THE IRONY OF FATE Strikes Again
December 30th, 2007 by Andre Soares
"Much like Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life in American culture," writes Peter Finn in the Washington Post, "the Soviet film The Irony of Fate has a permanent home in Russian hearts — and on TV screens every holiday season."
Finn describes Eldar Ryazanov’s 184-minute 1975 romantic comedy-drama as "a sweet, witty romance that also took a sly shot at homogenization in Soviet life." Though initially shown on Soviet television, The Irony of Fate became a huge box-office hit in 1976.
Ryazanov and Emil Braginsky’s screenplay follows Zhenya (Andrei Miagkov), a Moscow doctor who, after a night of reveling on New Year’s Eve, wakes up in the Leningrad airport. Zhenya, however, believes he is still in Moscow.
As a result of the sameness of Soviet architecture and urban layout, he ends up at an apartment building that he believes is his own. Even Soviet keyholes are the same, for Zhenya is able to open the door of the fourth-floor apartment with his Moscow key.
Once inside, he meets Nadya (Polish actress Barbara Brylska, dubbed into Russian), an attractive blonde who is dissatisfied with her romantic partner, a government bureaucrat. Zhenya and Nadya begin a courtship, but every New Year’s Eve Russian TV viewers have been left wondering what ultimately happened to the couple, for the film’s ending is inconclusive.
(Too bad It’s a Wonderful Life didn’t have a similar open-ended finale. I could’ve always pictured James Stewart’s George Bailey, unable to live in Capra’s stiflingly gooey small town, jumping off a bridge and taking that inept angel along with him.)
Now, since the December 21 release of The Irony of Fate: Continuation, Russian audiences can finally discover What Really Happened.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, whose Night Watch and Night Watch 2 were popular internationally, the Continuation (above) brings back Miagkov and Brylska (once again dubbed), in addition to their now-grown children played by Kostya Lukashin (Nadya’s daughter with the bureaucrat) and Konstantin Khabensky (Zhenya’s son with his wife). In the film, events similar to those of the original throw Nadya’s daughter and Zhenya’s son together.
Reviews have been poor. "The second Irony differs from the first one as much as the rotten, dank weather outside differs from a frosty, fresh December with powdery snow," wrote Yelena Yampolskaya in the newspaper Izvestia.
Box-office grosses have been excellent. US$9 million on the first weekend, a blockbuster figure by Russian standards.
Critics have been particularly keen on pointing out the no-holds-barred commercial approach of the Continuation, which offers loads of product placements. For instance, one character works for the cell-phone company Beeline, which just happens to be the film’s chief sponsor.
One reviewer, however, did find positive things to say about the sequel-cum-remake. "Of course, it is not as lyrical and heartfelt as the first film," explains Dmitry Bykov in Radio Free Europe. "But it’s still interesting, because the heroes haven’t died, and it’s interesting to find out what happens to them. It’s interesting to see what happened to the Soviet Union, to its mentality, after these troubled and difficult events."
Eldar Ryazanov, now 80, appears in the same cameo role he’d played in the original version. Though still active — his latest film, Andersen. Life Without Love, was released in 2006 — Ryazanov reportedly declined to tackle this follow-up to The Irony of Fate, and thus far has declined to make any public statements about the newly released film.
What most surprised me about the Irony of Fate reports was my complete ignorance of the existence of this iconic 32-year-old Russian classic. I’ve read quite a bit on Russian cinema and I’ve watched dozens of Russian films, but I’d never heard of this one. Perhaps that’s the irony of cultural myopia.
Variety offers more information on The Irony of Fate.
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North American Film Critics’ Best of 2007
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