There are two films with a similar name: the Soviet "Old New Year" with actors from the Moscow Art Theater and the American romantic sitcom, the name of which literally translates as "New Year's Eve." The domestic film was shot in 1980, and the American in 2011.
American history
Each picture bears the stamp of its culture and its time. Yes, and we are talking about different holidays. The director of "Beauty" and "Runaway Bride" Harry Marshall dedicated the film to the last day of the outgoing year, the events here unfold on December 31 in New York. Before the viewer there are several different mini-stories about people trying several hours before the New Year to correct their mistakes and fulfill their cherished desires. The New Year’s ball of time in Times Square becomes the plot clip, without which a holiday in America is as unthinkable as it would be impossible without a chime in Russia. On the square in downtown Manhattan, actors, accountants, doctors, dressmakers, artists are going to celebrate the good old New Year - that is, everything, everything, everything!
World night
Perhaps the name of the American film would be better translated as “Good Old New Year”, the creators put this value into the comedy's artistic language. It is no coincidence that at the very beginning a voiceover informs that the world apparently still believes in magic, because it only once a year unanimously gathers to celebrate the good old holiday - New Year.
Dazzling composition
The actors of the movie "Old New Year" is the true constellation of Hollywood. Here you will see Michelle Pfeiffer in the role of secretary Ingrid, who managed in one day to fulfill the wish list, which will not be enough for a year. And the handsome Zak Efron who helped her in this in the role of the inventor Paul. The film adorns the incomparable vocals of John Bon Jovi, who played the role of the leader of the pop group Jensen, who vowed to return the bride, from whom he escaped a year ago. The image of old Harry dying in the hospital with classical authenticity was recreated by Robert de Niro, his ever-busy daughter was played by Hilary Swank.
Other actors and roles of the film “Old New Year”: Abigail Breslin (Hailey), Katherine Heigl (Laura), Josh Duhamel (Sam), Sarah Jessica Parker (Kim Doyle), Ashton Kutcher (Randy), Leah Michelle (Eliza). An excellent duet was obtained by Jessica Bill and Sett Myers, who played a young couple who were too energetically awaiting the birth of their first child. Not without a cameo - Penny Marshall played herself in a comedy.
Holiday in the old style
The Russian satirical comedy “Old New Year”, whose actors created convincing images of the Soviet intelligentsia on the one hand and typical hard workers on the other, is dedicated to the holiday, which is celebrated two weeks after the meeting of the real New Year. In Russia, traditionally, although not so lavishly, they celebrate New Year in the old style.
From the stage - for spotlights
The play based on the play by Mikhail Roshchin first took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Academic Theater. The performance in 1973 was carried out by Oleg Efremov. The resounding success of the performance is a feat of the creative team to transfer the story to the screen. In the early 80s, actors Vyacheslav Nevinniy (Petr Sebeikin), Alexander Kalyagin (Petr Poluorlov), Evgeny Evstigneev (Adamych) Irina Miroshnichenko (Klava Poluorlova), Ksenia Minina (Klavdia Sebekina, Anna Romanovna) and other artists memorable in the images of colorful characters.
Funny and modern
The genre of satirical comedy suggests that the only positive hero, by the precise definition of N.V. Gogol, is laughter. So it happened with domestic filmmakers. Heroes turned out hilariously comical and reliably accurate. The script exposed the idea of philistinism and unjustified conceit. To complete the picture, the author places the conflict of the work in a party situation in two families representing typical examples of the two estates that existed in the USSR. The actors showed inside the value orientations of these people and guests of their circle.
The main characters have speaking surnames - Sebeikin, from whom it is often heard “I, mine, mine”, and Poluorlov, a researcher whose leadership model did not appreciate the advanced toilet bowl model. One sees the point in cluttering up an apartment with well-deserved things, the other is to throw out a rich environment and settle down on the floor, closer to the ground.
The spiritual basis of the characters' characters turns out to be pettiness and limitation. The measure of moral poverty of heroes is the old man Adamych, who is forever with the people. Having quarreled with their relatives, both Petra, who still did not know each other, went to the Sandunov baths, and there, over a glass of beer at the edge of the pool, they found many common points of contact. The wives of Claudia and circumstances (where without them) would be to blame for everything.
And the roles and actors of the “Old New Year” fell in love with the audience of our country. Every evening on the eve of January 14th, we are happy to review the old tape, marveling at how modern it sounds.