How far can Russia americanize its cinema, in IRONY OF LOVE this time

That's definitely not a kind of movies one usually expects from Russia. Moreover that's like watching American movie with Russian language and Russian actors. Weird feeling.

There are two current trends in Russian cinema: one is gloomy historical and pseudo-historical films, made on state's money and money of affiliated channels and business structures, that almost never return their money (with few exception like We are from the future), and other trend is light bright americanized movies, made on private money, that return their money in box-office. In 2009-2010 the presence of the first group had increased as the crisis wave washed out many private investors.

This time we have the trailer of Irony of Love (Ирония Любви, imdb id 1601845), the movie made in cooperation with Kazakhstani investors. As you can see in the trailer it was shot in summer of 2009 on the peak of the crisis, so foreign money were welcomed. Producer of the Irony of Love is Renat Davletiarov, who made two the most commercially successful Russian movies in term of income per budget: Любовь-Морковь (Lovey-Dovey), that earned 12 millions in 2007 with the budget of 3 millions and even more successful continuation Любовь-Морковь 2 (Lovey-Dovey 2), that got 18 millions of box-office in 2008-2009 with the budget of 3 millions.

That's a synopsis of Irony of Love:
Socialite Asel has everything one can dream about, thanks to her rich daddy. But she wants more and decides to be the host of TV show. But female TV producer thinks that she's not open enough for TV show and suggests her a bet: she will get the job if she entice the first man who will enter the restaurant. This man is mother's boy Vanya (Ivan), the nerd living with his mother and working as a masseur in the female Kazakhstan national team of synchronized swimming. To achieve the goal, Asel must deal with Vanya's old-fashioned ideas of love, relationships and marriage and... with his mother.

The movie will be released on 25th March, 2010.

The trailer of Irony of Love:


And that is a bonus from me, the trailer of Любовь-Морковь 2 (Lovey-Dovey 2), the most commercially successful mainstream movie (not in terms of gross box-office, but in terms of box-office per a budget), made in Russia, that gathered almost 18 millions with the budget of just 3 millions, as you can count the movie earned 6 times more than its budget.

The first part, released in 2007, was about childless family that had exchanged their bodies, so husband got the body of wife and vice versa. The second part was about body-exchange with their children. The movie was released in the winter of 2008-2009.

This movie is a good example of americanization of Russian cinema.