The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!,^[a] usually shortened toThe Irony of Fate, is a 1976 Sovietromantic comedytelevision film directed byEldar Ryazanov and starringAndrey Myagkov,Barbara Brylska,Yury Yakovlev andLyubov Dobrzhanskaya. The screenplay was written byEmil Braginsky and Ryazanov, loosely based on the director's 1971 play,Once on New Year's Eve (Russian:Однажды в новогоднюю ночь).

The Irony of Fate
Promotional poster
«Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!» (Russian)
Written by	Emil Braginsky Eldar Ryazanov
Directed by	Eldar Ryazanov
Starring	Andrey Myagkov Barbara Brylska Yury Yakovlev Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya
Theme music composer	Mikael Tariverdiev
Country of origin	Soviet Union
Original language	Russian
No. of episodes	2
Production
Producer	Evgeny Golynsky
Running time	184 minutes
Production company	Mosfilm
Original release
Network	Programme One
Release	1 January 1976 (1976-01-01)
Related
The Irony of Fate 2

Filmed at theMosfilm Studios,The Irony of Fate doubles as ascrewball comedy and a love story tinged with sadness. It was one of the most successful Soviet television productions and remains a highly popularNew Year's Eve classic inRussia and thepost-Soviet states, with millions tuning in to rewatch it every New Year's Eve.

The key subplot is the drab uniformity ofBrezhnev-era public architecture. This setting is explained in a humorousanimated prologue (directed and animated by cartoonistVitaly Peskov) in which architects are overruled by politicians andred tape. As a result, the identical, functional but unimaginativemultistory apartment buildings found their way into every city, town, and suburb across the Soviet Union.^[1]

Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at abanya (a traditional public "sauna" bathhouse) inMoscow to celebrateNew Year's Eve. The friends all get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrey Myagkov) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a flight toLeningrad and the entire group is going to take him to the airport. By the time the group makes it to the airport, Zhenya and Pavlik are passed out. The remaining friends cannot remember which person from their group is supposed to travel. They mistakenly get Zhenya onto the plane instead of Pavlik.

Zhenya spends the entire flight sleeping on the shoulder of his annoyed seatmate (Eldar Ryazanov in a brief comediccameo appearance). The seatmate helps Zhenya get off the plane in Leningrad. Zhenya wakes up in the Leningrad airport, believing he is still in Moscow. He stumbles into a taxi and, still quite drunk, gives the driver his address. It turns out that in Leningrad there is an identical address that belongs to an apartment buildings of a design identical to Zhenya's building in Moscow. He takes the elevator to "his" apartment and, surprisingly, the key fits in the door (as alluded to in the introductory narration, "...building standard apartments with standard locks"). Inside, even the furniture is nearly identical to that of Zhenya's apartment, but Zhenya is too drunk to notice any minor differences.

Meanwhile, the apartment's resident, Nadya Shevelyova (Barbara Brylska), comes home and finds Zhenya asleep on her bed. To make matters worse, Nadya's fiancé, Ippolit (Yuri Yakovlev), shows up without an advance notice. Ippolit becomes furious, refuses to believe Zhenya and Nadya's explanations, and storms out. Zhenya is about to leave to get back to Moscow but circumstances make him return repeatedly. Nadya wants to get rid of Zhenya as soon as possible, but there are no flights to Moscow until the next morning. Additionally, Zhenya tries repeatedly to call Moscow and explain to Galya what has happened. Eventually, he does contact Galya, but she is furious and hangs up on his call. Ippolit also calls Nadya's apartment and hears Zhenya answer. Although Zhenya is trying to be available to receive potential calls from Galya, Ippolit also refuses to accept the truth of the situation. Nadya goes to the railway station and buys a train ticket to Moscow for Zhenya, but he drops it out the window and refuses to leave. It seems more and more clear that Zhenya and Nadya are the only two people who understand the night's circumstances.

Thus, Zhenya and Nadya are compelled to spend New Year's Eve together. At first, they continue to treat each other with animosity, but gradually their behavior softens, and the two fall in love. In the morning, a drunken Ippolit barges into the apartment and amazes Zhenya and Nadia with his erratic behavior (he takes a shower right in his winter coat and hat) and at the same time logical and close to the truth arguments about what happened on this New Year's Eve. Ippolit, wet "with tears", leaves Nadia for good. The duo feel that everything that has happened to them was a delusion, and they make the difficult decision to part. With a heavy heart, Zhenya returns to Moscow. Meanwhile, Nadya reconsiders everything and, deciding that she might have let her chance at happiness slip away, takes a plane to Moscow to find Zhenya. She has no difficulty finding him as their addresses are the same, and her key matches his lock.

• Andrey Myagkov as Yevgeny Mikhaylovich Lukashin, "Zhenya" (vocals bySergey Nikitin)
• Barbara Brylska as Nadezhda Vasilyevna Shevelyova, "Nadya" (dubbed over byValentina Talyzina, vocals byAlla Pugacheva)
• Yury Yakovlev as Ippolit Georgievich, Nadya's fiancé
• Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya as Marina Dmitriyevna, Zhenya's mother
• Olga Naumenko as Galya, Zhenya's fiancée
• Aleksandr Shirvindt as Pavlik, Zhenya's best friend/author's text
• Georgi Burkov as Misha, Zhenya's friend
• Valentina Talyzina as Valya, Nadya's friend
• Liya Akhedzhakova as Tanya, Nadya's friend
• Aleksandr Belyavsky as Sasha, Zhenya's friend
• Gotlib Roninson as man at the airport
• Eldar Ryazanov as Zhenya's fellow passenger on board
• Lyubov Sokolova as Olga Nikolayevna, Nadya's mother

After reading the script, composerMikael Tariverdiev was puzzled by its genre diversity. As a result, he defined it for himself as a Christmas fairy tale, and for musical accompaniment he chose eightromances – "about love, about happiness, about jealousy, about kindness, about the desire to be understood" – which at first sound like a sharp counterpoint to what is happening on the screen, but then "scissors between the sound and the picture converged".^[2]

The soundtrack forThe Irony of Fate was partly released onMikael Tariverdiev's LP in 1976 byMelodiya.^[3] A full soundtrack was released in 2009 by Bomba Music (Russia)^[4] and in 2016 by Earth (UK).^[5]

Male vocals are mostly performed bySergey Nikitin, female vocals – byAlla Pugacheva. Initially,Anna German was preparing to perform songs for the film, but the recording did not take place – the funds for the invitation of a foreign singer were not included in the estimate.^[6]

The two consecutive episodes ofThe Irony of Fate were originally broadcast by the Soviet central television channel,Programme One,^[7] on 1 January 1976, at 18:00.^[8] The film was a resounding success with audiences: author Fedor Razzakov recalled that "virtually the entire country watched the show";^[9] thenumber of viewers was estimated to have been about 100 million.^[10] In response to popular demand, the feature had a first re-run on 7 February. By 1978, after several further broadcasts of the picture, the accumulated number of viewers for all of the showings including the first was estimated at 250 million.^[9] A shortened 155 minute version was released to cinemas on 16 August 1976;^[11] which sold 7 million tickets.^[12] The readers ofSovetskii Ekran, the official publication of theState Committee for Cinematography, votedThe Irony of Fate as the best film of 1976, and choseAndrey Myagkov as the best actor of the year.^[13] In 1977, Ryazanov, Braginsky, cinematographerVladimir Nakhabtsev, composerMikael Tariverdiev and actorsBarbara Brylska and Myagkov were all awarded theUSSR State Prize in recognition of their participation in making the film.^[11]

George Faraday commented that while it was basically ahappy ending romantic comedy,The Irony of Fate had a "socially critical undertone." It could be interpreted as an "explicit commentary... On the soulless uniformity of the Soviet urban landscape".^[14] Simultaneously, however, critics accused the director of creating an escapist film which allowed the Soviet audience to turn away from the "unattractive features" of their country's reality. In a 1977 issue ofSovetskii Ekran, Ryazanov responded that "to reassure, to encourage the viewer – it is not such a sin." He rejected the claims his pictures were meant to please state authorities, stating their optimistic nature was "spontaneous" rather than "forced".^[15]

In his bookProblems in the Russian House,^[b]Sergey Kara-Murza posted a critical article in which he reproached Ryazanov for the "anti-Sovietism" nature of his heroes, as well as for the formation and cultivation of images of "internal emigrants" by him. In his opinion, the heroes of the film are "typicalintelligents of those years with social traits close to this circle," who, however, are well over thirty but they do not have a family and children, while having energetic mothers [almost implausible for a post-war generation] who care about their comfort and material well-being. The subtle signs of the "far-fetched elitism, aristocracy" of the film's characters were picked up and assimilated by a very significant part of theintelligentsia, who eventually "enthusiastically acceptedPerestroika and applaudedSakharov".^[16]

In 2019,archdeacon Vladimir Vasilik analyzed several themes of the film – orphanhood and fatherlessness of the Soviet intelligentsia of the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era, love and betrayal, drunkenness, blizzard as an image of Fate and a metaphor of infernal fun for the New Year, – and described the film as "a monument to the era of late socialism with all its greatness and tragedy," which at the same time "carries the reflection of the love fading on earth from people who have experienced God-abandonment." Longing for God is transmitted primarily "in songs and poems that serve as a chorus in ancient tragedy."^[17]

The film is widely regarded as a classic piece of Russian popular culture and is traditionally broadcast in Russia and almost all former Soviet republics everyNew Year's Eve (Andrew Horton and Michael Brashinsky likened its status to that held byFrank Capra's 1946It's a Wonderful Life in the United States as a holiday staple).^[18] The soundtrack of the film was also highly appreciated and places among the most famous and recognizable music of an era in post-Soviet countries.^[19] This tradition was discontinued inUkraine in 2015 when licence holderSTB decided not to broadcast the movie after the actressValentina Talyzina was banned from entering Ukraine for "statements contradicting the interests of our national security".^[20][21]

In 2006, TheNew Year's Eve musical film "The First Fast", shown onChannel One, included a mini-sequel to "The Irony of Fate". Ippolit and Nadia meet after 30 years. During the heartful conversation, it turns out that Zhenya and Nadia broke up quite quickly and Ippolit is still not married. To Nadia's question, "Why?" he answers: "I've been waiting for you. And I keep waiting." Nadia doesn't know what to answer and whispers "Don't be sad". Ippolit remains alone. Gleb Kolondo (Vatnikstan) considered: "It seemed to be better thanBekmambetov's [film] two years later".^[22]

A sequel,The Irony of Fate 2, was released in December 2007, becoming a box office hit and grossing over $55 million to a production budget of $5 million.

The film starredKonstantin Khabensky andElizaveta Boyarskaya as the grown-up children of Lukashin and Sheveleva who have managed to get into the same situation as their parents did.

Andrey Myagkov, although he took part in the filming, eventually expressed his regret and dissatisfaction with the final result.^[23]

In 2015, anIndian remake of the filmI Love NY was released, starring actorsSunny Deol andKangana Ranaut. The film performed poorly critically and was a box office flop.

In 2022, anAmerican remake of the filmAbout Fate was released. It was directed byMaryus Vaysberg and starredEmma Roberts andThomas Mann in the lead roles.^[24]

• The Irony of Fate atIMDb
• The Irony of Fate on Russian Film Hub
• The Irony of Fate: Part 1 onYouTube
• The Irony of Fate: Part 2 onYouTube