Jonathan C I just got back from a New Year's Eve party where my Russian host gave a screening of The Irony of Fate, a movie I had never seen before. Apparently, everybody in Russia watches it every year on New Year's eve, and it is easy to see why. This movie is a terrific romantic comedy that is touching, thoughtful and hilarious. It is tough to describe the plot without dumping some spoilers, but the main idea is that a young man from Moscow on his wedding day goes to a public bath with some of his friends (he explains several times in the movie that it is a tradition), has a few drinks, and accidentally ends up on a plane to Leningrad. He is so drunk that he does not realize he is in a different city and gets a taxi ride to what he thinks is his own apartment. He goes in and falls asleep only to be discovered by a beautiful woman, who actually lives in the apartment. What happens next has to be seen to be believed.The plot seems far fetched, but is clearly a satire of the cookie-cutter life that people led in the old Soviet Union--all the apartments were the same I guess, to the point where a guy would not realize that he was not in his own place if sufficiently drunk. From there the movie is surprisingly realistic, and the chemistry between the leads is outstanding. This movie is a great view into Soviet culture, and an awesome evening of entertainment.

hte-trasme Apparently this film has been shown every year in Russia for decades, and people there know it by heart. This was my first time seeing it -- without that cultural hyperfamiliarity -- and it was very easy to see why it's so popular -- it's hugely entertaining. It's about three hours long, but hardly felt like an hour. There's a perfect absurdist farce premise of a man who ends up in an identical prefab apartment with his own at the same address (which also, it has been pointed out, could easily be taken as a comment on the sameness of Soviet architecture of the time). That farce plays out fantastically but then, after the clock has struck 12 on New Year's Eve with our protagonist in the wrong city, we keep following these people and become invested in serious hopelessness of their situations. In essence, it takes what could be a good basic bedroom farce, arms it with legitimately likable, interesting characters we want to follow, and more or less keeps them in a room overnight. The small cast is a blessing here. It's a winning formula of goofiness crossed with seriousness. The jealous Ippolit, for instance, looks ridiculous showering drunkenly with his clothes on, but when he goes out that way into the freezing night saying that perhaps he wants to catch cold and die the feeling of seriousness dissipates. Overall, incredibly likable and entertaining. The music is good, and the theme of not boxing life in with rules and accepting happy accidents is welcome. If it's phenomenally popular, I'd say it seems to be rightly so.

Witold Brostow Let me sort out what in this film is Soviet, what is Russian, and what is universal.Soviet is the background, including the cartoon which precedes the appearance of humans: a man with a tube kills any architect originality, even so innocent as balconies. As a consequence, the same buildings are put up in Artica as well in a southern desert before surprised camels. The Soviet reality is the basis of the plot with identical buildings in different cities. Also the New Year tree rather that the Christmas tree is Soviet. However, as the story unfolds, the Soviet reality recedes into little visible background. An exception is a line in one of the songs: if you do not have a dog, your neighbor cannot poison your dog.Russian are the beautiful poems which are made into songs. There are also some views of Leningrad, but actually only a few, with the St. Isaac Basilica shown several times from different sides.The cast and the technical crew are largely Russian, but not only. Obviously Armenian, Georgian and Jewish names are listed. The actress playing Nadya has been imported from Central Europe; Barbara Brylska is a Polish actress, well known also from a number of other movies made in Poland as well as in other countries. The appeal of the film is truly universal ! This is the reason why viewers from countries so disparate as Latvia, Ukraine and China like this film so much (not to mention Texans). The love-jealousy quadrangle, two mothers, friends of Zhenya and colleagues of Nadya could have lived in many countries around the world. Even the story of the same address could have happened for instance in Germany where practically every city and town has Bahnhofstrasse and Poststrasse. Finally, the atmosphere of this film is unique - a word which very rarely can be used discussing films. We have seen other films directed by Eldar Ryazanov, all of them good, but none comparable to this one. All that takes place in the film is plausible, it could have happened in reality. At the same time, there is the feeling of poetic, unreal and sublime. These two basically opposed reactions to the film coexist somehow in the viewer; this simply does not happen in movies, films directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski excepted. Irony of the Fate is a truly wonderful film, alive 30 years after being created; it will enchant future generations as well.

atolstoy I've been told that this film is shown every New Year's Eve in Russia, and there is no doubt why. It is exquisitely romantic, appropriately funny and symbolizes the best of Russia. It's sentimentally touches a heart string in everyone and its seeming lack of reality only makes it more realistic. With a fantastic soundtrack and some beautiful poetry, you truly have not seen a good film until you have seen this. I could watch it again and again and.....