Office Romance
| Office Romance | |
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Original film poster
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| Directed by | Eldar Ryazanov |
| Written by | Eldar Ryazanov Emil Braginsky |
| Starring |
Andrey Myagkov Alisa Freindlich Oleg Basilashvili |
| Music by | Andrei Petrov |
| Cinematography | Vladimir Nakhabtsev |
| Distributed by | Mosfilm |
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Release date
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Running time
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159 minutes |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | 500.000 rubles |
Office Romance (Russian: Служебный роман, translit. Sluzhebnyy roman) is a Soviet comedy film directed by Eldar Ryazanov. It was filmed at Mosfilm and released in 1977. The film's plot is based on the stageplay "Co-workers" (Russian: Сослуживцы, translit. Sosluzhivtsy) written by Eldar Ryazanov and Emil Braginsky, and tells the story of Ludmila Kalugina, head of a statistical bureau, and her subordinate, economist Anatoly Novoseltsev, who come from mutual aversion to love.
Office Romance was a box office success, the leader of Soviet film distribution in 1978 and still enjoys wide popularity in the former Soviet republics.
Both romantic drama and screwball comedy, the film is noted for its scenes of Moscow in the late 1970s, and for its comical depiction of the everyday life and customs of Soviet society during the Era of Stagnation.
The action takes place in Moscow in 1976. Anatoly Yefremovich Novoseltsev, a clumsy single father of two sons, works at a statistical bureau. His boss is a strict single woman in her late 30s, Ludmila Prokofievna Kalugina, nicknamed "our " by her subordinates. She has some self-confidence problems, hidden behind her gloomy humorless demeanor and plain old-fashioned look. Novoseltsev's colleagues consider him as a smart and experienced worker. He dreams about a promotion and a raise that would help him provide for his children, but he is too timid to talk to his boss about it. His former classmate and old friend, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, recently appointed assistant manager of the institution, suggests appointing Novoseltsev as a head of the light industry department, but Kalugina rejects it believing that Novoseltsev is not good enough for the position. Then, following Samokhvalov's advice, Novoseltsev unwillingly tries to flirt with "the Frump" at a party in Samokhvalov's apartment in order to "get into contact" with her. Feeling extremely uneasy he tries in vain to make conversation with her about random things such as picking berries and mushrooms, reads poetry to her, shows off his singing and dancing abilities (in a very comical way), but Kalugina gets annoyed and severely criticizes all his attempts to impress her. Eventually Novoseltsev becomes frustrated, flares up and tells Kalugina right in her face that he considers her "dry, inhuman and heartless".
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