Heart of a Dog (1988 film)

Heart of a Dog(Russian:Собачье сердце,translit.Sobachye serdtse) is a black-and-white 1988Sovietcomedy-drama science fictiontelevision filmdirected byVladimir Bortko. It is based onMikhail Bulgakov's novelHeart of a Dog.
Premiering show of the film aired on 20 November 1988 at 18:45 on theCentral TelevisionProgramme Oneand aired on 1989 at 8:00 PM on theABC. The film consisted of two episodes.
The film is set inMoscownot long after theOctober Revolution. A complainingstray doglooks for food and shelter. A well-off and well-knownsurgeonand professor, Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky, happens to need a dog and, with a piece of sausage, lures the animal to his large apartment, used both for living and medical 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 only too late that he is needed as atest animal. The doctor implants apituitary glandandtesticlesof a recently-deceasedalcoholicand 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 department for extermination of stray animals and associates himself with the newBolshevistbuilding administration, who strive to take away part of doctor's big apartment (an ongoing sub-plot of the film). Eventually, Sharikov turns life in the doctor's apartment into a nightmare by stealing money, breaking his furniture, flooding the apartment during a cat chase, etc.
Preobrazhensky and his friend and assistant, Dr. Bormental, see all of their efforts to reform Sharikov fail. Eventually 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.
This screen version of M. Bulgakov's novel is famous for its fidelity to the original text. Practically nothing was deleted in the adaptation. In a documentary about the film, the cinematographer recalls that when he asked the director for the script, Bortko simply gave him a magazine with the text of the novel. When the baffled cinematographer objected, the next day Bortko gave him the same text, but with descriptions of nature and other such details crossed out.There are however some differences between the novel and the film: some scenes in the film involving spiritualism, the prophetess in the circus, and a Soviet style christening ("Octobering") were taken from early short stories by Bulgakov, rather than the novel.