Irony of Fate (Part Two) (1/10/19)

     The night gets darker before giving way to dawn and with the rising of the sun comes a slew of emotions for our characters to deal with. As the night goes on the emotions get stronger and the tension becomes more and more tangible. The pauses get longer, Zhenya and Nadya get closer, physically there are countless scenes where they are just away from a kiss. Comedy take a back burner for a good portion of the Second Act, in place of it comes more beautiful poetry, elevated tension, and more emotion from all the cast. Zhenya and Nadya's relationship flourishes in a strange way, but of course they are in strange circumstances. There are peaks and valleys in this night for them. The first peak comes as they dance to the music and laugh on each other's shoulders, they talk about how this will be looked back on and laughed at. There is a sense of togetherness and a camaraderie they feel through the hardships and loss they have had to face from this night. They dance together and forget about everything. The music and their voices takes over all background noise the frame is filled with their bodies and their bodies alone, until a buzzer snaps them both back to reality as Ippolit is at the door.

     This becomes a pattern for the remainder of the film until Zhenya returns to his home in Moscow. A valley, rising into a peak, shooting down into a valley. An awkwardness or distance between Zhenya and Nadya, rising into a emotional climax, true feelings begin to be revealed, then a buzzer or a ring snaps them back to reality. This happens over and over, whether its Ippolit at the door, or Nadya's friends, or carolers at the wrong house, this happens over and over, even all the way back in Moscow. They do the same thing over and over and they want to keep doing it, they search for reasons for each other to stay they want another chance at whatever it is they think they can get. An escape, or love, or something, they'll grasp at anything after losing everything. Nadya says that they may have gone a bit insane, people say the definition of insanity is trying something over and over and expecting something to change, they do this as the night rolls on. It is debatable if anything changes, they also say the way you ring in the new year is the way you will spend that year, they say something to that effect in the film. This is true in that they seem to be spending the year together, while still getting snapped back to reality occasionally with the intrusion of a mother or some school friends at the door.

     These peaks and valleys were very interesting to me as they sort of filled the second half of the film, it was dozens of rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion but it was on a loop. It never ended, when you think she's kicked them both out for good we get another more intense peak for Zhenya and Nadya and an even deeper valley for Ippolit. Each peak reveals more and more about Zhenya and Nadya, each peak pushes Zhenya's departure time back a little more, each valley leaves them speechless, each valley makes Nadya wish him away even harder. Each peak was a romance, each valley reminded me of the ending of The Graduate the sort of feeling and facial of expression of "What Now?" there is love or some emotion there but there is hesitation and once the adrenaline has worn off where does that leave us. For these lovers in this story it leaves them with long term relationships gone and a confusing stranger that they are falling for over and over again. Sort of like the highs and lows of the days and nights. The sun rises on these lovers and fully illuminates their mistakes but they make the choice that they want.

     The climax scenes where the emotion is at its most intense is almost always interrupted by Ippolit, either in person or in picture form. There were two shots that showed this explicitly. One Nadya and Zhenya talked to each other with a gap between them, in it sat Ippolit's picture, Nadya's last tie to him, this is where Zhenya begins to hate this picture, he is a reminder of reality, he is a reminder of their mistakes. His eyes are eyes that cast guilt and shame onto both of them, once the anger has left them. The physical representation of this same scene occurs when Ippolit stumbles in drunk and insults Nadya's fish. He asks to pass through between the lovers. breaking them apart as his photograph did as well. This idea of splitting is also portrayed in the poem talking about the "two paths of earth entwined in brances being split apart by a saw but you can never be split apart" or something along those lines. Nadya and Zhenya are obviously the entwined branches and Ippolit is obviously the angry saw. With this splitting also comes Nadya's joke of being "Half-Married" Zhenya replies with which half. This is visually shown with the splitting of the lovers by Ippolit as well as with Zhenya's last phone call to Nadya. A transparent or semi-reflective surface splits his face almost down the center, one ear is on the phone hoping to reach Nadya and one ear is out to the world, and to his plane he has to catch to get home. One hand holds the phone, the other the ticket for the plane. One half of him is still married to Galya one half is hoping for Nadya. This split is a very interesting visual image in the film. 

     Another interesting theme kind of separate from the splitting and the loops is the role reveals that occur in the second half, there are almost too many to count. As the year rotates so do the roles of the 3 people in this love triangle. The angry one becomes Zhenya, the pathetic one becomes Ippolit, the adventurous one becomes Zhenya, and so on and so on. Its like "New Year, New Me" to an extreme. The only things that stay the same at the end of this film are the mothers and the friends, the side characters. Everyone else begins the New Year changed in one way or another. 

     The second half of this film was definitely the "romantic" part of the "romantic comedy" genre for this film. It even gets a bit cheesy at some points, like at the reunion in Moscow, the sparkles from the New Years Tree frame the lover's reunion making it sparkly, beautiful and dreamlike. I know that I said in the last review that I hope that Nadya and Zhenya did not end up together, but I was very satisfied with the ending, as they did have that moment where they let someone go. I think that was very important, the hesitance and indecision made it seem realistic and painful and I really liked that. It wasn't as easy a romance as other films and it pays off in a humorous and meaningful way, keeping in line with the rest of the film.