Braço de Diamante

It is a crime film with no cruelty, that presents a bright and very honest snapshot of the everyday life of an average soviet citizen and of his morale. The invasion of the capitalist valuables into the socialist society produces very funny situation. The film is not ideologically inclined: You feel sympathy towards both victims, criminals and police. You laugh both at human greediness, vices of the bureaucracy and the naivety of average Russians of that time. The film itself has influated the Russian language. Many of witty phrases from this film have already become proverbs.

I like this movie. Like all other Gaidai's films I saw, its very dense in humor, without empty gaps. For a non Soviet, it can give some insight to this country. Well, it helps if you have some background knowledge, like I have. the film is surely as critical as was possible, but the main thing is that it gives you a good feeling, laugh helps to forget bad things. My favorite is the scene in the restaurant, it shows the joy of drinking in a good company, I think Russian people really can create a good party. The music is also nice, Andrei Mironov is superb on the ship with his song about island of unlucky people in ocean. He also commented afterward his role i such a film: it is good to have one diamond arm, two is too much, tree is a catastrophe.

A regular guy goes on a cruise abroad, gets mistaken for a mafia courier and receives a load of diamonds in the bandage on his broken arm. Mafia tries to return the goods, KGB tries to catch mafia, and our hero struggles in between. Tons of great humor. Many jokes from this absolutely hilarious comedy have made it into everyday language. I would like to invite visitors to see pictures from the movie and watch a detailed trailer at RussArt.com. Those who read Russian can find more materials useful: reviews, actor biographies, articles, etc.

Pictures: http://russart.com/?moviepictures&mid=10

Trailer: http://russart.com/?movietrailer&mid=10

This movie was never intended for foreign audiences. It is simply way too Russian (or too Soviet, actually) to be funny for anyone not familiar with the realities of local life. Most of the real comedy comes from Mironov and Papanov, who play hilarious villains on the track to recover stolen jewels, mistakenly put into Nikulin's arm cast. Russian-speaking audiences will enjoy Papanov's one-of-a-kind "Ukrainian" accent, but the jokes are too ethnic for anyone else to understand. Nikulin (a circus clown turned great comic actor) isn't particularly believable in an unfamiliar role of a good guy (his characters usually also were drunken and hilarious crooks), but turns in an adequate performance. Mironov is at his usual fast-talking, silly self, and Papanov is a riot. Mordyukova steals several scenes in a small role of a house superintendant, a towering woman with a thunderous voice. Overall, a terrific Soviet comedy, the kind they simply don't make anymore.

Perfect from the first till the last minute. Not a single word in this movie said in vain - this is absolute masterpiece of comedy. But I do not believe that it is possible to translate it properly into English - so, you have to know Russian language (and you've got to have a good idea of Russian realities of 70th) to be able to fully enjoy it. This movie was, I believe, the first soviet comedy which contained a short "sexual" scene (topless actress shot from behind). Many lines from this film are now living their own lives - you can hear quotations on TV, in people talks, in other movies - while some of those who uses it do not remember the words origin. Must have, must see - anyway!