Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
Encyclopedia
Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures is a 1965 Soviet slapstick
comedy film
directed by Leonid Gaidai
, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko
, Natalya Seleznyova
, Yuri Nikulin
, Georgy Vitsin
and Yevgeny Morgunov
. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" (Напарник, Naparnik), "Déjà vu" (Наваждение, Navazhdeniye) and "Operation Y" (Операция „Ы“). The plot follows the adventures of Shurik (alternative spelling — Shourick), the naive and nerd
y Soviet student
who often gets into ludicrous situations but always finds a way out very neatly.
Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures was a hit movie and became the leader of Soviet film distribution in 1965.
, and when Fedya is urged to let him sit on his place, Shurik offers the seat to the woman. Fedya is enraged by being deceived and gets into a fight with Shurik. As a result, Fedya is arrested and sentenced for 15 days of Community service, Russian administrative arrest or simply '15 sutok' (15 days). Ironically, he is sent to serve his term to the same construction site where Shurik works part time. Moreover, the manager puts them into the same crew. Fedya does not do his work properly, bullies Shurik and plans to revenge. When Shurik finally hits back, the two get involved in a Tom and Jerry
-style chase throughout the construction site using building equipment and various materials as weapons. In the end Fedya is subdued and reeducated by Shurik.
They come into the girl's apartment and spend time there reading simultaneously with having a snack and resting, with the girl taking her clothes off, still completely unaware of each other's identity, then automatically prepare to go back to the University. There Shurik is distracted from Lida's notebook by a fellow student and loses her from his view. After passing the exam successfully, he is introduced to Lida by his coed. Shurik does not recognize Lida but is enchanted by her. He walks her back home and, following an amusing incident involving the dog of Lida's neighbors, finds himself in her apartment again, where he starts to feel as if he has been there before
since he can guess where all the things are placed and all the "objects, scents and sounds" seem familiar to him. Lida assumes that he might be a telepathist
and has an ability of precognition
. She tells him to guess her wish that she has written on a piece of paper, "Find the teddy bear
". Shurik then kisses her. Although he failed to guess the wish, the kiss evokes romantic feelings in both of them, and they decide to meet again after the next exam.
manager, trying to cover up his theft, hires three petty criminals nicknamed Fool (Балбес), Coward (Трус) and Experienced (Бывалый) to stage a break-in. Their elaborate plan goes wrong when Shurik is asked by his landlady, the elderly woman nicknamed Baboushka who usually guarded the warehouse, to work that night instead of her. Surprised, Coward fails to neutralize the guard using chloroform
as planned, putting himself to sleep instead. The culmination of the story is the "Warehouse Battle", involving Shurik and the criminals using various impromptu weapons such as musical instrument
s and rapier
s. The segment ends as agitated Baboushka arrives at the warehouse and finds Shurik and the trio lying on a floor asleep — Coward having fainted earlier on, Fool and Experienced being "rendered harmless" by Shurik, and Shurik himself fallen asleep after accidentally wiping his face with a handkerchief soaked in chloroform (which was meant to put him down initially by Coward).
magazine, won the Grand Prix Wawel Silver Dragon
at the Kraków Film Festival
in Poland
in 1965.
The film became a fount of quotes for Soviet/Russian people.
Slapstick film
Slapstick films are a type of comedy film that employ slapstick comedy with five main conventions:#Pain without real consequence.#Editing to turn a situation more unrealistic.#Impossible situations.#Zooms to confuse the audience....
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Leonid Gaidai
Leonid Gaidai
Leonid Iovich Gaidai was one of the most popular Soviet comedy directors, enjoying immense popularity and broad public recognition in the former USSR & modern Russia...
, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko
Aleksandr Demyanenko
Aleksandr Sergeievich Demyanenko was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR.-Early life:Aleksandr Demyanenko was born in Sverdlovsk, USSR in 1937. He went to a music school from 1946 to 1952. In 1954 he failed to enter the school of arts. In 1955, however, he...
, Natalya Seleznyova
Natalya Seleznyova
Natalya Igorevna Seleznyova is a Soviet and Russian actress.She first took the stage at the age of 6, participating in the Red Army Theatre plays....
, Yuri Nikulin
Yuri Nikulin
Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was a well-known Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films.He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990...
, Georgy Vitsin
Georgy Vitsin
Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin was a Soviet and Russian actor.- Biography :Born in St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, in 1918 , Vitsin enjoyed a long acting career and continued performing until close to the end of his life...
and Yevgeny Morgunov
Yevgeny Morgunov
Yevgeny Alexandrovich Morgunov was a Soviet and Russian actor, film director, and script writer, Meritorious Artist of Russian SFSR .-Early life:...
. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" (Напарник, Naparnik), "Déjà vu" (Наваждение, Navazhdeniye) and "Operation Y" (Операция „Ы“). The plot follows the adventures of Shurik (alternative spelling — Shourick), the naive and nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
y Soviet student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
who often gets into ludicrous situations but always finds a way out very neatly.
Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures was a hit movie and became the leader of Soviet film distribution in 1965.
Segment "Workmate"
- Aleksey Smirnov — Fedya the Boor
- Vladimir BasovVladimir BasovVladimir Pavlovich Basov was a Soviet actor, film director, and screenwriter. Vladimir Basov was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.-Biography:...
— The Strict Policeman - Emmanuil Geller — The Passenger with an Umbrella
- Rina Zelyonaya — A Woman in the bus
- Viktor Uralsky — The Cook at the Construction Site
- Mikhail PugovkinMikhail PugovkinMikhail Ivanovich Pugovkin was a Soviet/Russian comic actor named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1988.He studied in the Moscow Art Theatre school under Ivan Moskvin, took part in World War II and, following demobilisation, was featured in the 1944 all-star cast adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The...
— Pavel Stepanovich, Construction Works Manager - Valentina Berezutskaya — Expectant Mother
Segment "Déjà vu"
- Natalya SeleznyovaNatalya SeleznyovaNatalya Igorevna Seleznyova is a Soviet and Russian actress.She first took the stage at the age of 6, participating in the Red Army Theatre plays....
— Lida - Svetlana Ageyeva — Lida's friend
- Vladimir Rautbart — Professor
- Viktor Pavlov — "Dub"
- Valeri Nosik — The Student-gambler
- Georgi Georgiu — Lida's Neighbor
- Zoya Fedorova — Lida's Neighbor
Segment "Operation Y"
- Yuri NikulinYuri NikulinYuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was a well-known Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films.He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990...
— "Fool" - Georgy VitsinGeorgy VitsinGeorgy Mikhailovich Vitsin was a Soviet and Russian actor.- Biography :Born in St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, in 1918 , Vitsin enjoyed a long acting career and continued performing until close to the end of his life...
— "Coward" - Yevgeny MorgunovYevgeny MorgunovYevgeny Alexandrovich Morgunov was a Soviet and Russian actor, film director, and script writer, Meritorious Artist of Russian SFSR .-Early life:...
— "Experienced" - Vladimir Vladislavsky — The WarehouseWarehouseA warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
Manager - Maria Kravchunovskaya — The Gran
- Tanya Gradova — Lenochka
- V. Komarovsky — The Truck Driver
- Aleksey Smirnov — The Consumer at the Market
Segment "Workmate"
On a bus a boor and drunkard named Fedya takes a special seat for children and disabled persons and then refuses to let a young pregnant woman sit claiming that "she is neither child nor handicapped". Shurik, who is riding on the same bus, puts on sunglasses, pretends to be visually impairedBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
, and when Fedya is urged to let him sit on his place, Shurik offers the seat to the woman. Fedya is enraged by being deceived and gets into a fight with Shurik. As a result, Fedya is arrested and sentenced for 15 days of Community service, Russian administrative arrest or simply '15 sutok' (15 days). Ironically, he is sent to serve his term to the same construction site where Shurik works part time. Moreover, the manager puts them into the same crew. Fedya does not do his work properly, bullies Shurik and plans to revenge. When Shurik finally hits back, the two get involved in a Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
-style chase throughout the construction site using building equipment and various materials as weapons. In the end Fedya is subdued and reeducated by Shurik.
Segment "Déjà vu"
It's time for summer examinations at the University, and everyone is cramming for the exams. Shurik is looking desperately for lecture notes and finally sees them in the hands of a girl on a streetcar, Lida, who is a student of the same University. As Shurik follows her reading the notebook over her shoulder, they seem so deeply absorbed in reading that Lida is instinctively assumes Shurik is one of her female coeds, and he in turn is automatically playing up to that assumption.They come into the girl's apartment and spend time there reading simultaneously with having a snack and resting, with the girl taking her clothes off, still completely unaware of each other's identity, then automatically prepare to go back to the University. There Shurik is distracted from Lida's notebook by a fellow student and loses her from his view. After passing the exam successfully, he is introduced to Lida by his coed. Shurik does not recognize Lida but is enchanted by her. He walks her back home and, following an amusing incident involving the dog of Lida's neighbors, finds himself in her apartment again, where he starts to feel as if he has been there before
Déjà vu
Déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
since he can guess where all the things are placed and all the "objects, scents and sounds" seem familiar to him. Lida assumes that he might be a telepathist
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
and has an ability of precognition
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
. She tells him to guess her wish that she has written on a piece of paper, "Find the teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
". Shurik then kisses her. Although he failed to guess the wish, the kiss evokes romantic feelings in both of them, and they decide to meet again after the next exam.
Segment "Operation Y"
A warehouseWarehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
manager, trying to cover up his theft, hires three petty criminals nicknamed Fool (Балбес), Coward (Трус) and Experienced (Бывалый) to stage a break-in. Their elaborate plan goes wrong when Shurik is asked by his landlady, the elderly woman nicknamed Baboushka who usually guarded the warehouse, to work that night instead of her. Surprised, Coward fails to neutralize the guard using chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
as planned, putting himself to sleep instead. The culmination of the story is the "Warehouse Battle", involving Shurik and the criminals using various impromptu weapons such as musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s and rapier
Rapier
A rapier is a slender, sharply pointed sword, ideally used for thrusting attacks, used mainly in Early Modern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.-Description:...
s. The segment ends as agitated Baboushka arrives at the warehouse and finds Shurik and the trio lying on a floor asleep — Coward having fainted earlier on, Fool and Experienced being "rendered harmless" by Shurik, and Shurik himself fallen asleep after accidentally wiping his face with a handkerchief soaked in chloroform (which was meant to put him down initially by Coward).
Production
- The film was shot in LeningradLeningradLeningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, OdessaOdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, YaltaYaltaYalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
, MosfilmMosfilmMosfilm 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...
pavilions, Sviblovo district of Moscow and near the Moscow State UniversityMoscow State UniversityLomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
. The filming was started on July 27, 1964. In October bad weather in Moscow hindered completing the outdoors scenes, so the shooting was relocated in Odessa and was complete on November 22. The rest of the scenes were shot in Moscow and Leningrad. The lack of snow offered much difficulty filming the third episode about the burglary of a warehouse on a snowy winter night. In spring 1965 the editing of the film was mostly complete. The remaining short location shooting was made in Yalta. - The film's plot is based loosely on a screenplay written by Moris Slobodskoy and Yakov Kostyukovsky entitled Light-hearted Stories (Russian: Несерьёзные истории); it consisted of two novels about comical adventures of a young student Vladik Arkov, clumsy but very decent. A character of a "good guy" was popular in the Soviet art of that time, so Gaidai decided to follow this tendency shooting his next film. The story line was modified and the additional novel was written.
- More than hundred actors took a screen test for the role of the student Vladik, but Gaidai was not satisfied with any of them. He had his own personality in mind as a prototypePrototypeA prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
of the character, so when he first saw a photo of Aleksandr Demyanenko and then met him in person, he noticed the likeness to himself in the actor, and believed that the humble Demyanenko in glasses would be able to portray the awkward, naive and honest student best of all. - Initially the name of the main character was Vladik (short for Vladislav). Later the director, impressed by Demyanenko, decided to name the characted after the actor (Shurik, as well as Sasha, is a short form of the name Aleksandr).
- Among those who took part in the audition for the main role was actor Valery Nosik. Eventually he appeared in the film as a student-gambler. Mikhail Pugovkin, who played the role of the construction site manager, was initially cast for the role of Fedya.
- At the session of the Art Council after the preliminary watching of the film critics panned the acting of Morgunov and Vitsin, while praising Nikulin, and were insisting on deleting scenes where Alexei Smirnov appears in blackfaceBlackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
. However, no changes were made.
Reception
The film was enormously popular; it became the leader of Soviet film distribution in 1965 having 69.6 million viewers. The novel Déjà vu, based on a story from a PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
magazine, won the Grand Prix Wawel Silver Dragon
Smok Wawelski
The Wawel Dragon , also known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill, is a famous dragon in Polish folklore. He laired in a cave at the foot of Wawel Hill on the bank of the Vistula River. Wawel Hill is in Kraków, which was then the capital of Poland...
at the Kraków Film Festival
Kraków Film Festival
The Kraków Film Festival is one of Europe's oldest events dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. It has been organised year after year since 1961....
in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1965.
The film became a fount of quotes for Soviet/Russian people.