Heart of a Dog (1988 film)

Heart of a Dog (1988 film)
Heart of a Dog (translit. Sobachye serdtse) is a black-and-white 1988 Soviet television film directed by Vladimir Bortko. It is based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel Heart of a Dog.
Premiering show of the film aired on 20 November 1988 at 18:45 on the Central Television Programme One and aired on 1989 at 8:00 PM on the ABC. The film consisted of two episodes. The novel written in 1925 was censored in the Soviet Union, but during perestroika, it was adapted for Soviet television.
Plot
The film is set in Moscow not long after the October Revolution. A complaining stray dog looks for food and shelter. A well-off and well-known surgeon and professor, Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky, happens to need a dog and, with a piece of sausage, lures the animal to his large house with an annexed practice. The dog is named Sharik and well taken care of by the doctor's maids, but he still wonders why he is there. He finds out too late that he is needed as a test animal. The doctor implants a pituitary gland and testicles of a recently-deceased alcoholic and petty criminal, Klim Chugunkin, into Sharik.
Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the following days. After his transition to human is complete, it turns out that he inherited all the negative traits of the donor (bad manners, aggressiveness, use of profanity, heavy drinking), but he still hates cats. He picks for himself the absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Sub-Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)," and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive the doctor out of his big apartment. Eventually, Sharikov turns life in the doctor's house into a nightmare by stealing money, breaking his furniture, flooding the apartment during a cat chase, and blackmailing into marriage a girl he met at the cinema.
Preobrazhensky and his friend and assistant, Dr. Bormental, see all of their efforts to reform Sharikov fail.
After a series of worsening conflicts, the doctor learns that Sharikov has attempted to denounce him to the Soviet secret police. The doctor then demands for Sharikov to leave the apartment immediately for good. Sharikov angrily refuses and draws a revolver. An infuriated Bormental attacks Sharikov and, after a short but violent fight, subdues him. The doctor then chooses to reverse the procedure.
Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik, he remembers little about what has happened to him but is not much concerned about that. To his content, he is left to live in the doctor's apartment.
Cast
Yevgeny Yevstigneyev as Professor Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky
Boris Plotnikov as Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental, the professor's assistant
Vladimir Tolokonnikov as Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov
Nina Ruslanova as Darya Petrovna Ivanova, a cook in the professor's apartment
Roman Kartsev as Schwonder, a chairman of the building committee
Olga Melikhova as Zinaida Prokofievna Bunina, a housemaid and the professor's helper during surgeries
(voice-over for Melikhova performed by Svetlana Smirnova)
Carray as Sharik, a stray dog
Anzhelika Nevolina as Vasnetsova, a typist out of the office
Vladimir Fyodorov as being (Sharik at transitional stage)
Details
This screen version of M. Bulgakov's novel is famous for its attention to the original text. Practically nothing was deleted for adaptation. However, there are some differences between the novel and the film. In the novel, Bormental did not meet the typist in the cinema, and Pyotr Alexandrovich, an important official cured by Preobrazhensky, did not look like Joseph Stalin, as is shown in the film. The episode in which Bormental presents Sharikov who plays balalaika does not exist in the novel. However, the phrases of Bormental were taken from the diary of Bormental, which was in the original novel.
Some scenes (spiritualism and circus) were taken from early Bulgakov's short stories, not from the novel.
One of the scientists who witness the transformation of Sharik into a human is called Professor Persikov. He is the protagonist of another of Bulgakov's science-fiction novel, The Fatal Eggs.
Awards and honors
Prix Italia (1989)
Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1990)
See also
Dog's Heart, a 1976 joint Italian-German comedy film directed by Alberto Lattuada based on a novel Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
References
External links
Secrets of our cinema. "Heart of a Dog". www.tvc.ru (video)
1988 films
1988 in the Soviet Union
Soviet science fiction films
Soviet television films
1980s Russian-language films
Lenfilm films
Soviet black-and-white films
Experimental medical treatments in fiction
Films based on works by Mikhail Bulgakov
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in Moscow
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films shot in Saint Petersburg
Films based on Russian novels
Films directed by Vladimir Bortko
Films about size change
Films about dogs
Films about alcoholism
Films critical of communism
Biopunk films
1988 science fiction films
Television shows directed by Vladimir Bortko
American Broadcasting Company original programming
Television shows based on works by Mikhail Bulgakov