko as Galya
- Gotlib Roninson as Zhenya's neighbour at the airport
- Eldar RyazanovEldar RyazanovEldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov is a Soviet/Russian film director whose comedies, satirizing the daily life of the country, are very famous throughout the former Soviet Union....
as Zhenya's neighbour in the plane - Lyubov Sokolova as Nadya's mother
- Valentina Talyzina as Valya, Nadya's friend; Nadya's voice