"Mesto vstrechi izmenit nelzya" (1979) TV mini-series

Director:

Stanislav Govorukhin

Writers:

Arkadi Vainer (novel) &
Georgi Vainer (novel) ...

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Mystery | Action

Plot:

After WWII is over, a young officer Volodya Sharapov returns to Moscow to work in MUR - Moskovskiy Ugolovny Rozysk (Moscow Criminal Police)...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Gangster | Organized Crime | Militia | Bandit

Cast

Vladimir Vysotsky	...	Gleb Zheglov
Vladimir Konkin	...	Volodya Sharapov
Sergei Yursky	...	Gruzdev
Viktor Pavlov	...	Levchenko
Natalya Fateyeva	...	Sobolevskaya
Leonid Kuravlyov	...	Kopchyony
Svetlana Svetlichnaya	...	Larisa's sister
Aleksandr Belyavskiy	...	Yevgeniy Fox
Evgeni Evstigneev	...	Petya 'Ruchechnik'
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan	...	Gorbaty (hump-backed), head of 'Black Cat'
Larisa Udovichenko	...	Man'ka Obligatsiya
Stanislav Sadalsky	...	Kirpich
Valeriya Zaklunnaya
Zinoviy Gerdt	...	Mihail Mihaylovich Bomze
Yevgeni Leonov-Gladyshev	...	Vasya Vekshin

Also Known As:

Место встречи изменить нельзя (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Can't Change the Meeting Place

Runtime:

Soviet Union:359 min (5 parts)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Company:

Gosteleradio

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In one of the episodes Sharapov walks down the park and some 70's cars can clearly be seen at the distance

Quotes:

Gruzdev: What's happened with your face?
Volodya Sharapov: I had a dinner at Astoria...

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Dobrynya Nikitich i Zmey Gorynych (2006)

Astonishing..!

This movie is a gem. I was amazed by its storytelling: at first slow, the momentum goes building on, spiralling until you finally get trapped in a never ending suspense. What would be of young Sharapov?

If I had to pick a climax scene, I would say is that when the new recruit of the Moscow Criminal Police ends up having to supper at the same table of the most dangerous Moscow criminal! The story makes here quite a twist, since previously Mr. Visotsky had stealed himself the show, without even giving a chance to his fellow partner.

Simply put, what an amazing way to tell a story.. In this movie it seems like every scriptwriter, assistant, every person in the crew carefully invested his talent and effort into creating a masterpiece. And this actually isn't a movie properly, but a TV mini-series. Having recently seen other East European works like the Dekalog (polish television) and Ironiya sudby, ili S lyogkim parom! (or the Irony of Fate) I can only conclude that the former Soviet television was able to produce a content of the utmost quality.

Having said that, I think it's such a shame that so few Western audiences (if any at all) had been exposed to Soviet culture. But I can not blame them anyway, for two reasons. First, some (and I remark "some") of this content might be ideologically flawed. Secondly, the English subtitles are really poor, and there were parts of this movie where the translation wasn't helpful at all, proving instead to be very confusing.

I'll stop here, since this is not the forum to discuss the deeper meaning of some Soviet content. I'll just recommend you to watch this movie. It's a masterpiece, greater than anything Hollywood could ever produce. Now that this movie is available on DVD from numerous sites on the Web, there's no excuse to give it a chance.