Irony of Fate

:"This is about a movie; for the eponymous concept, see Irony of fate (cosmic irony)."

Infobox_Film
name = Irony of Fate

---

caption = Film poster
director = Eldar Ryazanov
Igor Petrov
writer = Emil Braginsky
Eldar Ryazanov
starring = Andrey Myagkov
Barbara Brylska
Yuri Yakovlev
music = Mikael Tariverdiev
cinematography = Vladimir Nakhabtsev
editing = Valeriya Belova
distributor = Mosfilm
released = Start date|1975|12|31
runtime = 184 min.
country = USSR
language = Russian
followed_by = "The Irony of Fate 2"
amg_id = 1:101611
imdb_id = 0073179

"Irony of Fate" ( _ru. Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!; "Ironiya Sudby, ili S Lyogkim Parom") 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' (Russian: "Однажды в новогоднюю ночь"). The movie was filmed in fy|1975 at Mosfilm. Simultaneously a screwball comedy and a love story tinged with sadness, the film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and some other former Soviet republics every New Year's Eve. It is as fondly viewed every year as the American film “It’s a Wonderful Life” is during the Christmas holidays. Many memorable quotes from the film have become catch phrases in the Russian language.

A sequel, The Irony of Fate 2 (English title; Russian: "Ирония судьбы. Продолжение"; "Ironiya sudby. Prodolzhenie", "Irony of Fate. The Sequel") was released in December 2007. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0987918/ Ironiya sudby. Prodolzhenie (2007) ] ]

Plot

The key to the plot is the relative uniformity of Brezhnev era public architecture. This is made explicit in a humorous animated prologue, in which architects who know better are shown polluting the entire planet 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. The rest of the film is live-action.

Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya (traditional public bath) in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve (Russian: "Новогодняя Ночь, Novogodnyaya Noch"). All of them 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, in his turn, 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 Ryazanov in a brief comedic cameo appearance, who helps him get off the plane in Leningrad. He wakes up in the 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 an introductory narration, in which it is said "...building standards 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 the 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's and Nadya's explanations and goes away. 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. Comedy moments, punctuated by unexpected guests, the repeated return of 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 a 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.

Trivia

*The term "Irony of Fate" refers to Fate toying with the lives of mortals. The second title, "S lyogkim 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 ("lyogkiy par" translates to "light steam" or "easy steam").

*Oleg Basilashvili was originally cast in the role of Ippolit, but the death of his father prevented him from finishing the film . He was replaced by Yuri Yakovlev. Basilashvili's face, however, is still seen on the photo of Ippolit that Nadya retrieves from the snow.

*The score to the film was composed by Mikael Tariverdiev, and includes both orchestral background music and songs in the style of the "author's song" movement, sung by several of the characters. The strikingly melancholy lyrics of the songs were written by some of Russia's greatest twentieth-century poets: Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetayeva, Bella Akhmadulina, as well as the songwriter and poet Bulat Okudzhava. The singing voices of the characters were dubbed by the (now well-known) vocalists Sergey Nikitin and Alla Pugacheva.

*Many street names, such as Red October Street, Leninskaya, etc., are/were common to various Soviet and now Russian cities. Zhenya's and Nadya's 3rd Builders' Street falls into this category. [There was an actual 3rd Builders' Street in Moscow, but in 1958 it was renamed Maria Ulyanova Street in honor of Lenin's mother. [http://ura-inform.com/ru/society/2007/12/27/ironija/] ru icon] In Soviet times buildings were prefabricated in factories. Thus many buildings were identical in facade, layout, and even the locks on the doors. Many houses look identical, and even apartments look very much the same from the inside. For example, nobody had to ask for directions to the lavatory, because it is typically next to the kitchen.

* The director Eldar Ryazanov cast the Polish actress Barbara Brylska as Nadya. As she didn't speak Russian well enough to supply the character's voice, it was dubbed by actress Valentina Talyzina, who appears in a small part as Nadya's friend along with Liya Akhedzhakova.

Cast

* Andrey Myagkov as Zhenya
* Barbara Brylska as Nadya
* Yuri Yakovlev as Ippolit
* Aleksandr Shirvindt as Pavel, Zhenya's friend
* Georgy Burkov as Misha, Zhenya's friend
* Liya Akhedzhakova as Tanya, Nadya's friend
* Aleksandr Belyavsky 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 Ryazanov as Zhenya's neighbour in the plane
* Lyubov Sokolova as Nadya's mother
* Valentina Talyzina as Valya, Nadya's friend; Nadya's voice

ee also

*Microdistrict

Notes

External links

*Imdb title|title=Irony of Fate|id=0073179
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=101611 review at The New York Times]
* [http://cinema.rin.ru/cgi-bin/main.pl?action=gallery_view&id=107 Screenshots]
* [http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=2 Trailer] and [http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=2 Screenshots]