The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed
Encyclopedia
The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed is a 1979 Soviet
5-part television miniseries
directed by Stanislav Govorukhin
. It achieved the status of a cult film
in the USSR, and along with Seventeen Moments of Spring
it became a part of popular culture with several generations of russophone
TV viewers. The series star the famed singer-songwriter
Vladimir Vysotsky
in one of his final screen appearances (he died prematurely less than a year after the film's release). Soviet screen and stage legends Sergey Yursky, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
, Zinovy Gerdt, Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev
and Leonid Kuravlev also appear in the film.
The film was released in the West as The Age of Mercy, the title of the novel by the writing duo of brothers Arkadiy Vayner and Georgiy Vayner on which the film is based.
Moscow
. A young reconnaissance
officer Vladimir Sharapov (Vladimir Konkin) returns from the war and is assigned for peacetime duty at the famous MUR (Moscow Department of Criminal Investigations). There he becomes part of an elite team led by the brilliant, tough, no-nonsense homicide detective Gleb Zheglov (Vysotsky). The duo becomes embroiled in two seemingly separate investigations: that of the murder of a young aspiring actress Larisa Gruzdeva, and the hunt for a vicious gang of armed robbers that calls itself "Black Cat" and constantly manages to evade capture. While suspicion in Gruzdeva's murder initially falls on her estranged husband Dr Gruzdev (Yursky), it gradually becomes apparent that the two cases are connected, as a Black Cat mobster known as Fox is implicated in the murder. As a result of Zheglov's successful high-stakes operation to capture Fox, Sharapov inadvertently finds himself undercover at the Black Cat hideout, sparring with the gang's menacing leader The Hunchback (Dzhigarkhanyan). What ensues is arguably one of Soviet television's most memorable and suspenseful finales.
Much of the series revolves around the relationship between Zheglov and Sharapov. While the two become close friends and roommates, they also clash throughout the film. The source of the conflict is Sharapov's disagreement with Zheglov's "ends justify the means" approach to law enforcement. Zheglov thinks that "a thief's place is in prison, and the public couldn't care less how I put him there". To that end, Zheglov thinks nothing of using dubious tactics such as planting evidence to justify the arrest of a known pickpocket. Sharapov, on the other hand, considers that law is a higher value for its own sake and cannot be used merely as a tool. A tense conflict also arises when, in order to mislead Fox, Zheglov elects to continue to hold Dr Gruzdev under arrest even after it becomes clear that the man is innocent.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
5-part television miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
directed by Stanislav Govorukhin
Stanislav Govorukhin
Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin has been one of the most popular Soviet and Russian film directors since the 1960s...
. It achieved the status of a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
in the USSR, and along with Seventeen Moments of Spring
Seventeen Moments of Spring
Seventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet TV miniseries. It was filmed at Gorky Film Studio, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the book of the same title by the novelist Yulian Semyonov. The series comprises 12 episodes of 70 minutes each...
it became a part of popular culture with several generations of russophone
Russophone
A Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
TV viewers. The series star the famed singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had an immense and enduring effect on Russian culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street...
in one of his final screen appearances (he died prematurely less than a year after the film's release). Soviet screen and stage legends Sergey Yursky, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Armen Dzigarkhanyan is one of the most popular Soviet, Russian and Armenian actors.He starred in dozens of Soviet films and provided the voice for many cartoon characters. He founded his own theater in Moscow.Dzigarkhanyan worked as assistant cameraman at Armenfilm studios in 1953–1954...
, Zinovy Gerdt, Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev
Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev
Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Yevstigneyev was a prominent Soviet movie and theater actor and one of the founders of Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre. People's Artist of the USSR ....
and Leonid Kuravlev also appear in the film.
The film was released in the West as The Age of Mercy, the title of the novel by the writing duo of brothers Arkadiy Vayner and Georgiy Vayner on which the film is based.
Plot
The film is set in post-WWIIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. A young reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
officer Vladimir Sharapov (Vladimir Konkin) returns from the war and is assigned for peacetime duty at the famous MUR (Moscow Department of Criminal Investigations). There he becomes part of an elite team led by the brilliant, tough, no-nonsense homicide detective Gleb Zheglov (Vysotsky). The duo becomes embroiled in two seemingly separate investigations: that of the murder of a young aspiring actress Larisa Gruzdeva, and the hunt for a vicious gang of armed robbers that calls itself "Black Cat" and constantly manages to evade capture. While suspicion in Gruzdeva's murder initially falls on her estranged husband Dr Gruzdev (Yursky), it gradually becomes apparent that the two cases are connected, as a Black Cat mobster known as Fox is implicated in the murder. As a result of Zheglov's successful high-stakes operation to capture Fox, Sharapov inadvertently finds himself undercover at the Black Cat hideout, sparring with the gang's menacing leader The Hunchback (Dzhigarkhanyan). What ensues is arguably one of Soviet television's most memorable and suspenseful finales.
Much of the series revolves around the relationship between Zheglov and Sharapov. While the two become close friends and roommates, they also clash throughout the film. The source of the conflict is Sharapov's disagreement with Zheglov's "ends justify the means" approach to law enforcement. Zheglov thinks that "a thief's place is in prison, and the public couldn't care less how I put him there". To that end, Zheglov thinks nothing of using dubious tactics such as planting evidence to justify the arrest of a known pickpocket. Sharapov, on the other hand, considers that law is a higher value for its own sake and cannot be used merely as a tool. A tense conflict also arises when, in order to mislead Fox, Zheglov elects to continue to hold Dr Gruzdev under arrest even after it becomes clear that the man is innocent.
Other Facts
- The film's title is a reference to the finale, where Sharapov's botched attempt to get away after making contact with the gang forces Zheglov to follow a previously discarded plan for an undercover operation. Hoping that Sharapov will lure the bandits to the scene of a prior robbery as they have previously rehearsed, Zheglov utters: "The place and time of the operation cannot be changed."
- Actors Sergey Yursky, Zinovy Gerdt, Yevgeniy YevstigneyevYevgeniy YevstigneyevYevgeniy Aleksandrovich Yevstigneyev was a prominent Soviet movie and theater actor and one of the founders of Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre. People's Artist of the USSR ....
and Leonid Kuravlev star in the series. Years earlier, all four appeared together in the smash hit comedy The Golden CalfThe Little Golden Calf (film)The Little Golden Calf is a 1968 Soviet film directed by Mikhail Shveytser, based the eponymous novel by Ilf and Petrov.-Cast:* Sergei Yursky as Ostap Bender* Leonid Kuravlyov as Shura Balaganov* Zinovi Gerdt as Panikovsky...
based on the novel by Ilf and PetrovIlf and PetrovIlya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
, with Yursky leading the cast as the venerable con artist Ostap BenderOstap BenderOstap Bender is a fictional con man and antihero who first appeared in the novel The Twelve Chairs written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov and released in January 1928.-Appearances:...
. - The series were originally intended to have 7 parts, but the Soviet broadcast authorities ordered to trim them down to 5. As a result, many scenes were left out of the final cut, with creators struggling to maintain the flow of the narrative
- According to Vysotsky played a major creative role in the making of the series. He conceived the idea of turning the novel into a movie after receiving an advance copy of the book from the Vayner brothers, and he actively campaigned for the part of Zheglov despite the fact that the character in the novel was a much younger man. During the making of the film, he frequently substituted for GovorukhinStanislav GovorukhinStanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin has been one of the most popular Soviet and Russian film directors since the 1960s...
as director, including directing the entire scene of Dr Gruzdev's interrogation, and he also invented the comical attributes of the character of Kostya "The Brick" Saprykin (a good-natured thief with a speech impediment). - Sharapov's love interest patrolwoman Varya Sinichkina dies at the end of the novel. The ending was altered in the movie because the studio administrator thought it was too depressing. The Vayner brothers later admitted that they liked the new happy ending better.
In Popular Culture
- The popular song "Atas" by the Russian group Lyubeh is based on the characters of the film.
- A sculpture of Zheglov and Sharapov (picture) is installed outside the Internal Affairs Ministry building in KievKievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Ukraine - Armen DzhigarkhanyanArmen DzhigarkhanyanArmen Dzigarkhanyan is one of the most popular Soviet, Russian and Armenian actors.He starred in dozens of Soviet films and provided the voice for many cartoon characters. He founded his own theater in Moscow.Dzigarkhanyan worked as assistant cameraman at Armenfilm studios in 1953–1954...
lampooned his own performance as The Hunchback in a 1998 installment of a popular Armenian scetch comedy series Our Backyard - In 2010, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
used Zheglov's famous "a thief's place is in prison" line in heavily criticised remarks against the jailed tycoon Mikhail KhodorkovskyMikhail KhodorkovskyMikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is a Russian prisoner, considered by some - such as Amnesty International - to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman...