Irony of Fate (original title: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!, in transcription: Ironiya Sudby ili s Lekhkim Parom ) is a Soviet comedy-drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov based on the script by Emil Braginsky and Ryazanov filmed in 1975 at Mosfilm. The film is traditionally shown on Russian TV every New Year's Eve. Many phrases from the film have become catch phrases in Russian.

The term "Irony of Fate" relates to the analogy of gods playing with the mortals (see Irony). The second title that adds with an "or", "S lyokhkim parom!" (literally something like "I congratulate you for the light steam") is an idiomatical phrase to compliment somebody who has just come out of the shower, the banya, or the bathtub ("lyokhkij par" translates to "light steam").

It has been suggested that the movie can be seen as a subtle critism of the soulessness of Soviet Architecture.

The story

Some friends meet at a banya in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve (Russian Novy God). All of them get very drunk, two of them even unconscious. Zhenya (Andrei Myagkov), one of the unconscious, is put on a flight to Leningrad instead of the other one should have taken. So, he wakes up at Leningrad airport and believes he is still in Moscow. He wants to go home by taxi and gives the driver his street name and house number. As it turns out, in Leningrad there exists the same address and the building looks exactly the same as his, and, on top of this, even the key fits in. Inside the apartment he notices no differences and goes to sleep. Later, Nadya (Barbara Brylska), who lives in the apartment, comes home and finds a man in her bed. What's worse, Nadya's fiance Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), when he comes to visit her, also finds him there. Zhenya desperately tries to get back to Moscow in time for his New Year's eve meeting with his girl friend and Nadya wants to get him out as fast as possible, but unfortunately there are no flights for some time. The plot starts out as a comedy, but becomes more dramatic as it evolves around the relationship of Nadya and Zhenya, along with their relationships with their fiancees. First Nadya and Zhenya dislike each other very much, but then, at some point, they realize that they could stay together, as well.

It is important to note about the coincidence with the addresses that many street names are/were common to Soviet and now Russian cities (such as e.g. street of Red October, Leninskaya, etc.). Many houses look exactly the same and even apartments look very much the same from the inside. Thus, e.g. nobody has to ask for directions to the toilet, because the toilet is always next to the kitchen, and knives are always in the same drawer in the same cupboard that was built in all apartments of a certain type. The matching key is probably a joke by the film makers, though many Soviet locks look very much the same.

See also

External links

• review at The New York Times
• Short review at Alekhine net
• Screenshots

1975 films | Soviet films | Mosfilm films | Russian-language films | Cult films | Comedy-drama films | Russian films

Ironie des Schicksals | Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! (фильм)