The
original Irony of Fate is a 1975 Russian film that
is considered a Soviet-era cultural treasure. It
is adored by generations of Russians with the same
kind of affection Americans have for It's A
Wonderful Life. Its story takes place on New
Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and it was first
broadcast on television in two parts, on New
Year's Eve of 1975 and New Year's Day of 1976. The
repeat broadcasts are now an annual Russian
tradition at that time of year. It also had a
successful theatrical release, so it has probably
been seen by more Russians than any other Russian
film, perhaps more than any film of any origin.
It
is not a typical film. For one thing, it's a
three-hour romantic comedy. It is that long not
because it is especially plot-heavy, but because
it gets stretched out by songs - beautiful,
bittersweet songs based on classic Russian poetry,
generally sharing the basic theme of loss, and
often stressing that we always seem to spend time
with the wrong people, whether they are friends or
lovers, while we miss out on the right people or
watch them walk away. (Yes, the songs are
melancholy. Would you expect happy songs in a
Soviet romantic comedy?) The songs are usually
worked into the fabric of the film with some
clumsy device like, "We can eat/shop/whatever in a
minute, but before we do, you know I really love
it when you sing."
I'm
not Russian myself, so I don't relate to the film
as a cultural touchstone. I find it clunky,
syrupy, artificially plotted, and
old-fashioned, and I find many characters
rather difficult to relate to as real people. On
the other hand, I am a Russophile with a Russian
family and at least some small grasp of their
incredibly complex language, so there are many
things about the film I admire and even love:
*
For one thing, there are the songs, which consist
of great poems set to music especially for this
film, Like many real
Russians, I know many of the film's songs by
heart, and get chills at certain lines. They are
mostly performed by a very young Sergei Nikitin.
Although he was not well known at the time of his
performance in this film, Sergei and his wife
Tatiana are now great international treasures, two
PhD's in Physics who have spent the latter part of
their lives bringing Russian literature and
folklore to life in ballads, most often combining
Nikitin's music with the words of leading poets.
(Note: Nikitin was the performer in this film, not
the composer, but his own songs are just as good
or better. I'm a huge fan.).
*
For another, there is the film's simple charm.
Like It's A Wonderful Life, it "sells" its corny
premise with genuine enthusiasm for its message.
It may be naive and amateurish at times, but it
converts those attributes into gold with
good-humored sincerity.
----
That
finally brings us to Irony of Fate 2, which was
made some thirty years after the original, and
which, in my opinion, got just about everything
wrong.
Let's
start with its lack of sincerity. While the
original was created solely to entertain, amuse
and move audiences, the new film is basically a
long commercial. It places more products, and in
more obvious ways, than any film I have ever seen.
And
then there's the lack of charm. The original film
was almost completely lacking in any form of
directorial technique that you would notice. It's
about as un-hip as any film you'll ever see. It
was about people and their feelings. That's part
of what made it so beloved. In contrast, the new
film shows off some dazzling techniques. It is
awash with swirling colors, artistic close-ups of
small objects, special effects, bullet time,
speed-ups and slow-downs, pulsating music, and
just about every other form of excess that the
modern cinema bathes in regularly. Those sorts of
things have their place in movies, and the
director of this film, Timur Bekmambetov, is a
very imaginative and hip dude who has used those
same techniques in his other films to excellent
effect. I really enjoyed his next film,
Wanted, the English-language thriller with
Angelina Jolie and James McEvoy. Irony 2 is also
slick, but all of those fancy-ass pyrotechnics
just don't belong here, where they can frequently
and intrusively take the viewer out of the story.
The mission of this film should be to get the
audience to touch the characters' hearts, not to
admire the director's techniques.
Oh,
yeah, the songs. I mentioned those incredible
songs from the first film, based upon some of the
great Russian poems, tunes that many Russians of
all ages know by heart as well as Jimmy Buffett
fans can ... er ... parrot his classics? The
sequel's creators decided that they were too hip
and modern for any of that boring, stodgy,
old-fashioned crap.
Finally,
and perhaps most important, the new film not only
screwed up its own running time, but it somehow
actually managed to screw up the original as well!
The first film had managed to take the two
protagonists away from the people with whom they
were mismatched, thus allowing them to pair up in
a final embrace that promised them a better
future. It was a rare Russian classic with a happy
ending, and it filled viewers with a glimmer of
hope that each may find his or her kindred soul.
The new film, coming from a new, cynical Russia,
got right to the point by saying "Oh, that
original ending was a romantic pipe dream. Those
two both went back to the people they were not
right for, married them, and had children by
them." And to make bad matters even worse, the new
script left us in the dark about the details of
how all that happened! Hell, those details alone
would have been a better movie than this one.
----
The
Soviet functions of New Year are being reverted
back to Christmas in re-Christianized Russia, so
in that spirit I offer my comment on this film:
"Bah,
humbug!"
