Hint: 5 Russian films to watch

If you want to understand Russians...  or 5 Russian cult films to watch.

1. Irony of Fate, or Enjoy your bath (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!)

Soviet comedy-drama directed by Eldar Ryazanov
Following their annual tradition, a group of friends meet at a banya (traditional public bath) in Moscow to celebrate New Year's Eve. All of them get very drunk toasting the upcoming marriage of the central male character, Zhenya Lukashin (Andrei Myagkov) to Galya (Olga Naumenko). After the bath, one of the friends, Pavlik (Aleksandr Shirvindt), has to catch a plane to Leningrad; Zhenya, in his turn, is supposed to go home to celebrate New Year's Eve with his fiancée. Both Zhenya and Pavlik pass out. The others cannot remember which of their unconscious friends is supposed to be catching the plane; eventually they mistakenly decide that it is Zhenya and put him on a plane instead of Pavlik...


Besides, the film has become a New Year traditional film, we watch it every year on TV on the 31 of December. 


2. Moscow does not believe in tears  (Москва слезам не верит)


1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. 
The movie is set in Moscow from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. It tells a story about three provincial girls who come to Moscow.


Great film about Moscow, about life in 50s and 70s. The phrases of the film has become aphorisms, known to almost all Russians. 


3. Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures   (Операция „Ы“ и другие приключения Шурика)

1965 Soviet slapstick comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Seleznyova, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin and Yevgeny Morgunov. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" (Напарник, Naparnik), "Déjà vu" (Наваждение, Navazhdeniye) and "Operation Y"^[1](Операция „Ы“). The plot follows the adventures of Shurik (alternative spelling — Shourick), the naive and nerdy Soviet student who often gets into ludicrous situations but always finds a way out very neatly.


Though the film is not full of conversation, all its phrases are more then aphorisms now, it is like a Soviet life style! To read and remember the quotation, go here


4. The Diamond Arm (Бриллиантовая рука) 


1968 Soviet comedy film filmed by Mosfilm and first released in 1968. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova andSvetlana Svetlichnaya. The Diamond Arm has become a Russian cult film. 


The boss of a black market ring (known only as "The Chief") wants to smuggle a batch of jewelry into the Soviet Union by hiding it into the orthopedic cast of a courier. By a confusing accident the contraband ends up in the cast on the arm of an "ordinary Soviet citizen" Semyon Semyonovich Gorbunkov who fell and hurt himself during a cruise shore excursion. He lets the militsiya know about this, and the militsiya captain uses Gorbunkov as bait to catch the criminals.


Film is popular not only for brilliant duet of Anatoly Papanov and Andrew Mironov, but also for amazing catch phrases and funny songs. 


Film with english subtitles 

5. 12 chairs (Двенадцать стульев) 


classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1928. Its main character Ostap Bender reappears in the book's sequel The Little Golden Calf.


In Soviet Russia in 1927, a former member of nobility, Ippolit Vorobyaninov, works as a desk clerk, until his mother-in-law reveals on her deathbed that her family jewelry had been hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family’s dining room set. Those chairs, along with all other personal property, had been expropriated by the government after the Russian Revolution. He becomes a treasure hunter, and after the “smooth operator” and con-man Ostap Bender forces Kisa to partner with him, they set off to track down the chairs. 


Full text of the novel  and famous quotations


Enjoy the films!