Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia (1974)

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"Unbelievable adventures of Italians in Russia" is what you can call a classic Russian slapstick comedy. It evolves around a bunch of Italians who gain knowledge about a treasure hidden somewhere in Saint Petersburg by an old woman and who try to be the first to find it, individually. Of course, in the course of the following events, many unbelievable and comical happenings arise and the rules of plausibility are very kindly interpreted.You do notice that this movie is not a recent one. It celebrates a form of comedy not very modern and doesn't let out a bunch of very stereotypical depictions of foreign characteristics. Sometimes the movie arrives at a dead end and the jokes don't work out perfectly and some sequences are even a bit too long.Nevertheless, there's a lot of creativity put into this movie and you have to admire that. Some of the gags, as obvious as they may be, really stick to mind and bring at least a smile on your face. I can imagine that it matches the humor of quite a lot of people perfectly, personally I'm not the biggest slapstick fan but I did like this movie and laughed quite a few times about the sheer absurdity of events.If you're looking for something to turn off your brain and bring a bit of joy into the evening, I recommend you to give it a try.

This is a pretty good Soviet comedy co-produced by Soviets and some Italians (I don't remember exactly the name of the studio). Italians are portrayed as very active and jolly people, although more interested in pursuing material goals such as finding a hidden treasure in the advent of the Russian Revolution. They don't care about Communist ideals. The Russian character is the only positive character in the movie, a kind of Soviet James Bond. He finally conquers the main female character. Otherwise Soviet women are mostly absent from the movie. Clear signs of propaganda are two: 1) Italian hospitals are presented as being overcrowded so that at some point two patients (a man and a woman) have to share the same bed, 2) there is a lot of chaos in Italy and the Mafia stereotype is reinforced by a short Mafiosi.Otherwise there aren't any references to the Soviet Communist party as far as I recall. Lots of special effects and stunts, so I suppose the Soviets spent a lot of money on the movie.

This was an Italian-Soviet co-production, which should have made for an interesting production process. It also appears as if both countries must have thrown huge portions of their budgets in, as the film looks incredibly expensive. Which is part of the issue with it. The plot concept (a bunch of Italians here that there is some buried treasure in Russia; they go there to look for it and are followed by an undercover cop -- that's it) is extremely simple and basically serves as a frame on which to hang some huge, outlandish, and probably extremely expensive set-pieces, such as an airliner driving along the highway, cars jumping over each other, filling stations blowing up, lions roaming the streets of Leningrad, and more. These are all fun and diverting to watch, but as one movie they don't completely hang together. And they push out of they way much of what would have been there in terms of a plot or well-defined characters. I've seen two other Eldar Ryazanov films and in these regards this is nothing like them -- I suspect maybe the huge amounts of time and money that must have been poured into this movie limited him. In a sense it's of a kind with other big-scale chase/heist movies of the 60s and 70s (and their renaissance with films like Rat Race), but it's not the best of all of them and remains fun basically on the one level. Antonia Santilli is a delight to watch, though, not least because she seems completely amused by everything that happens the whole time. And Andrey Mironov is extremely talented, even if the fast pace doesn't give him as many opportunities as it could to display that. In all, a fun movie that's very impressive for its big-scale stunt scenes and is never boring, but not much beyond that.

It is not my favorite Ryasanov's movie, but nevertheless I recommend it for everybody who like comedies about treasure hunting. The plot is quite usual. Somewhere in very poor Italian hospital dies old Russian lady, who appears to be one of noble Russian aristocrats. She left Russia after revolution 1917, but she was not able to take with her all her treasures. So in the hospital, before she dies, she reveals to everybody, who is near her (her granddaughter, gangster, doctor, paramedics, patients) her secret. And treasure hunt begins! The movie is quite funny, but not the best example of Russian comedies. The good news is that unlike many Russian comedies which are fun only for native speakers, this one can be comprehended by any audience.