The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed

The press received the film positively, praising the acting and directorial work while noting the moral issues presented in the story, primarily associated with the ethical confrontations between Zheglov and Sharapov.While on duty, Sharapov meets junior sergeant Varvara Sinichkina (Natalya Danilova [ru]): the two take a foundling boy to an orphanage, and a romantic interest develops between them.Thanks to the information received from Manka, Zheglov and Sharapov track down the thief Kirpich (Stanislav Sadalsky); in a conversation with the officers, he mentions the name of a bandit unknown to them — Fox.At the Bolshoi Theater, Zheglov and Sharapov detain the thief Ruchechnik (Yevgeny Yevstigneyev) and his partner Volokushina (Yekaterina Gradova), who reports that Fox has a "contact phone".The comments and recommendations received after a meeting on The Era of Mercy in Odessa and Moscow were taken into account by Stanislav Govorukhin when preparing the director's script,[13] a technical document with an exact indication of the necessary resources and materials for filming."[15] Some episodes from the Vainers' script were completely rewritten; for example, in the original version, Sharapov, upon learning of the death of his girlfriend Varvara, dialed the information service and asked for the phone number of the Grauerman Maternity Hospital.They invited Yevgeny Gerasimov, and although he liked the script, he had already agreed to star in Mikhail Ptashuk's film Time Chose Us [ru], so he refused the role of Sharapov, which he later regretted.[31] The appearance of Moscow in the 1970s was significantly different from that of the post-war era: trams no longer ran along Tsvetnoy Boulevard and the TASS building was built on Nikitsky Gate Square [ru].Some of the outdoor scenes were filmed in Odessa — these include the "Moscow walk-through courtyards" where part of the chase takes place, as well as the robbed warehouse and the billiard room (in the Shevchenko Park).[17] One of the exceptions was the scene of Ruchnik's interrogation by Zheglov: it was filmed in the interior of a "merchant's apartment" (46 Gorky Street), where a theater group headed by actor and director Vladimir Bogomolov was located during Vysotsky's school years.Vysotsky also asked Govorukhin about this, explaining that immersion in a multi-episode project would take too much of his energy: "Understand, I have so little time left, I cannot waste a year of my life on this role![42] The gentle regime created for Vysotsky in the film crew allowed him to continue his theatrical activities, perform concerts, and travel, including long trips to Tahiti and North America.Thus, characters such as the front-line soldier Levchenko, who fell into the gangster environment, the former lover of Fox Ingrid Sobolevskaya, who gravitates towards “ambiguous romances”, the thief Kopcheny, who values life’s pleasures, and the outspoken individualist with a business acumen, the policeman Solovyov, have their own off-screen history.Even in the image of the leader of the Black Cat, Gorbaty, not only gangster cruelty is visible, but also human passions: he values the opinion of his companion Klasha and takes responsibility for the "riff-raff" around him."[47] Young actor Ivan Bortnik (a close friend of Vysotsky) was praised for his vivid and accurate portrayal of the Black Cat henchman Promokashka – the role that dominated his further acting career.He created his iconic part (most of it ad-libbed since the creators had only envisioned a minor supporting role with little dialogue) only by recollecting his occasional street contacts with young criminal wannabes.In reality, Belyavsky had no criminal background whatsoever, and he improvised the entire scene by using cherry preserves he had borrowed from production assistants during a lunch break to simulate the blood.Yevgeny Leonov-Gladyshev, who played Vekshin, said that Vysotsky suggested dressing his character in a white officer's scarf, which was worn in the post-war years by young people who did not get to the front (these shots were not included in the film).[56][57][58] The scene in which Sharapov performs Frédéric Chopin's 2nd Etude and "Мурка (песня) [ru]" in the bandits' lair was also filmed with a double - Konkin did not remember the melodies by heart and could only reproduce them after additional rehearsals.While breaking the six-millimeter glass of the bus window, Vysotsky noticeably injured his hand, cutting the area from his little finger to his wrist: "If you look closely, you can even see it in the frame, but in the chaos no one paid attention.[59] Vysotsky suggested using his own works in the film — such as "The Police Lieutenant's Birthday in the Berlin Restaurant" ("Spend a Day in a Policeman's Skin..."), "About the End of the War" ("They Knock Down Tables from Boards in the Yard..."), "The Ballad of Childhood [ru]".[62][63][64] By the way, the success of this role — and, perhaps, the entire film - was largely ensured by the fact that Vysotsky seemed to play his own early years in it, the atmosphere of his own first songs, with the same "criminal elements" that post-war Moscow was full of.Meanwhile, the sets were preserved and the actors did not leave the filming site until the technical control department confirmed that the quality of the working positives met the requirements, meaning that re-shooting was not necessary.At the same time, according to Lyudmila Popova (head of the film processing shop), a small part of the successful takes was removed by Govorukhin at the viewing stage for reasons of overall footage.[71] Nikitin died before the film was finished; he was replaced by the First Deputy Chief of the Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Major General Vladimir Illarionov.Having met Vysotsky during filming, Illarionov often consulted him in his office in the building of the Investigative Department (11 Dzerzhinsky Street) and provided him with albums from his collection and books on prison and thieves' jargon.Having visited the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vysotsky explained the backstory of the Order of the Red Star that his character wears in the film: In the winter of 1942, a train with food was traveling from Sverdlovsk to hungry Moscow.Zheglov, hardened and cynical from spending the war years in the rear fighting organized crime, thinks that "a thief's place is in prison, and the public couldn't care less about how I put him there".The sudden death of the consultant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Konstantin Nikitin, somewhat complicated the submission of the film, since the members of the acceptance committee who came in his place put forward their complaints: "Are you crazy?[75] According to Stanislav Govorukhin, who was in Sevastopol at that time, the release of the next episode actually caused the failure of a local mass celebration: "The people ignored the city event and sat in front of their televisions.