bliumchik | (no subject)

More obscure Russian movies with my parents. This one's a New Year special, thirty years old today. The Irony of Fate, a romantic comedy - very cliche, but the humour is absolute gold.

See, the Soviet Union was very big on the whole uniformity thing. Standards, you know. So most buildings followed the same design, and the roads were the same in every city, and even the street names were the same.

Thus, the premise of a the movie: our hero Eugene, having proposed to his girlfriend, is having a New Year celebration with his mates at the banya (as you do) where they smack each other with brooms and drink beer, followed by vodka, followed by more vodka (likewise). Then they go off to the airport to see off Pavel, who is meant to be flying to Leningrad, and there they have some wine, possibly followed by whisky. Now Eugene isn't really a heavy drinker, so by the time the flight is called he and Pavel are out for the count, and the other two friends are a wee bit pished. The following is a rough translation of their conversation:

F1: Hey. Dude. What... are we doing here?
F2: Yeah. I think. Maybe we were meant to like... be seeing someone off.
F1: That's right, somebody's going to Leningrad.
F2: Right.
F1: Right.
F2: So. Um.
F1: Yeah.
F2: ...which one is it?
F1: Well, lets use our, our, our deducshive logicologial deduction skillllz.
F2: Right.
F1: Right.
F2: Okay. So. Well... are you going to Leningrad?
F1: Nope.
F2: Right.
F1: Right.
F2: And... I'm not going to Leningrad either!
F1: Thass right!
F2: Yeah!
F1: So... it's gotta be one of those two.
F2: Well... it could be Pavel.
F1: Yeah, it could. But could it be Eugene?
F2: Yeah... yeah. It could.
F1: So... it's gotta be one of those two.
F2: Hang on hang ong hang on! I rememember... I remember Eugene is getting married tonight. Right?
F1: So he must be going to Leningrad for his own weding!
F2: Right! Okay. You grab his legs.

Eugene is helped out of the plane in a semi-conscious state by a random (because in Russia it's not so unusual to have a drunk guy fall asleep on your shoulder) and falls into a taxi, giving his home adress to the driver, who takes him to that same adress in Leningrad. Thanks to the aforementioned uniformity, the building looks exactly like his own apartment block, right down to the elevator, and he's drunk. His key fits the lock (which is also some kind of standard, apparantly) and he falls asleep on some random chick's bed.

The rest of the movie is devoted to the romance between Eugene and Random Chick, which is fairly ciche and predictable (plus serenading), but there are some funny moments involving her Jealous Fiance and his Storming Out In A Huff marathon (I counted seven, and the last one he was drunk and got in her shower fully clothed).

It's very, very random, but damn funny.