The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!

Ирония судьбы, или С легким паром! (1975)

Timing: 3:4 (184 min)

7.277/10
256

8.204/10
618549

8/10
15000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 4

Actors and characters

Release date

1975-12-31

Country

Production

Mosfilm

Genre

TV Movie, Comedy, Romance

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Eldar Ryazanov

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)

Scenario

Emil Braginskiy, Eldar Ryazanov

Producer

Operator

Vladimir Nakhabtsev

Composer

Artist

Audition

Editing

Valeriya Belova
All team (7)

• 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.
• In addition to the television premiere on January 1, 1976, the film was released in cinemas on August 16, 1976.
• Best film according to a poll by the magazine “Soviet Screen” in 1977.
• The cinema version is almost half an hour shorter – its duration is 155 minutes.
• Lyudmila Gurchenko, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Antonina Shuranova, actress Merimson from the Kirov Drama Theatre, and others auditioned for the role of Nadya Sheveleva. Tariverdiev persistently and for a long time persuaded the director to invite Alisa Freindlich. Then Rязанов 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 turned out to be the most convincing.
• 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.
• At the beginning of the film, Zhenya and Galya mention Katanyan several times in conversation, who invited them to celebrate the New Year with him. This surname also appears in another film by Rязанов – “The Forgotten Melody for Flute,” where Leonid Filatov’s character is introduced by that name. Presumably, Eldar Rязанов wanted to immortalize his college friend, director Vasily Katanyan, with whom he filmed documentaries as a cameraman in the 1950s.
• Almost immediately after Zhenya leaves, Ippolit turns on the television, which is showing the film “The Straw Hat” (1974), which premiered on December 31, 1974, on the first program of Central Television of the USSR, meaning the characters are celebrating the New Year of 1975.
• There is a typo in the opening credits of the film: in the word “исключительно” (exceptionally – in the phrase “A completely untypical story that could only happen exclusively on New Year's Eve”), the letter “л” (l) 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Filming of the movie took place from January 22nd to June 19th, 1975.
• "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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.