Reviews
Brilliantovaya ruka (1969)
A good movie, especially for the people who are aware of the soviet society
Gaidai's role model was Charlie Chaplin, and therefore most of his humor is built upon silent scenes accompanied by music. This makes his movies being beloved by many generations, as the silent scenes were not done for a special group of people. However, in his later movies there is verbal humor as well, which requires you to be aware of the soviet society. Although many people considered this movie as the best of Gadai's comedies, in my opinion it is not a good introduction to Gaidai's style as it involves many scenes which require you being aware of the soviet society.
For those people who do not speak Russian, or do not aware of the life and the difficulties in the soviet society, I recommend the "Operation Y" movie to start with.
Moskva slezam ne verit (1980)
A very clever plot.
I've seen this movie many many times. But many times I've noticed some details in the plot which made me estimating again what is really happening there, and what were the writer's main idea in such a plot. The acting is also brilliant, and after seeing this movie several times, each another time makes me thinking again about my and our life, and also about the type of the gender relationships which concerns lies.
The story begins in the late 50's, and the first part concerns the lives of the characters at their early 20's. Then, the film jumps about 20 years forward, and the second part concerns the lives of the characters at their late 30's (or early 40's). The first time you see this movie, most of the interest is how did the lives changed over the 20 years, and what kind of an end the movie has. But it turns out that almost every scene and cite play an important role there, and after seeing it a few times I noticed that the movie is not just about the tales of the three girls and how does lives change.
For example, each of the parts is built by a pattern where the first half tells about the lives of the three girls, and the second half tells about Katya's (main character's) relationship with a boyfriend. In each of the parts the relationship isn't built in a pure way, since Katya must hide some facts about her (and even lie) to make sure everything will go on (I think this is the reason for making Gosha a macho man, and seeing it again you may find out what makes him behave like that). But in the two parts there are different kind of lies and relationships, and I think that makes the writer to put different endings at the parts. Although the first part has a sad end (what also reflects Katya's life further), in the second part the relationship doesn't break after Katya's boyfriend finds the truth about her.
Besides this example, there are many other topics about life which this film concerns. Seeing it enough times makes you sure that Gosha isn't as awful as he seems to be at the first time you see the movie (his past is barley mentioned, but when you find it out, it clears the scene where he meets Nikolay, and what will be afterwards), and therefore the ending may be concerned "good".
Again, this film may be watched again and again, in a very entertaining way, and each time telling you more about the plot. I think that such a film is a masterpiece.
Shirli-myrli (1995)
An unimaginable triangle.
I've read many reviews about this film, and most of them tell about the messy beginning of this film (which involves the diamond, and so on...). But the real point of this film is the unimaginable triangle of the three twin brothers, where each one of them was grown in a different environment (Garkalin plays all the three brothers). It actually makes one of them think that he is "russian", another one think that he is a "jew", and the third one is "gypsy" (through the film it turns out that among their parents and grand parents there are all sorts of people). When each of these characters appear, he dislikes at least one of the other types, and it turns into a triangle where the "russian" guy dislikes Jews, the "jewish" gut dislikes gypsies, and the "gypsy" guy dislikes Russians (as well as anyone who discriminates gypsies). But then they begin appearing each one in other's life, and also being told about their parents, what eventually makes them even love each other. A great comedy scenario and acting makes this unbelievable story into a great comedy film.