Melodrama, both as genre and metaphor, has been traditionally perceived as naïve and simplistic, that is, foreign to irony. Such comprehension broadly ranges from the everyday usage of the word to the academic studies of melodrama. However, several film studies have indicated the moment of irony in Hollywood films, arguing that the distinction between simple and ironic audiences of melodrama was/is historically, socially and culturally overdetermined, often linked to gender distinctions. In this talk I will outline the process of the acceptance of French melodrama in Russia, tracing the historical, social, and cultural circumstances where melodrama, both as genre and as metaphor, was represented as lacking irony. As a result, one of the essential historical and cultural stages where the melodramatic imagination was formed in Russia is to be revealed.