The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!
The Irony of Fate is probably the most popular New Year movie of the Soviet Union cinematographic heritage. The movie tells the story about Evgeniy, a doctor from Moscow, who plans to celebrate the upcoming New Year with his fiancée Galina. Right before the New Year, Evgeniy goes to Russian bath with his friends. While enjoying time in bath, the men drink too much. Evgeniy falls asleep and his friends, who also get pretty drunk, confuse him with another guy who has to fly to Leningrad. As a result, they take Evgeniy to the airport and send him to Leningrad while he still does not understand what goes on. In Leningrad, the main character catches a taxi and tells his Moscow address – it turns out that there is a street with the same name in both cities. By some miraculous coincidence, Evgeniy`s key fits to the door of Leningrad apartment, and he falls asleep there on a couch. Meanwhile, Nadya – the real owner of Leningrad flat – comes home…
Year: 1976
Country: the Soviet Union
Starring: Andrey Myagkov, Barbara Brylska, Yuri Yakovlev
The Night Before Christmas (Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka)
This movie is a film version of “The night before Christmas” novel written by the famous writer Mykola Gogol`. This is a funny mystic fairy tale telling the story about the blacksmith called Vakula. On the night before Christmas, Vakula finds out that his native village has been captured by some demonic forces. Now Vakula has to gain victory over the evil spirits. He succeeds, and even more: riding the devil, Vakula gets the princess` shoes from St.Petersburg and gifts them to his beloved Oksana – the daughter of the rich Cossack Chub.
Year: 1962
Country: the Soviet Union
Starring: Alexander Khvylia, Liudmyla Myznikova, Yuri Tavrov
Carnival Night
On the threshold of the New Year night, the staff of the Cultural Center prepare to present a festive show program. But suddenly the new deputy director Ogurtsov intervenes into the creative process. He is completely unhappy with the scenario and wants to replace funny entertaining show with some serious and boring performance. However, the young people do not give up easily…
Year: 1956
Country: the Soviet Union
Starring: Igor Iliyinsky, Luidmyla Gurchenko, Yuri Belov
Enchanters
Scenario of the music fairy tale called “Enchanters” was written by the famous Strugatskiye brothers. Young Alena Sanina works in a very unusual place – the Institute of Magic. The girl is happy with her life and plans to marry her beloved Ivan. But her colleague Sataneyev is also in love with Alena. He gets jealous and slanders Alena, so her boss (who is a witch) decides to punish Alena, banishing the spring from the girl`s heart. Alena becomes very cold to romantic Ivan and changes her mind for mean Sataneyev. Ivan has to break the veil spell before January 1 – otherwise he will lose his beloved Alena forever.
Year: 1982
Country: the Soviet Union
Starring: Alexander Abdulov, Alexandra yakovleva, Valentyn Gaft
Once Upon a Dog (cartoon)
The action takes place in a Ukrainian village. Old guardian dog becomes useless due to his age, and the owners kick him out of home. The sad dog has to go to the forest. He is really depressed and wants to end his life. Suddenly he meets his ex-enemy – the wolf. The smart wolf decides to help the dog and finds a way to convince the dog`s owner to take him back. The dog feels grateful to the wolf and wants to return a favor.
Year: 1982
Country: the Soviet Union
Home Alone
Apart from the Soviet movies, some American ones have also become classic for Ukrainian audience. Home Alone comedy is surely at the top of their list. The famous movie tells about the 8-year old boy Kevin who had been forgotten by his family at home in Chicago while the whole family went to Europe. Mean thieves get to know about that and decide to pull off a heist. But they are not aware that the boy is way smarter than them. In short time, the criminals deeply regret their evil plan, but it`s too late…
Year: 1990
Country: the USA
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
While You Were Sleeping
Lucy, the lonely employee of Chicago suburban train, dreams to visit Florence and to marry a handsome man that daily passes her ticket desk. One day, just before Christmas, this man is attacked by thieves on the platform and falls down on railways. Lucy saves Peter and takes him to the hospital. While Peter is in a state of comma, Lucy meets his family and tells them that she is his fiancée…
Year: 1995
Country: the USA
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher
A Christmas Carol (computer-animated movie)
A Christmas Carol is a movie version of Charles Dickens`s classic novel. The main character called Ebenezer Scrooge is a very greedy and cold-hearted old man who only cares about the money. He has no compassion for poor ones, has no interest in love or friendship and even does not consider Christmas as a holiday. During three nights in a row, Ebenezer is visited by the three Christmas spirits. They show the old man something that will change his life forever…
Year: 2009
Country: the USA
Starring: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth
We hope with these movies you will enjoy the warmest cinema evenings at home with your loved ones
and families. Happy holidays!
Photo source: depositphotos.com. All photos belong to their rightful owners.