Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession

For those Americans who cannot understand the movie and appreciate it entirely, I suggest that you watch it for its visual value. I myself have moved out of Russia when I was 7 so I did not get to study the history culture and language of Russia that much, so movie like these I use as an educational tool. I've learned a lot about the clothes, speech, and history from this movie than I did anywhere else. My heart is more in this than perhaps yours might be, but educationally this film is worth it, as well as providing humor and fun. It's not a preachy, soapy, cramped kind of comedy. It is fast paced, energetic, and fun.

This film is not only very funny, but also the product of a deep knowledge and love of classic Russian cinema. Some cadres are clearly inspired by Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, part I (Ivan Vasilevich looking from the window, Ivan Vasilevich sitting with the scribe) and their presence in the comedy context (in a world turned upside-down, as Bachtin would have it) is the silver bullet that provides laughter and delight to the intellectual as well as to the unsophisticated viewer, who may be content with recognizing on the apartment's wall a reproduction of Repin's "Ivan Grozny killing his own son". Building on this, Gaidai displays his own masterly craft: he can make you laugh with just one word (Tsar Ivan looking at contemporary Moscow - devastated by modern buildings - and bursting out "Beauty!"). Great acting by everyone, Miloslavski (Leonid Kuravliov) being my personal favourite.

An adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's story based on a grotesque collision of different historical periods. Some visual humor involved. A couple of awkward chases and a lot of awesome jokes. One of the best Russian comedies, second to none except 'Brilliantovaya ruka' by the same film director.

It is interesting that the film spans not only the time of Ivan the Terrible and the 70's but also the 20's when Bulgakov's original was written. Although the influence of the 20's is mainly atmospheric, it is nevertheless visible in the fact that most of the character's names sound funny in the way usual for the satirical literature of that period.

Contrary to what may seem to a foreign audience, the chase sequences in the movie serve only as a rather ineffectual background for the main comical action, which is almost entirely verbal and basically relies on the combination of contemporary language with its archaic counterpart of the 16th century - a detonating mixture that is guaranteed to kill the native-speaking audience.

Considering the fact that the movie is featuring some of the most popular Soviet actors, it is not surprising that this low-budget and obviously slap-dash production has managed to gain the nationwide reputation of a classic, with most of its memorable quotes nearly approaching the status of catch-phrases.

The film can be tentatively recommended to advanced learners of Russian and certainly to all those who specialize in the study of this language.

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession is a film capable of appealing to audiences outside the Soviet Union with its universally smart humor. From the onset it is obviously influenced by Western cinema; one cannot tell if Shurik's bedroom is Russian or American until Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov begins playing from the TV. This homogeneous consumer culture is evident all throughout the film, especially in the luxuries of Shpak's apartment, the electronics black market, and the character of Shurik's wife (in the dream plot line). In fact, Shurik's wife in the separate dream world seems almost a caricature of Hollywood with her posters and dreams of falling in love with Yakin and finding fame. Gaidai's camera work utilizes quick photography. This is exemplified in the episode in which Miloslavsky is robbing Shpak's apartment and cannot get out; Gaidai cuts to the many faces of statues and paintings that, in context, are shocked and seem to mock him. This is an amusing riff on the Kuleshov Effect. The sets themselves are also fantastic, and Ivan's (the tsar, not the bureaucrat) palace appears lifted straight out of Eisenstein's 1947 feature. Ivan Vasilievich (both of them), too, is an exact copy of Eisenstein's tsar, pointy beard and all! These visual homages would have been obvious, one assumes, to Russian audiences of the time and surely would have made it all the more comedic. However, Gaidai's humor is not intrinsically Russian, like earlier Soviet comedies, but appeals internationally. The humor lies in the situational: the police/Oprichniki chase, the switching of identities, the mad scientist, even a regal food fight. The only context clues to the time are slight jabs at Soviet rations, the black market, and housing codes. These tropes give the film the ability to transcend the trappings of a fifteen- minute fame, and allow it to be just as funny, if not more, decades later.

This is one of the greatest comedies produced by the Soviet cinema. It continues to be hugely popular among Russian speaking people (who have all seen it). Even if one does not understand any Russian, the movie is quite watchable in subtitled versions.

The plot itself is a rather standard one about ordinary guys thrust into a strange culture with action and adventure. What makes the movie special is superb acting, witty dialog, good pacing, and engaging music.

This movie deserves a place along side other action-adventure comedies such as The Princess Bride.