I've seen a bunch of the later films of Eldar Ryazanov, and they are often excellent, moving, bittersweet, subtle comedies that manage at the same time to be some measure of social satire as well. This, his first feature, can't quite be that -- it's quite short and bears the responsibility of being a holiday revue as well. Most of the second half actually follows what happens on stage at the New Year show that characters are preparing.
So instead of trying to compact more plot in that would comfortably fit, we center on one humorously over-the-top character -- a new boss who has arrived two days before the spectacle and insists on ordering absurdly inartistic changes to every element of it. This gives us the opportunity to see what is in essence a series of very good gags orchestrated around the efforts to work around him, and the couple of sketched-in love stories that are going on.
The new boss complains several times that the employees are undermining his authority in the name of their fun -- and he's right about that. It's naturally cathartic and funny to watch the defeat of someone so serious and humorless. Ogurtsov acts as an exaggerated-for-effect of the official line. As we delight in watching him humiliated, the Soviet New Yoear is placed in the old stabilizing holiday role as the one time in the year when things may be reasonably topsy-turvy -- and the role of New Year's as the main, secular, state-sponsored holiday is bolstered.
The revue aspects are well-realized in music and choreography, and remind one of similarly spotless musical numbers in big Hollywood films of the forties and fifties. Everything is done with a very enjoyable verve and panache, and Ryazanov demonstrates a great sense of timing with comedy and and ability to tell a lot with a little in the romantic subplots that would serve him well in securing him the breadth to make his later films.
So instead of trying to compact more plot in that would comfortably fit, we center on one humorously over-the-top character -- a new boss who has arrived two days before the spectacle and insists on ordering absurdly inartistic changes to every element of it. This gives us the opportunity to see what is in essence a series of very good gags orchestrated around the efforts to work around him, and the couple of sketched-in love stories that are going on.
The new boss complains several times that the employees are undermining his authority in the name of their fun -- and he's right about that. It's naturally cathartic and funny to watch the defeat of someone so serious and humorless. Ogurtsov acts as an exaggerated-for-effect of the official line. As we delight in watching him humiliated, the Soviet New Yoear is placed in the old stabilizing holiday role as the one time in the year when things may be reasonably topsy-turvy -- and the role of New Year's as the main, secular, state-sponsored holiday is bolstered.
The revue aspects are well-realized in music and choreography, and remind one of similarly spotless musical numbers in big Hollywood films of the forties and fifties. Everything is done with a very enjoyable verve and panache, and Ryazanov demonstrates a great sense of timing with comedy and and ability to tell a lot with a little in the romantic subplots that would serve him well in securing him the breadth to make his later films.