Saturday 30 March 2013

Interrogation Scenes & flashbacks

Barley socialising with Soviet Writers & publishers at Peredelkino


Location:
Boris Pasternak Museum
Ulitsta Pavlenko
Peredelkino
Russia
Details:

Barley socialising with Soviet writers and publishers in a Dacha - He is holding court: drinking, talking politics, peace, philosophy and Jazz - Dante observes but does not speak.




Notes:
Peredelkino is a small village to the south west of Moscow, not far outside of the city limits, on the way to Vnukovo airport.   In Soviet times, it was known as the writers village – for those writers that had not fallen foul of the censorship rules.  I have read that this scene was filmed at the Boris Pasternak house museum (the nobel prize winner’s dacha.  I have not confirmed this, but the colour of the wood and the shape of the bay window looks similar to the museum.




“Peredelkino, it’s a Soviet Writers village – they value their writers, huh, the ones who behave get their own dacha – I was lucky enough to be a guest”



“Nowadays, you’ve got to think like a hero, just to act like a merely decent human being”




The Conversation: Barley speaks to Dante at Pasternak’s grave
Peredelkino

Location:
Boris Pasternak’s Grave
Cemetary (not far from station)
Peredelkino
Russia


Details:
Barley goes for some fresh air and visits the graveyard where Boris Pastnernak is buried. Dante follows him there and speaks for the first time.


Notes:
Boris Pasternak’s grave is a place of pilgrimage, people come to pay their respects, lay flowers (or pebbles) and read his works.  This can be seen briefly as the camera pans across the graveyard to Pasternak's grave.  Dr Zhivago – his most famous work – was banned in Soviet Union, but published in the West and earned the author a Nobel prize for literature, which he had to decline.

This is typical Russian tradition - visiting the grave of a famous person, spending time there – in order to make some sort of connection with the person who has died.  I have seen this in Novodevichy graveyard in Moscow where there are many famous Soviet and Russian people buried there. 


“Who are you Dante? 
I am a moral outcast. 
Ahh, its always nice to meet a writer”

CIA Listen to Barley’s account of The Conversation
Location:
CIA headquarters
Langley, Virginia
USA


Details:
Russell Sheritan, Quinn, Brady  and others (CIA) are listening to the tape of Barley’s interrogation.

Notes:
The actual location cannot be identified from this shot.

1 comment:

Terry said...

I've been to the Pasternak House Museum in Peredelkino. That is, indeed, where that scene was filmed.

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