Twist Again à Moscou (1986)

Vignette | The Stari Dvor in Belgrade, which serves as the exterior setting for the Tolstoy Hotel. In 1984, in Kyiv, Yuri (Christian Clavier) organizes an underground rock concert for his fiancée, the famous Tatiana Fedorova (Agnès Soral). The concert is going smoothly when Tatiana’s parents, a Jewish intellectual and his wife, arrive unexpectedly and ask Yuri to hide them because they are being pursued by the KGB. Sure enough, shortly afterward the KGB arrives and, under Sergei Leontiev’s orders (Roland Blanche), throws the audience into a panic. Yuri and his in-laws are forced to flee and decide to call on Igor Tataiev (Philippe Noiret), Yuri’s brother-in-law and manager of the Tolstoy Hotel in Moscow. Thanks to his high-level connections, Igor enjoys a very comfortable life and is more concerned with his daughter’s musical future (Anaïs Jeanneret)—she is due to compete in the Tchaikovsky International Competition—than with the brother-in-law he hates. Under pressure from his wife, Natasha (Marina Vlady), Igor nevertheless asks his friend, Minister Alexei (Bernard Blier), for help. Alexei tells him that a Party representative will soon be inspecting the hotel. As soon as Igor leaves the minister’s office, he is accosted by Boris Ilitch Pikov (Martin Lamotte), an inspector whose zeal he will soon learn to hate. That very evening, Yuri and his in-laws arrive in Moscow just as Tataiev is trying to sneak as many of the hotel’s belongings out as possible. Having had to enlist the services of a shady character, they soon cause panic at the hotel, where Marshal Bassounov (Jacques François), newly appointed to the Politburo, has come to dinner with Alexei. After accidentally locking Pikov in the cold-storage room, Tataiev manages to bluff his way through, while Yuri and his family are taken to his official apartment. Eager to get rid of his troublesome in-laws as quickly as possible, Igor agrees to put them in touch with one of his contacts, who promises them passage to Turkey by plane from Armenia. The plan fails miserably, and Igor is arrested by the KGB after making almost the entire journey back from Armenia on foot. His connections save him once again, much to Pikov’s fury—Pikov has a personal grudge against him—but Igor is forced to denounce his brother-in-law in return. As the situation becomes unbearable, on New Year’s Eve Yuri and his in-laws show up at Alexei’s home, where Igor and his wife have been invited. They steal Alexei’s boat after attacking Bassounov and manage to reach Sweden. Yuri and Tatiana, however, after borrowing the valiant general’s car, decide to stay in the USSR. The film ends with a brief, humorous glimpse of what has become of each of its characters: Sergei Leontiev has been sent among hostile tribes in Africa; Boris Pikov is participating “enthusiastically” in the construction of a gas pipeline in Siberia at −46 degrees; Fyodor and his wife have written a novel and are living happily in Israel; Yuri and Tatiana “continue” organizing concerts; and, thanks to their daughter’s first concert, Igor and Natasha have opened a Russian cabaret in London.