Starring Andrei Miagkov, Barbara Brilska, Iurii Iakovlev
Description: Eldar Riazanov was master of the “sad comedy,” and for many years an accurate gauge of the national mood. This Riazanov classic from 1975 is still shown every New Year’s Eve in Russia and many former Soviet republics. As Ippolit, the exemplar of Soviet manhood, now drunk and womanless, relates in this clip, its hero Zhenya gets drunk in Moscow on New Year’s Eve, and eventually stumbles into an unknown Leningrad woman’s apartment, identical to his own in Moscow. Although Ippolit speaks bitter truths common to the pessimistic Soviet citizen, the wistful and sentimental tale ends with Zhenya and Nadya finding their true love.