About the film
It is New Year's Eve, and the young people at a Moscow House of Culture have prepared a bright, funny carnival with jazz, songs and dancing. Then the acting director, Comrade Ogurtsov, arrives and decides that a proper celebration needs a lecture, a classical choir and nothing frivolous.
The staff, led by the cheerful Lena, quietly sabotage every one of his plans. Each attempt by Ogurtsov to make the evening dull ends in a new comic disaster.
Released just after the end of the Stalin era, Carnival Night felt like a breath of fresh air. It is still a New Year favourite, and its song about five minutes before midnight is sung at parties to this day.
Did you know?
- It was Eldar Ryazanov's first feature comedy.
- It made the young Lyudmila Gurchenko a star overnight.
- Gurchenko's song 'Five Minutes' is still a New Year's Eve classic.
