Love and Aspic fish: how Soviet people got their favorite New Year's comedy
On January 1, 1976, millions of TV viewers witnessed a New Year's miracle. For the first time, a new two—part TV movie, "The Irony of Fate, or With a Light Steam," was shown on central television. Izvestia recalled how it was.
From the play to the screenplay
20 years earlier, Eldar Ryazanov had already created one New Year's tale, Carnival Night. This bright, carelessly cheerful musical picture with a concert in the finale gave us the song "Five Minutes". This time, Ryazanov conceived a lyrical comedy about love. After all, the new year is, first of all, the expectation of a miracle, and love is the most important miracle in every person's life.
In the late 1960s, Ryazanov and his constant collaborator, the screenwriter Emil Braginsky, wrote a play about how friends sent a drunken doctor from Moscow to Leningrad on New Year's Eve. The comedy was called "With a light steam! or One day on New Year's Eve..." The play was successfully performed in many theaters of the Soviet Union, although it was not staged in Moscow. Several years have passed, and the co—authors decided to shift this plot for the cinema. But Mosfilm was skeptical about this idea. According to the studio's managers, it was risky to shoot a long two-part film based on a theatrical play. Then Ryazanov contacted Gosteleradio. His application was accepted there, largely because television competed keenly with Goskino.
A shot from the movie "Irony of fate, or With a light steam!"
By that time, Ryazanov was already a famous comedian, his name was considered a guarantee of success — and he could choose the best actors for a new picture. Who just did not audition for the main role — surgeon Zhenya Lukashin. Andrey Mironov, Oleg Dahl, Peter Velyaminov — they were at the top of their popularity at that time. But Ryazanov chose an actor with less high-profile fame, Andrei Myagkov. It was a revelation for the audience. The charming Polish movie star Barbara Brylska was invited to play the main female role. She transformed into a Leningrad teacher Nadia Sheveleva.
From the grotesque to the lyric
There are a lot of comical situations in the first episode. In the second film, it turns into a lyrical narrative, in which the main thing is an awakening feeling. Ryazanov managed to set and maintain the relaxed, homely intonation of the narration. It's like we're watching old friends with whom we can have a heart-to-heart conversation. Ryazanov managed to convey to us different shades of mood, from caustic satire to lyrics accompanied by acoustic guitar.
Ryazanov broke all the patterns. Tasteful poems and chamber songs by Mikael Tariverdiyev are played from the screen. For many of us, these melodies, recognizable from the first notes, have become the music of the New Year.
A shot from the movie "Irony of fate, or With a light steam!"
The film was shot in the first months of 1975. As luck would have it, there wasn't enough snow. Props dressed Moscow and Leningrad streets in snowdrifts of cotton wool and styrofoam. And a dashing New Year's snowstorm made of pieces of paper swirled with the help of an electric wind blower, the Operator Vladimir Nakhabtsev managed to convey the charm of the festive streets of Moscow and Leningrad.
In a hurry, the film's authors missed a typo in the opening credits: "A completely atypical story that could only happen on New Year's Eve." The letter "l" is lost. Almost no one noticed this either.
Country premiere
The first viewers were skeptical of the film after the studio screening. It seemed long-winded and boring, not at all New Year's Eve. Colleagues were already whispering: Ryazanov has finally failed! To make an unsuccessful New Year's movie that will be watched (but will it be watched?) on a festive evening, more than 100 million viewers are a complete career disaster.
A shot from the movie "The Irony of fate, or With a light steam!"
There were other doubts. Will the audience gather near the television screens on the evening of January 1, after the stormy feasts? And if they do, will they be able to empathize with the characters of a not-so-simple picture? The director was seriously worried himself.
On the first day of 1976, the Central Television of the USSR treated the audience to a whole host of "hits". The CSKA –Montreal Canadiens hockey match is considered by many fans to be one of the most exciting events in the history of sports today. The premiere of the TV movie "The Adventure of Pinocchio" turned out to be unforgettable. And the final concert of the Song-75 festival turned out to be a sight to behold. With such competition, it's not easy to keep an audience at the screens for more than three hours. In the TV program "The Irony of Fate ..." it appeared at 18.00. 15 minutes before that, Ryazanov made an introductory speech in which, as a kind host, he invited the audience into his New Year's tale.
Since January 2, the Central television station has been flooded with telegrams asking it to show "Irony again..." Phrases from the film that became famous immediately spread to the people. "How disgusting is this aspic fish of yours", "Sheltered, warmed up, robbed", "Every year on December 31, my friends and I go to the sauna", "I never get drunk"... And the audience believed that even in the age of standardization, when identical multi-storey buildings are being built all over the country, and "standard locks are embedded in faceless doors," there is a place for feelings that cannot be calculated and predicted. It turned out that millions of people are close to talking about such matters.
A shot from the movie "Irony of fate, or With a light steam!"
By the middle of the year, in a rare case, the painting had already been shown three times in the first program. The TV movie was even released, and 10 million viewers watched it in cinemas.
The painting also made a strong impression on the head of state, Leonid Brezhnev. In his speeches at the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, discussing the problems of construction, he stated: "The Olympic facilities and some residential areas of Moscow, the revived pearls of the past and the new architectural ensembles of Leningrad, the new buildings of Alma Ata, Vilnius, Navoi, and other cities are our pride. Nevertheless, urban planning in general needs more artistic expression and diversity. So that it doesn't work out, as in the story of the hero of the film, who, ironically, got to another city and couldn't distinguish either a house or an apartment from his own."
Screen Legend
In 1977, the painting was awarded the USSR State Prize. Readers of the Soviet Screen magazine recognized Irony as the best film of the year, and Andrei Myagkov as the best actor. Gradually, Eldar Ryazanov's film became a New Year's tradition: it was necessarily shown on television on December 31 and January 1. We treat his characters like old acquaintances, without whom the holiday simply won't take place.
Film director Eldar Ryazanov, actress Barbara Brylska, actor Andrey Myagkov on the day of the presentation of the USSR State Prize for the film "Irony of Fate, or With a light steam!"
Humor is a perishable product, and it would seem that over the past decades the film should have faded, lost its charm. Too much has changed during this time. Technologies that didn't exist in the 1970s are playing a huge role in our lives today. Half a century later, the 1976 film could turn into a "Chinese literacy" for a new generation. But that didn't happen. Perhaps this is one of the secrets of the success of Eldar Ryazanov's New Year's tale: in a rapidly changing world, we need permanent values. The film about New Year's turmoil and newfound happiness has become a treasure trove of them for us.
Several generations have memorized this film, and a memorial plaque has been installed on the Moscow house where many episodes of the film were filmed. From the first chords of the song "This is what happens to me..." We're getting into a festive mood. It's probably forever.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
