La nuit du carnaval

The 1950s were a decade of fantastic Hollywood musicals such as Chantons sous la pluie (1952). Given the status of music and ballet in Russian society, it is no wonder that the Soviet Union made sure not to stay too far behind. They didn't have Hollywood budgets for this, nor the experience. But as happened so often, the creative minds found ways to work around this, and substituted imagination and natural talent for experience.

At least this is how this film feels for me. Watching this musical is a bit like watching an amateur production that turns out way better than anyone could expect -- almost on a professional level but with a few quirky reminders that everyone involved actually has a mundane day job. But this doesn't matter because this impression has perfect in-universe explanation in the film's setting.

The setting is the New Year's celebration (and preparations), of a palace of culture. Palaces of culture (or houses of culture) were cultural centers that provided infrastructure for cultural clubs and activities by people from all walks of life. It goes without saying that an annual variety show prepared by a palace of culture was likely to be better than one organized by the workers of a random factory. This is the in-universe explanation for how this film soon turns organically into a musical. At the same time, they are still amateurs, and this easily explains any quirkiness resulting from inexperience or budget problems. By the way, integrating music in this way was typical for the more expensive Soviet films. Even the Soviet versions of The Hobbit or The Three Musketeers had a lot of singing. (Skazochnoe puteshestvie mistera Bilbo Begginsa, Khobbita (1985), D'Artagnan et les Trois Mousquetaires (1979))

The beginning of the film sets up the main plot around the new boss: a control freak, completely devoid of humor, doesn't understand the purpose of the New Year's variety show, and tries to turn it into a dry educational event. It also sets up the romantic subplot which any film of this nature needs.

The rehearsals of musical and dance numbers rejected by the boss give us an idea of what these amateurs are capable of. Then the greatest part of the film is the New Year's show itself, which of course turns out to be a great success despite (or because of?) having to work around and against a boss who scheduled items such as a 40-minute astronomy lecture, a melancholic solo song and the reading of a fable.

This film catches the atmosphere of an amazingly good amateur production so well that I think it would be very suitable for annual ritual viewing on New Year's eve. It's certainly better than most of the stuff they always show on German TV on the occasion.