''The Pokrovsky Gate'' () is a 1982 Soviet musical comedy-drama film produced for television by

Mosfilm Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...

. It was directed by Mikhail Kozakov and stars Oleg Menshikov, Leonid Bronevoy, and Inna Ulyanova. The

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

is based on a 1974

stage play A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than mere reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging ...

by Leonid Zorin. Featured in the film are three songs written and performed by renowned "

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

" Bulat Okudzhava: "Chasovye Lyubvi" ("Sentries of Love"), "Zhivopistsy" ("Painters"), and "Pesenka ob Arbate" ("Ditty about Arbat"). The title refers to a

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Boulevard Ring The Boulevard Ring (; transliteration: ''Bulvarnoye Koltso'') is Moscow's second innermost ring road (the first is formed by the Central Squares of Moscow running along the former walls of Kitai-gorod). Boulevards form a semicircular chain along ...

near which the film's main characters reside.

Plot

The story takes place in the 1950s. Konstantin “Kostik” Romin ( Oleg Menshikov) has come to Moscow to study

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and is staying with kindly aunt Alisa (), who lives in a "

communal apartment Communal apartments (, colloquial: ''kommunalka'') are apartments in which several unrelated persons or families live in isolated living rooms and share common areas such a kitchen, shower, and toilet. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 aft ...

" building there. His life soon becomes intertwined with those of the other residents. Among them are Margarita Pavlovna ( Inna Ulyanova) and both her former husband Lev Khobotov ( Anatoly Ravikovich), a publisher of foreign poetry, and her new beau, World War II veteran and engraver-turned-teacher Savva Ignatevich ( Viktor Bortsov). The main plot revolves around the congenial Khobotov’s attempts to find happiness with newfound love Lyudochka ( Yelena Koreneva), while constantly being thwarted by the controlling Margarita. Another tenant is musical comedian Arkady Velyurov ( Leonid Bronevoy), who is trying to revive his faltering career and escape from his own loneliness. He has become enamored of a young competitive swimmer, Svetlana ( Tatyana Dogileva), who rebuffs his advances but takes a fancy to the opportunistic Kostik. Kostik finds his own love interest, RitaA diminutive form of "Margarita", a source of some irony; when she introduces herself to a bewildered Khobotov as "Margarita", Kostik interjects "Rita! RI-TA!" (), for whom he decides to forsake his

playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

lifestyle. In the end he becomes the catalyst for both Khobotov and Velyurov to find some measure of happiness: the former elopes with Lyudochka with the help of Kostik's pal Savransky, and the latter is elated that Svetlana attends one of his concerts in response to a telegram Kostik had urged him to send.

Main idea of the film

File:Moscow 1957 - Gorky Street towards Kremlin II.jpg, (3) Moscow 1957.
Gorky Street towards Kremlin II.
The main action of the picture takes place in 1956-1957. Quotation about the movie:

Cast

Other parts

Rimma Markova Rimma Vasilievna Markova (; 3 March 1925 – 15 January 2015) was a Russian film actress. She was named a People's Artist of Russia in 1994, whereas her younger brother Leonid Markov was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1985. During her ...

as doctor * Igor Dmitriev as Gleb Nikolaevich Orlovich * Natalia Krachkovskaya as Olga Yanovna Soyeva *Mikhail Kazakov as Konstantin Romin, after 25 years * Emmanuil Geller as Savelich (voiced by

Georgy Vitsin Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin (; 18 April 1917 – 22 October 2001) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1990). Biography Vitsin was born in Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg in 1917 (Soviet documents list h ...

) * Sofya Pilyavskaya as aunt Alisa

References

External links

* *
Detailed synopsis and discussion with many screen shots
' *

' *
Пьесу легендарного драматурга покажут в московском театре
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pokrovsky Gate, The Films set in the 1960s 1982 films Mosfilm films 1980s Russian-language films Russian-language romantic musical films 1980s romantic comedy-drama films 1980s musical comedy-drama films Soviet romantic comedy-drama films Soviet musical comedy-drama films Films set in 1956 Films set in 1957 Films set in Moscow Films set in the Soviet Union Films shot in Moscow Films set in hospitals 1982 musical films