Moscow Times Article

[alektoeumenides.livejournal.com]

The Cyrillic is being awful again and I'm not going to put people through the hasstle of re-typing it. I think the Times is doing it on purpose to prevent sneaky copying.

I'll just link directly to the article then...

A comedy that lives on in the language

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Their Web is in KOI-8 Cyrillic encoding! That's the problem :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

A Comedy That Lives On in the Language

By Michele A. Berdy

Жить хорошо, а хорошо жить -- ещё лучше: Life is good, and living well is even better.

You have only to look at the full title of one of Russia's favorite films to see how much life has changed since 1966: Кавказская пленница, или новые приключения Шурика -- эксцентрическая комедия (Captive of the Caucasus, or the New Adventures of Shurik -- an eccentric comedy). Alas, it will be a long time before anyone can make a lighthearted comedy about the Caucasus. If you're tired of the usual Hollywood summer fare filling Moscow's theaters, run, don't walk to your local licensed video store, and take out this comedy by Leonid Gaidai. Not only will you howl at some of the funniest slapstick comedy ever made, you'll realize that the comment in the office the other day was a quote from the movie.

It all takes place in an unidentified region of the Caucasus, where Shurik has gone to collect фольклор, local sayings, rituals and ... toasts. Of course, the local folks are happy to help him with toasts, such as Выпьем за то, чтобы наши желания всегда совпадали с нашими возможностями (Let's drink to our desires always matching our abilities). Another long toast is about a bird that tries to fly to the sun, but its wings are burned and it falls to the earth. The toast: чтобы никто из нас, как бы высоко ни летал, никогда не отрывался от коллектива! (So that none of us, no matter how high we fly, will ever break with the collective!) This is a good joke toast to remember for office parties.

Shurik falls in love with the beautiful Nina. Nina is asked to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony for the new Дворец Бракосочетания (Wedding Palace) and is introduced as: студентка, комсомолка, спортсменка, и просто красавица! (A student, Komsomol member, sportswoman, and simply a beauty!) Don't be surprised if someone introduces a friend this way at a party; it means: a person of many talents, and beautiful besides.

Throughout all this, Shurik, who has no head for wine, keeps slurring Помедленнее, я записываю! (Speak more slowly -- I'm writing this down.) If you say this innocuously at a meeting when you are taking notes, your Russian colleagues may burst into laughter; they're remembering the drunken Shurik, who says this and then grabs what he thinks is his drinking horn. Unfortunately, the horn he grabs is still attached to a bull.

As the story develops, Nina's shifty uncle decides to sell her to a local swain for 20 sheep and a refrigerator. But first she must be kidnapped, which is ineptly carried out by a trio of hilarious lowlifes. To them we owe the immortal phrase: Жить хорошо, а хорошо жить -- ещё лучше (Life is good, and living well is even better). For those of you still troubled by nasty gender issues in Russian (what gender is coffee anyway?), you'll enjoy: Чей туфля? Моё, спасибо. The meaning is: "Whose shoe is this? Mine, thank you." But since туфля is feminine, it should be чья (whose, feminine) and моя (mine, feminine) instead of this mishmash of masculine-feminine-neuter. Hey -- it's a tough language.

Nina is a feisty captive, and her betrothed is a bit sorry he decided to kidnap her. But, as he points out: или я её -- в ЗАГС, или она меня -- к прокурору! (Either I take her to the registry office, or she takes me to the prosecutor's office!) In the end, justice prevails. The swain gets a load of salt in his backside and ends up in court with his lowlife accomplices.

After the judge enters and the bailiff tells everyone to be seated, the wounded bridegroom says, Спасибо, я постою. (Thank you, I'll stand.) This is another innocent phrase for the hapless foreigner: Your business partners chortle, and you can't figure out what's so funny.

Another quotable moment in the movie is when one of the defendants calls out hopefully: Да здравствует наш суд, самый гуманный суд в мире! (Long live our court, the most humane court in the world!)

Well, it is an eccentric comedy.


Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator