ll spend this night together.
Only together.
Measure seven times and...
- All right.
- All glasses are full.
- I'll drink just a little bit.
- All right.
- Thanks.
- That's all. This toast is to see the Old Year out.
Thanks.
Now what? Out you go, the Old Year!
- Out you go!
- Out you go!
Because the old age is no fun.
I don't mean you
Oh no. Don't pour any more wine to me.
I'll fall asleep otherwise.
Oh, yes, there is a lot of time
before the New Year.
If we get too hard on the booze,
we'll all get unplugged too soon.
Then let's play some game.
Which one?
The game is called
''The Decamerone''.
What's the gist of the game?
Each of us should tell
an amusing story to everyone.
- It may not be based on your own experience.
- I agree.
- Really?
- The best narrator will get an award.
Certainly.
For example, one tangerine
stands for one point.
The one who
scores most is the winner.
- Do you agree to the rules?
- Surely.
And there is one more suggestion.
The ladies get the priority.
- It is logical.
- Certainly.
- Oh, no, no.
- Do you agree?
Do you agree?
- You start, Margarita Nikolaevna.
- Oh no, no.
- Oh, no. I can't start talking like that.
- Then you.
All right.
- It is sad that love is an obliging thing.
- I can counter that statement.
Well, Karen Zavenovich, I have three options -
either I talk and you don't or...
It must have happened
so many years ago.
A friend of mine
who was a teacher like me
expected a lot
from this life.
Once she met a young detective.
The boy was mad about her.
But he never forgot
about his job as well.
Pretty soon he was promoted to a top
clearance investigator.
One day he was assigned
to a hopeless case.
He was to investigate
a long-pending case.
He was to find a maverick
who had stolen a world-renown gem.
The theft had been
conceived so skilfully
that no one
could ever understand the concept.
The thief managed to escape from
under the nose of this detective.
Our Sherlock Holmes
got so impressed by the escape,
that he started
writing a book about the case.
He started writing
a detective story.
And this teacher
became his co-author.
It was a wonderful time.
They indefatigably worked
around the clock.
The manuscript
kept growing in volume
until there was only
the last chapter left to be written.
And suddenly
It is an amusing story.
suddenly this detective
fell in love.
He fell in love with a yound intern.
And he deserted my teacher friend.
Did he give up writing?
Certainly.
He has never finished the book.
That's the end of his life.
And recently
after 30 years of absence,
he came to ask his teacher
to forgive him.
Did she forgive him?
God forbid.
She was right.
Yes, Masha, I completely agree with you.
So do I.
I take my words back.
Love's really a binding thing.
It is possibly so. But
only love
is worth living for.
Yes. That's what I want
to raise my toast for.
I agree.
- Oh yes.
Is it my turn now?
I fell in love with you
in a straightforward fashion.
...in a straightforward fashion.
What interns?
This man had only one
beloved thing in his life.
It was his science.
I said that there once lived a man.
It is not true. He dragged along
this life for all the years
that were measured for him
without ever learning
any feelings
or any passions.
He was so different
from your detective.
He...He had a wonderful voice.
( Sings ) Oh, I have never urged more
for all this life...
I won't illustrate his gift
not to spoil the story.
I asked him not to bury his talent.
But he exchanged his heavenly gift
for a humble hobby.
He bought a lot of grammophone records
and listened to other people singing for hours.
He'd rather have sung himself.
The audience would have adored him.
Any audience would.
You're right.
He came to understand that himself.
He felt a mad urge to travel,
to have a glimpse
of some foreign countries,
to madly fall in love.
But the time was gone.
His