My Frivolous Friend

My Frivolous Friend

1975 · 87 min · ★ 5.6 · Comedy, Drama

Arvīds Lasmanis can't hold any job for long because he is not ready to tolerate deceit and slapdash work. He still has to feed his family, by chance he finds a well-paid job as a gravedigger. A friend helps Arvīds to find a place in a construction team, but other workers don't approve of Arvīds' high principles. His wife accuses him of not knowing how to make money, the family lives crammed in one room of a shared flat. The Soviet absurd comedy tells a story about a man who, while at odds with the system, won't lose his conscience and his true self, even if it means saying no to wealth and comfort.

Directed by Janis Streics · Written by Aleksandrs Grohovs

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 3m together

My Frivolous Friend

Carmen Horrendum

Both from Janis Streics.

More from Janis StreicsSee all →

Carmen Horrendum

Carmen Horrendum · 1989

Carmen Horrendum

At the center of it is the fate of young women in the war and in the harsh post-war times, when witch-hunting of "enemies of the people" was a common occurrence. The brutal war is mutilating both the girls' bodies and their souls. Location: military hospital. It is just a backdrop to which the character rattles, the intrigue, the human relationships. The pathos of the tape conveys the idea that a woman is and remains a woman in all circumstances and situations. During the tumultuous years of war, they were also overwhelmed by true love, mutual understanding, trust and tenderness.

To Remember or to Forget

To Remember or to Forget · 1981

To Remember or to Forget

Faithful Friend Sancho

Faithful Friend Sancho · 1974

Faithful Friend Sancho

MovieAdventureFamily

Ten year old Sancho arrives to Leningrad and starts looking for friends.

The Cage

The Cage · 1993

Edmunds Berzs is an architect who has achieved a comfortable life, but this causes him unease, so he decides to go to the country house where his mother lives. There he wakes up to find himself locked in a cage in the middle of the forest. Edmunds, paradoxically, finds the tranquility he was looking for.

This Dangerous Balcony Door

This Dangerous Balcony Door · 1976

This Dangerous Balcony Door

MovieDramaCrime

When Rolands and his friends' amateur movie seen at his 18th birthday party unfolds as a crime testimony, fragile bond between people threatens to break completely.

Meeting on the Milky Way

Meeting on the Milky Way · 1985

Meeting on the Milky Way

MovieDramaRomance

The Mystery of the Old Parish House

The Mystery of the Old Parish House · 2000

The Mystery of the Old Parish House

In this movie (based on a true story) within a movie, a director tries to film the tale of an old KGB activist living in a parish house. In the summer of 1941 the activist tortured and killed Latvians in the cellar of the house. Although the old man hires others to brick over the cellar door, the murdered people keep coming through the stones and never leave him in peace. Unbeknownst to the film makers, the "real" KGB activist, now an aged drunk, is milling about the film set. Moreover, the director and lead actor are competing for the love of the lead actress, and the film's producer wants the director to re-shoot parts of the movie.

Strange Passions

Strange Passions · 1983

Strange Passions

It is the post-war era on the Latvian border, and the Lithuanian girl Maryte has located her relative, Antanas. Having been a farmhand on a rich farm as well as the lover of the owner's wife, upon his return from the war Antanas hopes to gain as much as he can from the collapse of the old world. The wife's daughter, Ausma, has since grown up and seems much more desirable to Antanas than his former lover. The historical situation makes for a tense atmosphere, because in the nighttime partisans may emerge from the forest, while during the daytime everyone must be careful to follow the new rules of life under Soviet rule.

The Mills of Fate

The Mills of Fate · 1997

The Mills of Fate

MovieDramaRomance

A love triangle - a terminally ill university teacher, a blind girl and a young bard. In the background of it all - the wild arrival of the capitalism, political conflicts, city life and the beautiful nature of Latvia. In the end love will conquer everything, though not everybody will live to witness that.

A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve

A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve · 1982

A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve

MovieDramaComedy

When old auntie Mirta succeeds in a lottery and wins a car which she cannot use herself, all sorts of family members suddenly appear by her side, hoping to get the car after their auntie's death. Until then, they had never helped Mirta, it was only her neighbours who supported her in her old age. Now, her nephew Ēriks with his wife and son, and her ex-daughter-in-law Olita with her second husband and daughter, would all love to get their hands on the car that's in the colour of Midsummer's Eve.

Theatre

Theatre · 1978

MovieComedyDrama

The great actress Julia Lambert suddenly realizes that she is, alas, getting old. What can help a woman who has absolutely everything? Only new love. And Julia falls in love with the first person she meets: an ambitious young man who has not a penny behind his soul. So begins a new life - a new romance and new tears. How else could it be?

The Child of Man

The Child of Man · 1992

The Child of Man

MovieComedyDrama

A six-year-old boy plots to stop his "sweetheart", a grown-up woman in his pre-World War II Latvian village, from marrying.

Theatre

Theatre · 1979

SeriesComedyDrama

Captain Enrico's Watch

Captain Enrico's Watch · 1967

Captain Enrico's Watch

MovieAdventureComedy

A young boy finds a watch with an engraving in Spanish saying that the watch belongs to Captain Enrico, and adventures begin...

Roses of Autumn

Roses of Autumn · 2004

Roses of Autumn

MovieComedyTV Movie

The film is about a middle-aged couple experiencing a midlife crisis. The husband and wife are tired of life together and start to forget the love they once shared in their youth.

Was There Karotin?

Was There Karotin? · 1990

Was There Karotin?

MovieComedyCrime

The beginning of the 30s of the last century. A leak of classified information was found at the Soviet shipbuilding plant. Arriving under the guise of a scientist, the legendary chekist Karotin begins to unravel the threads of the conspiracy of the fascist spy organization. He is helped by inexperienced but active local detectives. Mastering the basics of the counterintelligence, they fall into a situation the other one funnier.

More Like This

Waitress

Waitress · 2007

MovieDramaComedy

A small town waitress stuck in a lousy marriage finds love when an exciting out-of-towner enters her life.

The Village

The Village · 2004

MovieDramaMystery

When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.

A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words · 2012

A Thousand Words

MovieDramaComedy

Jack McCall is a fast-talking literary agent, who can close any deal, any time, any way. He has set his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja for his own selfish purposes. But Dr. Sinja is on to him, and Jack’s life comes unglued after a magical Bodhi tree mysteriously appears in his backyard. With every word Jack speaks, a leaf falls from the tree and he realizes that when the last leaf falls, both he and the tree are toast. Words have never failed Jack McCall, but now he’s got to stop talking and conjure up some outrageous ways to communicate or he’s a goner.

In the Forests of Siberia

In the Forests of Siberia · 2016

In the Forests of Siberia

MovieAdventureDrama

Fed up with the hectic, senseless world he lives in, Teddy decides to settle down alone in Siberia, in the midst of winter, in a hut by the shore of Lake Baikal. After an initial period of elation in front of the splendor and magic of unspoiled nature, Teddy soon finds himself confronted with the less glossy side of things : solitude, extreme cold, the necessity to find food, danger... One night Teddy gets lost in a blizzard and would be doomed to a certain death, were it not for Aleksei, a Russian convict living hidden away in the forest nearby, who rescues him in extremis. Friendship soon blossoms between the two men...

28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later · 2007

MovieHorrorThriller

Twenty-eight weeks after the spread of a deadly rage virus, the inhabitants of the British Isles have lost their battle against the onslaught, as the virus has killed everyone there. Six months later, a group of Americans dare to set foot on the Isles, convinced the danger has passed. But it soon becomes all too clear that the scourge continues to live, waiting to pounce on its next victims.

Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw · 2019

MovieThrillerMystery

Big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce. After a series of paintings by an unknown artist are discovered, a supernatural force enacts revenge on those who have allowed their greed to get in the way of art.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter