Synopsis
Office Romance (Служебный роман, 1977) is a Soviet comedy-drama by Eldar Ryazanov — watch it online on iFILM. At nearly two hours and forty minutes, the Mosfilm production holds every scene: no filler, just character.
Anatoly Novoseltsev is a single father of two and a mid-level statistician at a Moscow bureau, terrified of his director Ludmila Kalugina — a sharply efficient woman her staff call "Meany" behind her back. A well-connected colleague plants the idea that Anatoly should charm her to get a promotion. He tries. Badly. And in the process he stops seeing a boss and starts seeing a person.
Alisa Freindlich plays Kalugina in layers — armored, then gradually not — and it is one of the great comedic-dramatic performances in Soviet cinema. The ensemble includes Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Oleg Basilashvili, and Liya Akhedzhakova. Based on a stage play by Eldar Ryazanov and Emil Braginsky, this became the kind of film that entire generations watched together. Stream Office Romance (1977) online on iFILM.
Starring
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