Carnival Night (1956): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1956, Carnival Night is a comedy, romance and music film directed by Eldar Ryazanov, running about 78 minutes.

What it’s about. It is the New Year's Eve and the employees of an Economics Institute are ready with their annual New Year's entertainment program. It includes a lot of dancing and singing, jazz band performance and even magic tricks. Suddenly, an announcement is made that a new director has been elected and that he is arriving shortly. Comrade Ogurtsov arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. To him, holiday fun has a different meaning. He imagines speakers reading annual reports to show the Institute's progress over the year, and, perhaps, a bit of serious music, something from the Classics, played by the Veterans' Orchestra. Obviously, no one wants to change the program a few hours before the show, much less to replace it with something so boring! Now everyone has to team up in order to prevent Ogurtsov from getting to the stage. As some of them trap Ogurtsov one way or another, others perform their scheduled pieces and celebrate New Year's Eve.

Who’s in it. Carnival Night stars Igor Ilyinsky as Серафим Иванович Огурцов, Lyudmila Gurchenko as Леночка Крылова, Yuri Belov as Гриша Кольцов and Georgiy Kulikov as Серёжа Усиков, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 7.0/10, Carnival Night has been warmly received by audiences.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Carnival Night page.

If you liked it. Fans of Carnival Night tend to enjoy Forrest Gump, Parasite, Life Is Beautiful and Fight Club.