The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!
Country
Production
Budget
$0
Box office
$0
Director
Actors
Andrey Myagkov, Barbara Brylska, Yuriy Yakovlev, Aleksandr Shirvindt, Georgi Burkov, Aleksandr Belyavskiy, Liya Akhedzhakova, Valentina Talyzina, Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya, Lyubov Sokolova
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Emil Braginskiy, Eldar Ryazanov
Producer
Efim Golynskiy
Camera operator
Vladimir Nakhabtsev
Composer
Mikael Tariverdiev
Artist
Aleksandr Borisov
Audition
Editing
Short description
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...
What's left behind the scenes
- Those who auditioned for the role of Nadya Sheveleva included Lyudmila Gurchenko, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Antonina Shuranova, Merimson from the Kirov Drama Theater, and others. Tariyverdiev persistently urged the director to invite Alisa Freindlich. It was then that Ryazanov remembered the Polish melodrama 'Anatomy of Love,' in which the lead female role was played by Barbara Brylska. He obtained her phone number and called her in Warsaw. After reading the script, Barbara flew to Moscow for a screen test. Her interpretation of the role proved to be the most convincing.
- Best film according to a poll by the magazine “Soviet Screen” in 1977.
- Zhenya throws a photograph of Ippolit out the window, and later Nadya picks up from the snow not a photograph of Yuri Yakovlev, but of Oleg Basilashvili, who had previously received the role of Ippolit and filmed several scenes, but was forced to give up filming due to his father's death. This shot could no longer be reshot because spring had arrived and the snow had melted.
- Rязанов carefully selected the performers for the main roles. Andrei Mironov really wanted to play Zhenya Lukashin, but Rязанов only saw him in the image of Ippolit. Pyotr Velyaminov and Stanislav Lyubshin could also have been Lukashin.
- The following actresses auditioned for the role of Nadya Sheveleva: Lyudmila Gurchenko, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Antonina Shuranova, actress Merimson from the Kirov Drama Theatre, and others. Tariverdiev persistently persuaded the director to invite Alisa Freindlich. Then Rязаnov remembered the Polish melodrama "Anatomy of Love", where Barbara Brylska played the main female role. He obtained her phone number and called her in Warsaw. After reading the script, Barbara flew to Moscow for a screen test. Her interpretation of the role proved to be the most convincing.
- At the beginning of the film, Zhenya and Galya mention Katanyan several times in conversation, who invited them to celebrate the New Year at his place. This surname also appears in another of Rязаnov's films – "Forgotten Melody for Flute", where Leonid Filatov's character introduces himself that way. Presumably, Eldar Rязаnov wanted to immortalize his college friend, director Vasily Katanyan, with whom he shot documentaries as a cameraman in the 1950s.
- "What a nasty piece of work this jellied fish of yours is" and "Oh, it's getting warm now" are phrases that were not in the film's script. They were improvisations by Yuri Yakovlev.
- The film was shot in an apartment in a panel building located at 125 Vernadsky Avenue in Moscow. This building, however, was built according to an experimental project implemented in only three buildings on this avenue. The interiors of the Leningrad apartment were filmed in building 113. In 2003, a plaque featuring images of Barbara Brylska and Andrei Myagkov was unveiled on the wall of building 125 Vernadsky Avenue. However, this plaque is frequently stolen and has to be restored.
- "How disgusting is this jellied fish of yours" and "Oh, it's getting warm, that's good" – these phrases were not in the film's script. They were improvised by Yuri Yakovlev.
- Ryazanov carefully searched for the lead actors. Andrei Mironov was very keen to play Zhenya Lukashin, but Ryazanov saw him only in the role of Ippolit. Pyotr Velyaminov and Stanislav Lyubshin were also considered for the role of Lukashin.
- There is a typo in the opening credits of the film: in the word "исключительно" (exclusively) in the phrase "A completely untypical story that could only happen and искючительно on New Year's Eve"), the letter "л" is missing.
- Lukashin flies to Leningrad from Domodedovo Airport, although in Soviet times, domestic flights to the north and west were operated from Sheremetyevo-1.
- Zhenya throws Ippolit's photograph out the window, and later Nadya picks up a photo from the snow—not of Yuri Yakovlev, but of Oleg Basilashvili, who had originally been cast as Ippolit and filmed several scenes, but was forced to withdraw from the production due to the death of his father. This shot could not be reshot because spring had arrived and the snow had melted.
- Almost immediately after Zhenya leaves, Ippolit turns on the television, which is broadcasting the film "The Straw Hat" (1974), first shown on December 31, 1974, on the first program of the USSR Central Television, meaning the characters are welcoming the new year of 1975.
- In addition to the television premiere on January 1, 1976, the film was released in cinemas on August 16, 1976.
- Filming of the movie took place from January 22nd to June 19th, 1975.
- The famous scene in the bathhouse, where friends gather before the New Year, was filmed after the May Day holidays. Bathhouse benches and scales were set up under the stairs in one of the corridors of Mosfilm.
- Almost immediately after Zhenya leaves, Ippolit turns on the television, where the film "The Straw Hat" (1974) is playing, which was first shown on December 31, 1974, on the first program of Central Television of the USSR, meaning the characters are celebrating the New Year of 1975.
- In Moscow, 3rd Builders Street existed since 1958, but in 1963 it was renamed – now it's Maria Ulianova Street, and building number 25 on this street is a Khrushchev-era five-story building. In Leningrad, 3rd Builders Street never existed; however, from 1955 to 1962 there were immediately two Builders Streets, one in the industrial zone of the Krasnogvardeysky district; this street is now called Boksitogorskaya, the second – in the Kirovsky district, now – Marinesko Street.
- At the beginning of the film, Zhenya and Galya mention Katanyan several times in conversation, who had invited them to celebrate the New Year. This surname also appears in another Ryazanov film, 'A Forgotten Melody for a Flute,' where the character played by Leonid Filatov introduces himself as such. Presumably, Eldar Ryazanov wanted to immortalize his student friend, director Vasily Katanyan, with whom he had filmed documentaries as a cinematographer in the 1950s.
- Eldar Ryazanov played one of his characteristic supporting roles in the film—a passenger on a plane who is constantly leaned on by a sleeping Lukashin. According to Ryazanov himself, he was very upset when, while reviewing the footage, he discovered that his bald spot was visible through his hair, which was not yet sparse.
- The cinema version is almost half an hour shorter – its duration is 155 minutes.
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