The material for this article is the song soundtrack in two absolute masterpieces of Leonid Gaidai — “The Diamond Arm” (1968) and “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” (1973). Despite the fact that the songs from these films are perceived as harmless hits of Soviet film music, they carry a lot of dual meanings that have not yet been subjected to close analysis. The author of the article examines the semantics of musical quotes and original intraframe musical pieces. In the soundtrack of “The Diamond Arm” the “second” meanings of the songs “Island of Bad Luck,” “Song about Hares” and “Volcano of Passions” are revealed.
On the one hand, these songs carried a veiled criticism of Soviet realities, and on the other hand, they significantly enriched the dramaturgy of the film by giving extraordinary depth to standard comedy situations and characters. Similar dramatic and semantic algorithms can be traced in the song soundtrack of the comedy film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession,” in particular in the songs: “The January Blizzard is Clinking,” “Marusya” and “Conversation with Happiness.” The stratification of historical times, stated in the plot of the film, allowed the authors to sharpen the topics of the original songs and at the same time — to make the clichés of the Soviet musical stage an object of ridicule.
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