Soviet comedy film recommendations

post by Nina Panickssery (NinaR) · 2024-06-09T23:40:58.536Z · LW · GW · 11 comments

This is a link post for https://open.substack.com/pub/ninarimsky/p/soviet-comedies

Contents

  Ryazanov
  Gaidai
  Daneliya
  Bonus recommendations
None
11 comments

I’m a big fan of the Soviet comedy directors Eldar Ryazanov, Leonid Gaidai, and Georgiy Daneliya. Almost anything by them is worth watching, but here are my favorites (filtered for things that have a free YouTube version with good English subtitles, bold are the highest-recommended):

Я вам покажу!». За что Рязанов наказал Мягкова | Аргументы и Факты
Scene from "The Garage"

Ryazanov

Gaidai

Daneliya

Bonus recommendations

Юрий Норштейн: «Ежик в тумане» появился после криков и сердечных капель -  KP.RU
Still from "Hedgehog in the Fog"

Addendum: there is now a follow-up post on my blog with two detective series recommendations

  1. ^

    $10 bounty to anyone who finds a link to a free version of this with high-quality English subtitles

11 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by WitheringWeights (EZ97) · 2024-06-10T19:48:39.453Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I believe Gaidai's Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession (Иван Васильевич меняет профессию) also deserves an honorable mention, I am pretty sure it should be available with English subtitles.

Replies from: NinaR
comment by Nina Panickssery (NinaR) · 2024-06-10T20:53:10.630Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Ah yes I liked this film also! Шурик returns

comment by Said Achmiz (SaidAchmiz) · 2024-06-10T23:42:24.899Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Additional recommendations (no YouTube links, sorry—maybe others can find some):

Gentlemen of Fortune (Daneliya)

Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures (Gaidai)

White Sun of the Desert (Vladimir Motyl) … well, this one isn’t technically a comedy, but it’s not entirely serious, either. Plenty of comedic elements, certainly.

Animation:

Town Musicians of Bremen (YouTube links at the TV Tropes link. Bonus: if you’ve seen almost any of Gaidai’s films, you’ll find a certain trio of characters in this one to be quite familiar…)

Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Adaptation of a series of children’s books by Astrid Lindgren)

comment by iva · 2024-06-10T18:48:56.397Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

For those who also like cartoons:

Replies from: mikhail-samin
comment by Mikhail Samin (mikhail-samin) · 2024-06-10T21:23:59.929Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Treasure Island is available on YouTube with English subtitles in two parts: https://youtu.be/LUykh5-HGZ0 https://youtu.be/0lRIMn91dZU

comment by Mikhail Samin (mikhail-samin) · 2024-06-10T20:08:55.336Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Charodei? A Soviet fantasy romcom.

The premise: a magic research institute develops a magic wand, to be presented in the New Year’s Eve settings.

Very cute, featuring a bunch of songs, an SCP-style experience of one of the characters with the institute building, infinite Wish spells, and relationship drama.

I think I liked it a lot as a kid (and didn’t really like any of the other traditional new year holidays movies).

Replies from: SaidAchmiz, mikhail-samin, NinaR
comment by Said Achmiz (SaidAchmiz) · 2024-06-10T23:30:18.358Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Trivia: this movie is very loosely based on the Strugatsky brothers’ Monday Begins on Saturday.

comment by Nina Panickssery (NinaR) · 2024-06-10T20:51:08.052Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Oh interesting I don't think I've seen this one

comment by liamk · 2024-06-11T00:52:05.045Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I don't know if it's a good English translation or not, but it's free, and 4K.

Replies from: NinaR
comment by Nina Panickssery (NinaR) · 2024-06-11T15:15:39.975Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I saw this but was a bit scared about the upsampling distorting something unnaturally. I should give it a watch though and see!