Irony of Fate
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- This is about a movie; for the eponymous concept, see Irony#Irony of fate (cosmic irony).
| Irony of Fate | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Eldar Ryazanov |
| Written by | Emil Braginsky Eldar Ryazanov |
| Starring | Andrei Myagkov Barbara Brylska Yuri Yakovlev |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 192 min |
| Language | Russian |
| IMDb profile | |
Irony of Fate (original title: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!, in transcription: Ironiya Sudby ili s Lekhkim Parom ) is a Soviet comedy-drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov based on the script by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov filmed in 1975 at Mosfilm. The film is traditionally shown on Russian TV every single New Year's Eve. Many phrases from the film have become catch phrases in Russian.
The term "Irony of Fate" relates to the analogy of gods playing with the mortals. The second title that adds with an "or", "S lyokhkim parom!" (literally something like "I congratulate you for the light steam") is an idiomatical phrase to compliment somebody who has just come out of the shower, the banya, or the bathtub ("lyokhkij par" translates to "light steam").
A large part of the plot revolves around what some perceive as the soulessness of the Brezhnev era architecture.
[edit] The story
Some friends meet at a banya in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve (Russian: Novy God). All of them get very drunk, and two of them, including the main character, Zhenya (Andrei Myagkov), pass out. The others forget which of their unconscious friends was meant to be catching a plane to Leningrad, and so Zhenya is put on the plane by accident instead of his friend. He wakes up at Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He gets into a taxi and gives the driver his address. It turns out that there exists a street in Leningrad with the same name, and a building which looks exactly like Zhenya's. The key fits in the door of the apartment, and even the layout of the apartment is the same. Zhenya is too drunk to notice any difference, and goes to sleep. Later, Nadya (Barbara Brylska), who lives in the apartment, comes home and finds a man she's never met before asleep in her bed. To make things worse, Nadya's fiance Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), arrives before Nadya can convince Zhenya to wake up and leave. Zhenya desperately tries to get back to Moscow in time to spend New Year's Eve with his fiance, and Nadya wants to get him out as fast as possible, but unfortunately there are no flights to Moscow for some time. The plot starts out as a comedy, but becomes more dramatic as it evolves around the relationship of Nadya and Zhenya, along with their relationships with their fiancees. Initially Nadya and Zhenya dislike each other intensely, but they eventually fall in love during the course of the movie.
An important note about the coincidence with the addresses: many street names are/were common to Soviet and now Russian cities (for example, Red October Street, Leninskaya, etc.). Many houses look identical, and even apartments look very much the same from the inside. Thus, e.g. nobody has to ask for directions to the toilet, because the toilet is always next to the kitchen, and knives are always in the same drawer in the same cupboard that was built in all apartments of a certain type. The matching key is probably a joke by the film makers, though many Soviet locks look very much the same.
