As Moscow prepares for a rainy week, film fans and historians are revisiting the iconic Soviet movie Walking the Streets of Moscow, a picture whose status as a classic was shaped by a remarkable series of unexpected accidents and improvisations during production.
The celebrated feature, directed by Georgiy Daneliya from a concept by screenwriter Gennady Shpalikov, originated from a single visual image rather than a complete script, setting the tone for a shoot defined by last-minute solutions.
Shpalikov originally pitched the project to Daneliya after coming up with just one initial scene featuring a barefoot young woman walking down a street in the rain while a man on a bicycle rode alongside her, holding an umbrella over her head. When Daneliya asked what would happen next in the story, Shpalikov replied that they would figure out the rest later.
Three actresses in one rain scene
That spirit of improvisation was put to the test during the filming of the movie's signature rain sequence, which ultimately required three different women across three days of shooting. On the first day, crew members captured a wide shot featuring a fair-haired actress, but she failed to return to the set on the second day.
Producers urgently sought a replacement and brought in a student from VGIK, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, only for her to pull out shortly afterward because her academic examinations were starting.
With actresses disappearing one after another and the sequence still incomplete, Daneliya resorted to a trick. A visiting female journalist was present on the set at the time, and her legs were the ones that ultimately made it into the final edit of the film.
Unexpected casting and studio sets
Chance encounters also determined the casting of key characters, including Sasha Shatalov, played by actor Evgeny Steblov. Steblov, then a student at Moscow's Shchukin Theatre Institute, initially attended the audition merely to accompany a friend.
Daneliya initially sent Steblov home while sending his friend for a photo test, but the production's casting director took pity on Steblov and arranged a photo test for him as well. The test succeeded, even though another actor had already been approved for the role of Sasha Shatalov and had even been shaved bald for the part. Daneliya ultimately remained dissatisfied with the original actor's performance and invited Steblov to take over the role.
Other memorable locations in the film were equally artificial, including the cafe situated opposite the house of Kolka, played by Nikita Mikhalkov. The cafe never existed in reality, as set decorators from the famous Mosfilm studio constructed the building specifically for filming and dismantled it after work concluded.
