Movies - Brilliantovaya ruka

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Brilliantovaya ruka

	Movies - Brilliantovaya ruka

Brilliantovaya ruka (Diamond Arm, Russian: Бриллиантовая рука) is a Russian film, which was first released in 1968. It is sometimes credited as the best Russian comedy ever made. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, and Nonna Mordyukova. Brilliantovaya ruka is a Russian cult film and one of the all-time leaders in the Russian box office with over 76,700,000 theatre admissions in the Soviet era.

Catch phrases

Many expressions from the movie have passed into everyday use. In fact, the movie is so popular that many people claim they know its full text by heart.

"As a friend of mine... deceased... used to say - I knew too much..."
"And if the tenants refuse to buy lottery tickets, we'll turn off the gas!"
"Only aristocrats and degenerates drink champagne in the morning..." (Шампанское по утрам пьют аристократы или дегенераты) (pauses, checks out the bottle and drinks right from it)
(tears in his eyes) "They might even give me an award... post-humo-usly!" (sniffs)
"You should come over & visit us in Kolyma (a famous area in Far North to send convicts to)." (Chokes on beer, coughing...) - "Thanks, but I'd rather you come back to see us."
Many people seriously think that "Tsigel" (Cigel, Ziegel) means "time" in some foreign language. The (fictional) phrase "Цигель, цигель, ай-люлю!" expresses hurry and urgency, either real or mock. (Occasionally, Ziegel is "brick" in German and Yiddish.)
"As our beloved Chief used to say..."
*"Strike the hammer while by the cashier's desk" (Куй железо не отходя от кассы) (a portmanteau of a proverb "Strike the hammer while iron is hot" and an instruction for customers by each Soviet cashier's desk: "Count your money by the cashier's desk")
*"At the other's expense even abstinents and those with stomach ulcer would drink!" In Russian it rhymes nicely: "За чужой счет пьют даже язвенники и трезвенники!"
*"If a man is an idiot, it is for a long time."
A curse: "May you live off a sole paycheck!" (Что б ты жил на одну зарплату!) -- remember in Soviet union you couldn't do legal business and you could earn a fortune only through crime
A curse: "May I see you in a coffin, in white slippers!" (Шоб я видел тебя в гробу у белых тапках!)
A mocking reproach: "Semyon Semyonovich!..."
A comment to an embarrassing situation when a demo fails: "With an easy motion of a hand, the pants are turning into... the pants are turning INTO... into elegant shorts!"
"Obliko morale" (a mockingly Italianized Russian term "moralny oblik" (моральный облик), "moral character", a part of the cliche "moral character of a Soviet person". In the film it was uttered by the hero when he tried to circumnavigate a foreign prostitute: "Russo turisto! Obliko morale! Verstehen?".
"Flowers for his woman, ice cream for his children. And don't screw it up, Kutuzov!" (Дитям мороженое, бабе цветы.... и не перепутай, Кутузов!)
"I'm not a coward... But I'm scared!"
"I've got an idea: what if I..." -- "You'd better not." -- "I see... Then, maybe I should..." -- "No, you shouldn't." -- "Okay... In that case, maybe at least you'd let me..." -- "Well, yeah, you might try that."
"I haven't yet seen a husband who wouldn't want to become a bachelor for just an hour..."
"As they say, that is c'est la vie!" (c'est la vie is French for "that is life")
"Hm, well, we'll have to take appropriate action... What else can we do?"
"But Lyolik, that isn't aesthetic!" -- "But it's cheap, reliable and pragmatic." (rhymes nicely in Russian: "Лёлик, но это же не эстетично!" - "Зато дешево, надежно и практично.")
"I'll beat him carefully, but seriously..."
"Hey, buddy, got a cigarette?" (Gorbunkov stutters) "Hey, are you deaf?" -- "Yes!"
"If a person is an idiot, it'll last a long time". (Если человек идиот, то это на долго)

The song "About Hares" from the film became a popular drinking song.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Brilliantovaya ruka ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Brilliantovaya ruka; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay