Title Sequence, Opening Credits & Scenes

St Basil's Cathedral / Red Square

Moscow, Russia

Opening shot of clouds in the sky panning downwards over St Basil's Cathedral.

"Yekaterina Orlova, Katya........ Never screwed one, never flirted with one, never even married one, who is she - the usual fat arsed frump?"

Katya (Michelle  Pfeiffer) walking across Red Square towards Revolution Square (now Manezh Square).  Kermlin Walls and Lenin Mausoleum in background.

Red Square / Manezh Square 

Moscow, Russia

Katya walking down the side of the Historical Museum on Red Square towards Manezh Square (from under her umbrella can be seen  vast expanse of tarmac with traffic  passing in both directions (either side of the Hotel Moskva).  Katya is heading for the Hotel National at the opposite end of the square.

Notes:

This square was called 60th anniversary of the Revolution Square at the time of filming.   It has since been pedestrianised and now has a underground shopping Mall, topped, above ground, with fountains, sculptures and landscaping (Designs by Tsereteli - appointed by the former Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, favourite sculptor, Tsereteli.  

Hotel National, Mokhovaya Street

Moscow, Russia

Outside the main entrance of the Hotel National,  on the corner of Mokhovaya Street (formerly Prospekt Marksa) and Tverskaya (formerly Gorky Street).

Then inside the foyer and up the stairs to the audio-book fair being held in the hotel.  Katya hands over the notebooks to Nikki Landau - "short-arsed polish cockney sales rep"

Notes:

I presume the interior shots of the hotel foyer were taken in this hotel - I have not been there and have not been able to find old pictures of the hotel interior to correspond with this scene.  The book fair scenes  - set in the National hotel were actually filmed in St Ermin's Hotel in London

Hotel National - Audio Fair

Katya takes manuscript to the British Council's audio fair in Moscow

Location:

Hotel National

Mosocw

Russia

(Filmed at St Ermin's Hotel, London, UK)

Details:

Katya takes Danté's manuscript to pass to Barley Blair of London publishers Abercrombie & Blair.  Unfortunately, Barley never showed up, the A&B stand is empty.  Katya convinces Niki Landau of Penguin books(?) to take the notebooks to Barley Blair.

Notes:

This scene was filmed in St Ermin's Hotel in London:  http://www.sterminshotel.co.uk/.  I was in London in October 2013 - and I could have bagged this location if I had known about it - I was so close to the hotel at one point when I had lunch in a pub opposite St James's Park underground station.  Perhaps next time, i'll make a special journey ... just to stay in this hotel.

Acknowledgement:
I must give credit here to James Luckard who has very kindly provided me with information on some of the Russia House locations.  He gave me details of this scene - shot in St Ermin's hotel (which I had presumed was filmed in the National Hotel Moscow), as well as other scenes towards the end of the film: the book fair party location (The Reading & Writing Room, One Whitehall Place, London), and Katya's apartment block (Ulitsa Verkhnyaya Maslovka 23, Moscow - behind the Petrovsky Palace on Leningradskoye Shosse).

I finally "bagged" this location in October 2015:  http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2015/10/the-russia-house-another-location.html

Interrogation Scenes and Flashbacks

Interrogation Scene

Location:

Palacio dos Condes Do Vimosio,  Rua Ivens

Lisbon,

Portugal

Details:
Barley Scott Blair interviewed for the first time by British Intelligence in a room overlooking the

Baixo Chiado in Lisbon.  

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Nikki Landau's Hotel room (Flashback)

Location:

Hotel room

Moscow

Russia

Details:

Nikki Landau closes curtains in his Moscow hotel room

Notes:

I can’t identify this location.  I’m sure it would have been filmed in a Moscow Hotel, so I would guess that it might have been the Rossiya, National or Ukraine hotel since other scenes in the film were shot at these locations.

Briefing the Minister (Flashback)

Location:

UK Government Foreign Office

King Charles Street

Whitehall

London

UK

Details:

Outside shot of the building, setting the scene, is at this location, but I don't know if the interior shot was filmed there.   Ned & Clive of British Intelligence, along with military and psychology advisers discuss the notebooks with the (Foreign?) Minister.

Notes:

The building overlooks St James’s Park near the Churchill War Rooms.  I bagged this location in October 2013.

MI6 Search Barley’s Flat (Interrogation Scene flashbacks)

MI6 Search Barley’s Flat	Location: London UK
Details: MI6 searching for clues to Barley's whereabouts Not sure where this location is.	“EUREKA! A Lisbon bank account my dears . . we’ve got him”

Barley apprehended in Lisbon (Interrogation flashbacks)

Location: Rua Tabac Lisbon Portugal

Details: Barley drinking and playing chess with a friend ( named “Gravy” in the book) in a small bar before being summoned to the British Embassy by Merridew Notes: I was in Lisbon a few years ago and tried, without success, to find the location of this scene - although I did come close.  It was obviously in the vicinity of Santa Egracia – the National Pantheon as this can be seen in the distance when the camera pans round to face Merridew. I originally identified the exact location by using the birds eye view on Multimap (now part of Bing maps), and subsequently confirmed it using Google Streetview once that became available.  It does appear as though the bar was no longer there when the street view shots were taken.  By coincidence, opposite the café-bar there is what appears to be a Russian Orthodox church.

Barley taken to a Lisbon safe house (Interrogation flashback)

“Loosen your girdle Merridew, have a drink with the unwashed”
Barley taken to a Lisbon safe house to be interrogated by British Intelligence	Location: Palacio dos Condes Do Vimosio,  Rua Ivens Lisbon Portugal
Details: Barley taken by car to the interrogation - car pulls up outside Palacio Dos Condes Vimosio on Rua Ivens. “Hello, my name’s Ned, and I’m about to move the goal posts” Ned greets barley in the foyer of this building.  A bas-relief logo on the wall can be seen which matches the same pattern of a plaque on the outside of the building next to the entrance. “So, where are we all off to? Nicuragua, Chile, Iran, or are just assassinating a local nuisance?” Barley enters the room where the interrogation takes place – he meets Clive, Ned, Walter and Bob (CIA).  The room where the interrogation scene takes place is clearly in this building;  the view from the room, which can be seen as barley fills a glass of whiskey,  looks down on the Baixo Chiado near the Praco de Commercial. Notes: Again this was another location which i did not properly identify until after I returned from Lisbon, but I had took a photo of the building looking up from the Baixo Chiado area.	“Hello, my name’s Ned, and I’m about to move the goal posts” “So, where are we all off to? Nicuragua, Chile, Iran, or are just assassinating a local

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.