The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)
A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Year's Eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely - just typical Soviet-type 'economy' architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What's more - Nadya's fiancé also finds him there...
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The Age of Commercialism
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
"The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" is a romantic comedy set in the 1970's in an urban landscape in Soviet Russia. Parents need to know that it is not very suitable for children. Many characters drink a lot of alcohol and get drunk, some smoke. There are references to extramarital relationships. There is no sexually explicit content. However, you can see some kissing scenes and stuff like that. It is arguably one of the greatest works of director Eldar Ryazanov. The acting is also good. And the songs are the best, of course. Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, was a fan. He even referred to this movie in his report at the XXVI Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But it is not a piece of soviet propaganda. On the contrary, this movie is like an anecdote from the Brezhnev era.
The movie is about a few feeble male representatives of our former "intelligentsia" class. They are teachers or engineers, I presume. Together they get a load of alcohol just before the New Year's Day. They drink almost until depart. Their brains refuse to work correctly (of course) and they become complete jerks, pushing one wretched and stunned fellow into the airport and sending him to another city, which happens to be the second capital of our country (or is it the first?). There the drunk fellow (who looks and behaves like a complete loser through the whole film) comes to the wrong flat, as if to his own home. A pretty woman (must be a teacher) soon appears and talking, smoking, and singing are to follow (with a bit of arguing and good old love-triangle thing).The essence of this movie is non-existent. There is no style. The atmosphere is very awkward - it is really painful to watch the scenes with a beautiful woman worrying about such a nerd. Besides, things like drinking and smoking are presented as absolutely normal to human nature. A woman (a teacher?) sitting and smoking, with a vacant look in her sick eyes - this should be a poster for this blue movie. Well, what else to say? Oh yes, on top of all mentioned, the movie is too long.And don't miss the point: Christmas and New Year's Day (the 1st of January) are very different holidays. No wonder that the characters of this movie look like jerks: they celebrate the European New Year's day till their eyes roll out. What will be left for Christmas, the 7th of January? Dust and bones apparently. It can be a very good point of the film. But I don't think it was done to underline that. It was done to underline emptiness.If you want to kill time in a most suicidal and sadistic manner, go for this empty drag. Nothing personal. But if you want to see real Russian characters, colourful, rich, strong, and charismatic, go for "Vesyolye rebyata", "Kin-Dza-Dza", "Solyaris", and "Ostrov".2 out of 10, with "1 out of 10" reserved for the sequel. Thank you for attention.
Watch it every year. It is a very entertaining, funny, romantic and beautiful movie, with great songs and great acting. It is about a man who accidentally ends up in the wrong city and is convinced another's apartment is his, this leads to much chaos and hilarity. The movie changes people's perspective to love and life, and portrays the soviet world of the time. Since it is an all Russian movie, nothing here can be considerred inaccurate or impossible, and this makes for a more realistic experience. In Conclusion, i suggest that before every new year everyone should go to a sauna to commemorate the tradition this movie enforced.
It's strange that I haven't found any comments from Russia or ex-USSR countries. This movie is one of the best Ryazanov's works, although all his films are great and loved very much in Russia. This one has became a traditional part of TV program on the New Year's Eve. Every year on the 31st of December it's on this or that channel. The people would watch it over and over with pleasure and unceasing affection. A lot of phrases and scenes are learned by heart, some of them became aphorisms.The basis of the plot is rather funny. One guy gets drunk together with his friends and by mistake takes his friend's flight to Leningrad. It turns out then, that in Leningrad there exists the same address as his in Moscow. Moreover, the tenements are identical and even the key fits to the apartment door. Here starts the real fun, then the drama emerges out of the comedy, gradually growing and replacing the fun. Perhaps, it's the perfect and fine balance between comedy and drama, and the accurate development and transformation of one genre into the other which wouldn't make one bored with this movie and would make him wish to watch it again and again.I would recommend to non-russian spectators other Ryazanov's movies as well and also those of Gaidai made in 60's and 70's.