Mosfilm: Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession (1973) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Mosfilm

Soviet Russian novelist and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov remains one of the country’s most celebrated authors with his The Master and Margarita published posthumously being hailed as one of the great literary masterworks of the century.  Though some of his works were banned by the Soviet Union and sometimes personally by Joseph Stalin the Soviet leader nevertheless also admired the playwright and even tried to boost his popularity which never really took hold until after his death in 1940 at the young age of forty-eight.  Often dabbling in fantasy elements or science-fiction as a means of allegorical satire, one which was initially suppressed in the mid-1930s before being published in 1965 for the first time was Ivan Vasilyevich.  Set in Moscow, it told the story of a broken time machine which sends apartment superintendent Ivan Vasilyevich to the 16^th century under Ivan the Terrible’s reign of terror.  In a case of mistaken identity, Ivan the Terrible inadvertently winds up transported into the future 20^th century into Ivan Vasilyevich’s apartment.  With the two characters now in different timelines, Vasilyevich’s only recourse is to impersonate the feared tsar Ivan the Terrible while looking for a way to get back to his time-period. 
 
Sometime in 1973, renowned Soviet comedy director Leonid Gaidai best known for Kidnapping, Caucasian Style and The Diamond Arm following his 1971 adaptation of Ilf and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs decided to take up Mikhail Bulgakov’s seminal science-fiction comedy Ivan Vasilyevich.  With the title expanded to Ivan Vasilyevich: Back to the Future or as it is more widely known Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession and starring The Irony of Fate actor Yury Yakovlev in dual roles as the superintendent Ivan as well as the 16^th century tsar Ivan, recurring Shurik Gaidai star Aleksandr Demyanenko (his final appearance as the character) and Afonya star Leonid Kuravlyov in the cast, the stage was set for perhaps one of Leonid Gaidai’s most beloved comedic achievements.  Through his adaptation of Bulgakov, Gaidai was able to still work in his time-honored fluctuation between silent and sound comedy, sped up footage rendered by cinematographers Sergei Poluyanov with Vitali Abramov and playful electronic scores by Aleksandr Zatsepin.  The film ends up being through and through a Gaidai work telling a Bulgakov story with a great deal of the playwright’s snarky allegorical satire worked into the subtext.

 
1973 Moscow, the beloved lanky thick rimmed glassed Shurik (Aleksandr Demyanenko) from Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures as well as Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is now an engineer living in an apartment complex in the process of developing and constructing a time-machine.  However when a repeat offender burglar named George (Leonid Kuravlyov) and the building’s superintendent Ivan Vasilyevich (Yury Yakovlev) happen upon Shurik’s apartment during a test of the machine, the walls disappear and a portal opens up into the 16^th century Kremlin presided over by Ivan the Terrible (also Yury Yakovlev).  Believing the engineer and burglar to be demons from another dimension, Ivan the Terrible terrified by Shurik’s black cat inadvertently runs into the portal leading him into the 20^th century Soviet Union meanwhile George the burglar and Ivan Vasilyevich the superintendent find themselves trapped in 16^th century Russia after the time machine is damaged.  Their only hope for survival in the past is to impersonate the roles of Ivan the Terrible while the burglar passes himself off as Prince Miroslavsky.  Meanwhile in the present day as Shurik tries to repair the time machine and keep a lid on the medieval tsar, Ivan the Terrible starts acclimating to contemporary Soviet culture listening to songs and later donning a tracksuit.

 
Originally written with The Diamond Arm star Yuri Nikulin in mind who turned the role down before finally landing on Yuri Yakovlev after eight actors went through the auditioning process before being passed on, Yakovlev does an excellent job inhabiting the roles of ineffectual nebbish superintendent and formidable and dangerous tsar finding room for comedy, intimidation and empathy.  Aleksandr Demyanenko in his final Shurik appearance is naturally hilarious and physically energetic.  Leonid Kuravlyov as the burglar turned faux-Prince of Russia conveys the whimsical comic energy expected from Gaidai’s style.  Also in medieval Russia, look for legendary comedian Savely Kramarov as Feofan the right-hand man to Ivan the Terrible and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Mikhail Pugovkin as a film director.  Mostly though, the real star of the show resides behind the camera with his fever pitched almost hyperkinetic energy in his interpretation of the beloved playwright Mikhail Bulgakov’s delightful satire.

 
Released in 1973, Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession featuring a number of original as well as preexisting songs on the soundtrack, the film like many others went through a censorship process with about ten minutes excised from the running time.  Despite this, it went on to become one of the bona fide powerhouses at the box office as a leader in ticket sales (more than 60 million sold) and against mixed reception regarding the lampooning or caricaturing of the tsar it nevertheless prevailed in the years since as one of the quintessential entertainments to come from the 1973 Soviet Union.  Sometime in 2016, Google published a Google Doodle celebrating the film’s 43^rd anniversary and further still in 2023 a postal cover of Russia was dedicated to the film featuring Ivan the Terrible, Prince Miroslavsky and director Gaidai on the picture.  There are somewhere around eight documentaries on the making of and lore of the film and there are two music films, one a concert and the other a musical, that incorporates footage from Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession as well as recasts the original six actors from the film.  Also in addition to music videos featuring the actors gathering in a theater to watch the film, in 2023 there was a televised remake of Gaidai’s film. 

 
Looking at it now, it remains one of Gaidai’s most colorful and playfully audiovisual satirical romps in his illustrious career.  Quintessential to anyone interested in Soviet era Eastern European cinema as well as exploring the comedic charms of Leonid Gaidai who carved out his own niche of silent-sound physical comedy, Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession though still largely unknown to Western filmgoers functions as a closing chapter on Shurik’s ‘Other Adventures’ so to speak while being an interpretation of one of Russia’s most celebrated authors.  A cinematic and cultural landmark, it still has the power to tickle the ribs, provoke smiles as well as stir allegorical discourse comparing Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union.  Mostly its just a really damn funny as well as costume, sets and effects heavy comedy representing Leonid Gaidai’s work perhaps at his boundless creative height. 

--Andrew Kotwicki