Window to Paris

In this comedy-fantasy a group of Russian eccentrics discover that they can go to Paris from their home in St. Petersburg by leaping through an apartment window. The first eccentric is Nikolay, an oddball teacher. Next is his rotund, crude neighbor Gorokhov and his family. One night Nikolay and Gorokhov climb through a hidden window to get on the roof. They get rip-roarin' drunk the destroy the studio apartment of Nicole, an artist. It is only in the morning that they realize that they were actually in Paris. Soon Gorokhov's whole family is going to Paris where they loot and bring back Western goods into Russia. It is Nicole's apartment they go to and she is going crazy by their repeated visits. She turns the tables and climbs through the window to their home. She is appalled by modern St. Petersburg with its violence, poverty, and political upheaval. She gets into trouble with the local police but is saved by Nikolay who convinces them that she is Edith Piaf on tour. Later Nikolay decides to take his students to Paris. Unfortunately, they don't want to leave and the window is going to close for the next 20 years.